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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924101105082
THE
PULPIT COMMENTARY,
EDITED BY THE
VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE, D.D.,
DEAN OF GLOUCESTER;
AND BY THE
REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A.
INTRODUCTIONS
BY THE
VEN. ARCHDEACON F. W. FARRAR. D.D., F.R.S.— RT. REV. H. COTTERILL, D.D., F.R.S E.
VERY REV. PRINCIPAL J. TULLOCH. D.D.-REV. CANON G. RAWLINSON, M.A.
REV. A. PLUMMER, M.A., D.D.
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
New yoRK AND Toronto.
THE
PULPIT COMMENTARY
EDITED BY THE
VERY REY. n. D. M. SPENCE, M.A.,D.D.,
DEAN OF GLOUCESTER ;
AND BY THE
REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A.
THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
JJntrobttction ttn& (Sxyosition :
By rev. H. R. REYNOLDS, D.D.,
PRESIDENT AND PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGV, CHESHUNT COLLEGE ; FELLOW OF UNIVKRSITT
COLLEGE, LONDON.
j^omiletics :
By ret. prof. T. CROSKERY, D.D.,
LATE PROFESSOR OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, MAGEE COLLEGE, LONDONDERRY.
igomilies bjj l)arions !a.utI)ors :
REV. PROF. J. R. THOMSON, M.A. REV. B. THOMAS.
RF.V. D. YOUNG, B.A, REV. GEORGE BROWN, B.A
VOL. II.
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
New York and Toronto.
THE
GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER IX.
Theiechapter8(ix.andx.)V>ringtheoonflict
with the Jews to a climax before the com-
mencement of the PersBan ministry. They
are doubtless closely connected with what
has preceded ; but the note of time (ch. x. 22)
implies an interval ^ some months of
intense activity elsewhere— to have carried
on the ministry of Christ from the Feast of
Tabernacles to the winter. If ch. x. 22
points back, as Westcott argues by alteration
of the Received Text and by special transla •
tion, to the preceding discourse, we are com-
pelled to dissociate tlie cure of the blind
man from the teaching of ch. viii., and to
regard the opening verse of oh. ix. as entirely
distinct from, and discontinuous with, the
stormy scene in the temple. Dr. Eustace
CJonder, ' Outlines of the Life of Christ,' con-
siders the connection so close between the
eighth, ninth, and tenth chapters, as to bring
the entire series of instructions into one
group, and to interralate a considerable
portion of the later Galilsean ministry and
also that in Persea between the seventh and
eighth chapters. On that hypothesis, after
the break-up of the Sanhedrin on the last
great day of the Feast of Tabernacles (ch.
vii.52),an absence of some months intervened
before Jesus (ch. viii. 12) again spoke to
them, and said, "I am the Light of the
world," deriving his illustration from " the
Feast of Lights," which accompanied the en-
iainia of ch. x. 22.
The removal of the closing words of oh.
loiur— IL
viii. 59 from the text as a gloss, favours «
pause between the attempt to stone Jesus
and the miracle. Lange has the incon-
sistent remark that the vapiyar ii " the par-
ticiple of the preceding though doubtful
iraprjyey," If it were a gloss, the irapriyfy had
been introduced by some copyist from the
irapdyav, and therefore the latter can derive
no meaning from the former. Admitting
tlie spuriousness of the gloss, the connection
between the chapters is not close enough
to allow the supposition that, on the passing
out of the temple with his disciples, the
conversation and miracle took place. Godet
thinks that the most probable time was the
evening of the memorable day when our Lord
and his disciples had returned to the temple.
True, in Acts iii. 2 a congenital cripple
sat at the gate of the temple, asking alms ;
but in this place there is no mention of the
temple. Our Lord may have " seen " thi«
beggar on any one of his peregrinations over
the slopes of Olivet or on the road to Beth-
any, and now he seems to be in the company
of the disciples, and with them alone. They
are not apparently suffering from the recent
excitement of the angry contest in the temple-
court. They have had time to recover them-
selves, and to draw from Christ, not as the
eternal I am, but as their " Babbi," a solu-
tion of a most pressing psychological and
theological puzzle which has agitated all
schools of thought. Yet the reply of Jesus,
involving a fresh illustration of his being
the " Light of the world," shows that the
great utterances of the preceding discounoe
THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. ix. 1— 4L
were still the theme uppermost in his own
mind. We know that the discourse, etc., took
place on a siibbath, and the result of the
healing relates itself most closely to the dis-
cussion which followed the healing of the
Impotent man in oh, T. and vii.
Vers. 1—7.— (8) The Lord confirms hy a
*tgn the declaration (Aa( he is the lAght of the
world, hy giving eyesight at well at light.
That which had b^n proclaimed as a great
truth of his Being and mission, viz. that he
was the Light of the world, was now to be
established and confirmed to the disciples
by a signal miracle. The "higher criticism "
finds explanation of this and other similar
miracles at Bethsaida and Jericho, in tlie
prophecy of Isa. xlii. 19; xliii. 8; xxxv. 5;
xxiz. 18. Volkmar holds that the story of
Zacchseus is thus rewritten I Thoma thinks
that we have a spiritualization of the
"miracle" on Saul of Taraus. It would
be waste time to point out the differences
which are patent to the simplest criticism.
Ver. 1. — And — the «tai suggests relation
both in subject-matter, in time, place, occa-
sion, and theme, with that which bad pre-
ceded— as Jesus was passing by, going along
his way, he saw a man blind from birth (cf.
^K KoiKlas ftr/Tphs airov. Acts. iii. 2 ; xiT, 8).
He was obviously a well-known beggar, who
had often proclaimed the fact tliat he was
blind from birth (see ver. 8). Such a con-
dition and history rendered the cure more
difficult and hopeless in the view of ordinary
professors of the healing art, and the juxta-
position of such a symbolic fact with the
near activity of those who were boasting
of their Abrahamic privilege and their
national and mere hereditary advantages, is
one of the instances of the unconscious poesy
of the gospel history. There he sits, the
very type of the race which says, " We see,"
but which to Christ's eye was proclaiming
its utter helplessness and blindness, not
asking even to be illumined, and revealing
the fundamental injury done to the very
race and natuie of man, and calling for all
the healing power that he had been sent
into the world to dispense. The man who
had been struck blind, or whose eyesight had
been slowly closed by disease, became the
type of the liTect of special sins upon the
eliaracter and life ; thus e.^. vanity conceals
radical defects and weaknesses ; pride hides
from the sinner's own view his own trans-
cessions ; temporary blindness to great
faults is one of the symptoms of gross sin like
DaTid's, and prejudice is proverbially blind
and deaJf ; but here is a man who is nothing
less than the type of a congenital bias to
evili of hereditary' damage done to human
nature. Unless Christ can pour light upon
those who are bom blind, he is not the
Saviour the world needs.
Ver. 2. — And his disciples asked him, say-
ing, Babbi. This honorifio appellation is
found in ch. L 38, 49 ; iii. 2 ; It. 31 ; vi. 25 ;
xi. 8 ; but very rarely in the other Gospels
It is applied to John the Baptist (ch. iii. 26).
The question seems to denote a very dif-
ferent frame of mind from that with which
the previous chapter terminated. Who did
sin, this man, or his parents, that he should
be bom blind 1 It was the current idea and
popular doctrine, not only that all suffeiing
in this life had its origin in sin, and was a
witness to the damage done to our nature
by sin, by the disruption of our normal re-
lations with the living God, but further-
more that every peculiar disaster pointed to
some special or pai-ticular sin. Doubtless
the Book of Job was a formal discussion of
the question. The writer of that work re-
pudiates the right of any onlooker to infer
special sins from peculiar punishments.
Jesus, moreover (Luke xiii. 1 — 3), had re-
peatedly discouraged the tendency to judge,
but he did this by the still more soleiuu
assurance that all men deserved the special
fate of some. Still, the calamity of con-
genital blindness, with all its hopelessness,
provided a very apt occasion for raising
the question, '* Who did sin, this man, or
his parents?" It is and always will be
difficult to say whether the disciples thought
that they had exhausted tlie alternatives, or
believed that they had plausible reasons for
tliiuking either alternative possible. Some
have argued that they had Scripture ground
for the second of the suppositions, that the
sin of the parents of the blind man was the
real cause of the blindness of their son.
Thus (Exod. XX. 5) the idea is embedded in
the Decalogue, and it is repeated in Ex<xL
xxxiv. 7 and Numb. xiv. 18, that the
iniquities of fathers are visited upon their
children. The forty years in the wilderness
was a case in point (Numb. xiv. 33, 34;
Jer. xxxii. 18), and numerous examples may
be given of the punishment descending from
parent to child ; e.g. upon the house of Ahab^
and on the sufferers from exile in Babylon.
Compare the continuous threatening of ven-
g^nce for unfaithfulness upon the genera-
tion to come. The argument may have been
strengthened by observation of the lot of
men who have brought poverty, disease, and
disgrace upon their unborn children. Eze-
kiel had deliberately repudiated the infer-
ence that Israel had drawn from tlieir
Scriptures, in the dictum or proverb (xviii.
2) that " the fathers have eaten sour
grapes, and the children's teeth are set ob
OH. II. 1—41.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST. JOHN.
edge," and maintained with great and
passionate earnestness, " The soul that sin-
neth, it shall die." This may have led the
disciples to put the conjectural solution.
Did thit man tinl Is there any way or
sense in whieh the man'a own sin could be
the cause of so great a calamity ? It seems
entirely gratuitous to derive from this passage
any final conclusion as to the method in
which they supposed it possible that the
man's personality preceded his birth, or any
certain conviction that they meant more by
their question than this — if sin is the cause
of such fearful privation, it must either be
the man's parents' oi his own. It could
not have been his own; was it then his
parents'? There was sufficient discussion
of the problem among the Jews for one
or more vague and unsettled opinions to
be floating in their minds. (1) It cannot
be proved that the doctrine of metempsy-
chosis was ever held by the Jews. The lan-
guage in which Joaephus refers to the views
of the Pharisees is ambiguous (of. 'Bell.
Jud.,' u. 8. 14; 'Ant.,' xviii. 1. 3). The
view held by them was simply that " the
Immortal souls of the good (only) pass into
another body," are raised into a new life;
" but that the souls of the sinful atSttp ri/uupd;
Ko\a(e(r8<u, are afflicted with eternal punish-
ment." This differs profoundly from the Ori-
ental, or Pythagorean, or Platonic doctrine
of transmigration. (2) The Jewish specula-
tion of the pre-existence of souls has some
countenance from Wisd. viiii 19, 20, where
the pseudo-Solomon says, " I was • witty
child, and . , . being good, I came into a body
undeflled," modifying somewhat the Platonic
idea of a harmony between the pre-existing
■oul and the body (seeGrimm.'Eieg.Handb.,'
in loe. ; Bruch, ' The Pre-existence of the
Soul,' freely translated ; American ' Biblio-
theca Sacra:' 1863); but beyond this there
is no sound indication that the Jewish mind
had accepted the doctrine which played so
great a part in the later discussions as to the
views of Origen. (3) Lightfoot (' Horaa
HebraiciB,'i»Zoo.) thinks "the dogma held
by B. Akiba, commenting on Eccles. xiii. 1,
to the effect that "in the days of Messiah
there will be neither merit nor demerit " — i.e.
that neither merit nor demerit of parents will
be imputed to posterity — ^may account for tlie
query of the apostles. (4) The idea of the
possible sinfulness of the child while in
the womb of its mother — a theory baaed upon
the supposed .moral activity of Jacob and
Esau in the i. omb of Bebecca (' Bemidbar
Bab.,' fol. 230. 2), and the statement that
John the Baptist leaped in the womb of his
mother Elisabeth (Luke i. 41) — may have
eo-operated with other vague views floating
in their minda with suffioient intensity to
Mplain the first part of their question. (5)
The supposition of some (Tholnck), that the
disciples may have thought that the man's
sins were foreknown, and that the blindness
was punishment beforehand, is so abhorrent
to any notion of the justice of God, that we
cannot suppose that it ever entered into
their inquiry. The fact that no fewer than
five distinct hypotheses as to the possibility
of culpability before birth having had some
place in Hebrew and contemporary thought,
is an adequate explanation of the fact that
they should have put this ever-recurring
problem of evil in the particular form in
which we find it.
Ver. 3. — Jesus answered, Neither did this
man sin, nor his parents (that he should be
born blind). There was no immediate con-
nection between the special sin of the parents
and this particular calamity. Our Lord does
not assert in these words the sinlessness of
these people, but severs the supposed link
between their conduct and the specific afflic-
tion- before them. But (he was bom blind)
that the works of Ood should be made mani-
fest in him. The disciples will soon see in
the history of this man the meaning of
his lifelong blindness. In the man himself
the grace of God will work mightily, both a
bodily and spiritual illumination. Evil in
this case is to redound to greater good. This
provides no opportunity for any to fasten on
one or anotlier some charge of special trans-
gression, but, as all evil ought to do, it pro-
vides opportunity for the redeeming work
which Christ came to accomplish, and which
he permitted his disciples to share.
Ver. 4. — We ' must work the works of him
that sent me,' while it is day. The emen-
dation of the text certainly throws much
beauty into the statement. Christ identifies
himself with his disciples. They are pledged
by accepting his call,and he has been himself
charged by his own sublime mission to work
while it is called day. The sun was going
down over the holy city on that sabbath
day, and Jesus will not wait, nor lose the
opportunity of doing the merciful will of
the Father. He did not say, " Him that
sent ««" (as Tischendorf ' reads), for "As
the Father had sent him, so he sent them."
But he adds. The night cometh, when no
man can work. The materialistic interpre-
• 'H/aSs is here read by Tregelles, Tischen-
dorf (8th edit.), B.T., Westoott and Hort, and
Meyer, with N, B, D, L; although A, C, X,
N' ■" '*, and many others retain the i/ie, on
the ground that it is more probable that
the latter was a correction to bring it into
harmony with i/ii in the latter part of the sen-
tence, than the reverse. Tischendcirf (8th
edit.) reads riiias also after ireivjiayroi, in
which Westoott and Hort and B.T. do not
follow him.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST. JOHN. [oh. ii, 1— «
tation of Faulua, " Christ must have daylight
foi a delicate operation," is too puerile to
deserve refutation. The suggestion of the
Greek Fathers (Ohrysostom, Theophylact,
etc.), who here draw a distinction between
the work of this world and the work of the
future world, between work done before
and after his Passion, representing the work
of his earthly ministry as done in the day,
and that of the Spirit as work done in the
night, is singularly unfortunate. Our Lord
is merely adopting the phrase as a custom-
ary image for life and death. Death puts
an end to all human activity on earth, even
to Christ's own, as a human Friend and
Teacher. Numerous attempts have been
made to suppose some emphatic contrast be-
tween the lifetime of Christ and the period
that should follow his Passion. They all
fail, because Christ's own activity resumes
another form by his resurrection and the
gift of his Spirit. The night of death,
accompanied by the cessation of active
labour, is the general idea. The day's work
must be done in the day. The probation
involved in the bare fact of its limitation, and
in this case its rapidly approaching consum-
mation, is the main thought, without press-
ing the imagery too far. By saying, " We
must work," eta., he gave a ksson and an
example for all time. The ' Pirke Aboth,'
" The Sayings of the Fathers," record the
words of E. Tryphon, " The day is short, and
the task is great, and the workmen are
sluggish, and the reward is much, and the
Master of the house is urgent."
Ver. 5. — While — or, whensoever — ^I am in
the world, I am the Light of the world. He
had said (oh. viii. 12), " I am the Light of the
world : he that followeth me shall not walk
in darkness." He was sublimely conscious
of his power to do for the moral world what
the sun was doing tor the physical world.
He was the Occasion of its life, the Condition
of its activity, the Means of its instruction,
the Source of all its beauty, its joy, and its
progress. The Srai/, which is translated
quamdiu in the Vulgate, and " so long as "
in the Authorized Version, means strictly
" whensoever," and refere to the entire
period of his activity (see ch. i. 5). But
while the sun of this world cannot open the
eyes of the blind, and wastes his radiance on
their sightless sockets, so, unless Christ were
more than the sun, and could give the power
as well as the opportunity of seeing, he
would never have done the work of him
that sent him. The fact that he is the
Light leads him to remind the disciples that
he is the true Source of eyesight as well as
of the conditions of vision. Light enough
for all the world shines into the darkness,
Imt the darkness oomprehendetb it not. Tliis
Jewith people an siuToiinded by floods of
light. The spiritual world stands revealed
fully to Christ's ovm gaze. But mankind
hates the light, loves darkness on these
matters rather than the light. There is ■
radical fundamental change that must come
over men, or they will never see. This
evil, this terrible calamity that has befallen
man, will vitiate all the provision of mercy.
Tliero must be a new beginning, a new
birlh, a work of God wrought in men, as
well as a sublime revelation made to men,
or the whole mission of the Christ would be
incomplete.
Ver. 6. — When he had said these things,
he spat on the ground, and made clay of &e
spittle, and with the ' clay thereof anointed
his (the) eyes (of the blind man). The pre-
cise meaning and motive of the process here
described has been a source of great per-
plexity to the commentators. We see that,
on other occasions, our Lord used his own
saliva as a means of cure (Mark viL 33 ;
viii. 23). Thoma finds in the spittle the
symbol of the impurity of the man thus
dealt with (Isa. 1. 5, 6), but somewhat in-
consistently compares the "clay" with the
"eollyrium" of Eev. iii. 17—19, and the
''ausduss des Logos." On some occasions
Jesus touched the diseased or deficient
organ, put his hand on the leper, and his
fingers in the ears of the deaf mute. On
other occasions, again, be healed with his
word only, and even from a distance, those
who in the freeness and royalty of his love,
he elected to relieve from their sufferings.
He was moved, doubtless, in every case by
the special condition and temperament of
the objects of his compassion. The use o£
these means was probably intended to evoke
the nascent faith that predisposed him to
receive healing, to stir the mind of the
sufferer into some conscious relation with
himself through those other powers of tactile
sensitiveness which were in all similar cases
singularly acute. Moreover, the virtue of
saliva in cases of blindness was well under-
stood. Lightfoot gives some curious pruof
of this, and Tacitus ('Hist.,' iv. 81) and
Suetonius (' Vesp.,' oh. vii.) both record the
healing of a blind man by the Emperor
Vespasian by the use of jejuna saliva.
Pliny (' Hist. Nat.,' xxviii. 7) speaks of the
same remedy for the diseases of the eye.
" Clay " also is spoken of as being sanative
by a physician by name Serentu Samonieus
' The ouToS is introduced here by Tre-
gelles, Tischendorf (8th edit.), Westcott and
Hort, and B.T., and so read by Moulton and
Meyer, on the authority of K, A, B, C, L,
1, 33, and numerous cursives; and D reads
airrf, with airov after oipBaK/tohs, with the
Gothic and .^Hthiopio Vendoni. Godet
rejects both emendations.
OH. IX. 1— tl.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHM.
(tee Tholuek, Wettstein, Lange, in loc).
These ideas may have had some truth in
them, and for the blind man to find the
process described, applied to himself by One
who spoke of the Divine operations being
wrought in him, would work gome powerful
effect on his moral, physical, and spiritual
nature. Such result our Lord intended to
produce. But this was only part of the
healing process.
Ver. 7. — ^And, having done this, he said to
him, Qo — depart, haste, there is something
for thee to do— wash into the pool of Siloam.
ii\ain: this is the Gret;k fnrm of the
Hebrew word n'iW(nS^, with the article
rhar\, the shortened Pihel form n^K*, to send
forth, with the omission of tlie dagesh)
adopted in Isa. viii. 6 by the LXX., and
also by Josephus (' Bell. Jud.,' v. 4. 1). The
only other place in the Old Testament
where the pool of Siloam is referred to is
Neh. iii. 15. There the Hebrew word is
nS^n, and rendered by the LXX. rap KaSluf —
i.e. of sheep-skins ; that is, the pool that was
used to wash sheep before shearing them, or
even the tan-pit (so Schleusner and Hesyeh.)
— but it is rendered by SiloS in the Vulgate.
Isaiah is -contrasting the waters of the Shi-
loah, which flow softly, with the turbulent
streams of the Tigris, which represented the
pomp and power of this world. The sweet
waters from the pool of Siloara still flow from
their apparent source through what once were
the king's gardens, into the Kedrpn near the
junction of the Valley of Jehoshaphat with
that which used to be called the Valley of
tlie Son of Hinnom. Silwan is the Arabic
name of the fountain and pool of Siloam, and
also of the village on the opposite side of
the valley. Nehemiah is referring, in all
probability, to the same pool, the walls of
which were in part the walls of the city itself
on the lower spur of Mount Ophel, which is
now finally determined to be the Zion of
Scripture and the city of David. A " tower
of Siloam " is also spoken of (Luke xiii. 4).
It is not necessary here to review the argu-
ments in favour of this position, with its ac-
companying conclusion that the T¥ropse6n,
the valley of the cheeseniongers, which se-
parated Ophel and the temple-mount from
the upper city, was the Valley of the Son of
Hinnom (see ' Survey of Western Pales-
tine,' pt. li. pp. 345—371 ; Professor Sayce on
"Pre-Exilio Jerusalem" in ' Quarterly State-
ment of Palest. Bxplor. Fund ' (1883), pp.
215 ; and ' Fresh Light from Ancient Monu-
ments,' p. 98, etc.). The position of the
fountain and pool of Siloam is one of the
beat-authenticated sites in Palestine (see
Robinson's 'Biblical Eesearches,' i. 493 —
607). Sayce gives strong reasons for believ-
ing that ii was made in the days of Solo-
mon, ami that the proceeding of Hezekiah,
referred to in 2 Chrotf. xxxii. 30, when he
diverted the water from,Gihon, and brought
it to the west side of the city of David, was
not on account (as Edersheioi, Canon Birch,
and others) of the formation of the zigzag
tunnel from the Fountain of the Virgin, but
referred to the formation of Colonel Warren's
tunnel, by which the waters of the same
fountain were made available within the city
by drawing them further to the north-west,
and reaching them by a flight of stairs that
go down from the city of David (2 Kings xx.
20). He thinks that 2 Chron. xxxii. 30 is
interpreted of the lower pool of Siloam. The
contemporary references of Isaiah (vii. 3;
viii. 6 ; xxii. 9) apply only to the Siloam
tunnel, the Siloam pool, and that lower pool,
which was repaired by Hezekiah. The
upper pool, and therefore tlio tunnel which
supplied it, were known in the time of Ahaz.
Josephus makes frequent reference to the
fountain of Siloam, and expressly says that
it was situated at the mouth of the Tyro-
pse6n. The ' Itin. Hier.' and Jerome both
say that it was at the foot of Mount Zion
(see especially Jerome's ' Oomm. in Bsa.
viii. 6'). Antoninus Martyr (in the seventh
century), William of Tyre, Benjamin of
Tudela (1165), and Phocas (1185), all refer
to it. This remarkable connection with the
Fountain of Mary was known to Quaresmins
in the seventeenth century, but not fairly
discovered till Robinson entered it at both
ends, and found that there was a direst
subterranean communication between the
so-called Fountain of the Virgin and the
Fountain of Siloam. In 1881 the accidental
discovery of an inscription in pure Hebrew,
of uncertain date, describes tlie process of
the excavation, and accounts for the false
starts made by the two parties of excavators,
who eventually met and discovered the dif-
ferent levels at which they had been work-
ing. Whenever made, whether by Solomon,
Uzziah, Ahaz, or Hezekiah, it was obviously
intended to bring fresh water within the
walls of the city. The intermittent charac-
ter of the flow of water in the Fountain of
the Virgin, by which sometimes twice or
thrice a day, and at other seasons twice or
thrice a week, the water suddeuly rises and
disappears with gurgling sounds into the
conduits made for its removal, was referred
to by Jerome, as an eye and ear witness of
the occurrence. We leave the question of
the identification of the Fountain of the Vir-
gin with any of the fountains mentioned in
the Old Testament. The point of singular
interest is that the waters of Siloam were
in direct communication with the upper
spring, which itself may be yet proved to be
in relation to some more abundant supply o(
water in the temple-rook. Into the further
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST, JOHN. [oh. a. 1—41-
intriciUiieB of this problem it is unnecessary
to enter. The pool» of Slloam are still to be
geen near the mouth of the Tyropsaon valley.
The point of connection with the Fountain
of the Virgin cannot bo doubted, nor can
the fact be disputed that from Siloam, during
the Feast of Tabernacles, the sacred waters
were brought in solemn procession and with
sacred rite (see eh. vli.). Our Lord sent
the blind man, thus startled into some re-
(Ceptivity of grace, to that which was tlie
symbolic source of the water of life. He
did this on the sabbath day, claiming co-
operation with Jehovah in his truly sabbatic
deed : " My Father wotketh hitherto, and
I work." Siloam liad been already the type
of that which Jesus was in reality, when he
htid cried and said, " If any man thirst, let
him come unto me, and drink." Conse-
quently, there is striking appositeness in
the language of St. John here parentheti-
cally introduced (which is, being interpre-
ted, Sent) ; ni^t?, equivalent to musio, from
nW, equivalent to mittit or missus, which
may be synonymous with niW, viz. the
strengthened participle Kal with passive
signification. John is correct in his ety-
mology. Siloam probably derived its name
from tlie fact thut its waters were sent from
the higher sources, through known cliannels,
with special significance as God's gift for
the preservation of the life of the people,
and the agelong memorial of his goodness.
The old poet Nonnus, Euthymius, and Meyer
see here a reference to the man who was
"sent" thus to wash and bo healed; but
a host of commentiitors, from Thenphylaet,
Calvin, Cornelius & Lapide, down to Lu-
thaidt, Godet, and Westcott, rightly urge
tliat "Siloam," as meaning "Sent," was in
John's thought emblemalic of him who had
so often spoken of himself as the Sent of
God. The point of the pnrenthesis is that
the very name of this healing and symbolic
founlain is a type of Mcssiali, who thus
identifies himself with the Heaven-sent gifts
of the Divine hand. He then (therelore) de-
parted, and washed. The blind man needed
no guide to Siloam, and if he had done so
there would have been a score of helpers or
curious on-lookers anxious to test the mean-
ing of the Lord's command. And he came
away from Siloam, seeing; in all the strange
and wonderful exoilement of a man who,
■ with his first possession of this imperial
■ense, was moving indeed in a new world.
The miracle, of course, provokes the critical
eehool eiHicr into repudiating the super-
natural element, or doubting the historical
fact. Thoma dreams through a world of
parallels with the healing and apostleship
of St Paul,
Vew, S— 84,— (8) Tht proof o/Oie reality
of the miracle, the antagonism of the Fhari-
§ee$, and the peneeution of the healed man.
Yer. 8, — The neighbours therefore, and
they who beheld him aforetime that (or, bo-
cause') he was a beggar,' This i« the first
time that his well-known position is men-
tioned, and (if we translate Jfri " because")-
the very fact of hia begging (probably with
loud voice) had made him a well-known
individual. Said, la not this he that sat and
begged 1
Ver. 9. — Some said, It is he : others, No ; '
but he is like him. So great a change might
well hare provoked inquiry as to liis iden-
tity, and the two classes of speakers add
amazing -vivacity to the picture. He (^keT-
yos) — the man who now stood forth as the
central object of the excited group (see
Wootcott for the use of iniivos elsewhere in
St. John: ch. ii. 21; v, 11 ; x. 6 ; xiii. 30;
xix. 21) — rather than "he himself" — he
said, I am (he) that sat and begged. The
man settles the doubt offhand, I am he.
The evidence of identity, if the question
be raised, is at once settled. The vivacity
and verisimilitude of the scene reduce the
laboured parallel with St. Paul to literary
trifliiig.
Ver. 10. — They said therefore to him,
How then were thine eyes opened \ If
you are the very man, how has this come
about ?
Ver. 11. — ^He — the man there singled out
— answered (and said), The Man that ii
called Jesns made olay, and anointed my
eyes, and said to me, Oo to the' Siloam,
and wash. So I went, and when I washed
I received my sight. Nothing more as yet
than the name of his Benefactor lias broken
upon him. Tlie name is full of signifioance
to him— the " Saviour," the " Healer; " but
he knows nothing of his Messianic claims,
nor of his Divine authority. He began,
where all disciples must, with the Man.
Tlie manner of man soon wakes within liim
loftier questionings and a better explanit-
tion. At present the process seems magical,
altogether inexplicable. Clay and Siloam
' UpoaalTTis is the rending of X, A, B, 0,
D, K, L, X, ten cursives, and several ver-
sions, and is prefeired by E.T., Tregelles,
Tischendorf (8th edit.), Westcott and Hort,
Meyer, and Godet, to Tv(p\6s.
' Oux' <S^'i' if-oios is the reading of N, B,
C, L, X, Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic, and is
adopted by E.T., Tischendorf (8th edit.),
Westcott and Hort, but not Godet. It adds
piquancy. They have begun to douUi,
though they acknowledge resemblance.
' N, B, D, L, K, Old Latin and Syriao Ver-
sions read rhv Sihadii, with R.T., Tisolieu-
dorf, and Tregelles, instead of tJ)» KaA.v/i/3^
Spay Tov SiAaii^ found in other nncialg.
CH. IX. 1—41.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
water do not cure birth-blindness. He is in
• maze, as well he mlglit be. The a.i/4P\e\l/a
Bhould be rendered, acconliiig to Meyer, " I
looked np" (see Mark xvi. 4). It cannot be
BO translated in vers. 15 and 18. Uoubt-
less it strictly means, " I received sight
again ; " but there is something in Grotlus's
explanation, " No one is incorrectly said to
receive that which, though he be deprived
of it, belongs to human nature as a whole "
(see Westoott). The eyes were there, but
unused Meyer quotes from Pausanias the
similar use of iva^Keirftv, in reference to the
recovery or obtaining of sight by » man
bom blind.
Ver. 12. — They say unto him, Where is
that Man (Jesus)? He saith, I know not.
Ver. 13. — They bring to the Pharisees
him that aforetime was blind. The "Pha-
risees" is not a conclusive definition of the
Sanhedrin itself, which is generally denoted
by the addition of the phrase, "the chief
priests" (ch. vii. 32 or 45). The Pharisees
were a highly organized society, and some
well-known gathering of them may have
been easily accessible. They were the gene-
rally accredited religious guides of the
people. One thing militates against such
a casual gathering. In ver. 18 the term,
"thfi Jews," the synonym of the ruling
ecclesiastical powers in the city, is ono«
more introduced. Moreover, the authorities
before whom the discussion and examina-
tion were taken afipear to possess tlie power
of excommunication from the synagogue.
It appears that, in Jerusalem, there existed
two minor councils or synagogue-courts, of
twenty-three assessors eacli, corresponding
with the similar courts in the Jewish cities,
standing In relation to the Siinhedrin, and
possessing the faculty of delivering the
minor degrees of excommunication from the
congregation of Israel. It cannot be said
that this presentation of the case to an
ecclesiastical court of more or less authority
necessarily took place on the day of the
healing. It is an open question whether
the courts sat on the sabbath. There is
nothing to prove immediate trial of the
matter.
Ver. 14. — Now it was sabbath on the
day ' that Jesus made the clay and opened
his eyes. The phrase is peculiar, aud im-
plies that the day may have been a festival
sabbath. The introduction here shows that
the difficulty of the neighbours aud other
friends had already been raised, and some-
thing more than a desire on their part for
' 'Ek ^ vi^^Pf is found in K, B, L, X, and
the Syriae and Italic Versions (so Tregelles,
Tisehendorf (8th edit.), Westcott and Hort,
and E.T.). The T.E. in is read by A, D, r,
A, A, n, and many other authorities.
religious guidance actuated their appeal to
the Pharisees. Why should the healed man
be taken to the Pharisees, or the synagogue-
court at all, unless some question of casuistry
had been raised ? The mi ivement was one
unquestionably adverse to Jesus. It could
have had no other motive. Nor can auy
doubt arise that Jesus had violated the
rabbinical rules of the sabbath, though his
act had been in perfect harmony with the
spirit and even letter of the Mosaic Law.
The making of clay with the spittle and
the sand was an infringement of the rule
(' Sliabbath,'- xxiv. 3). It was curiously
laid down in one of the vexatious interpre-
tations (preserved in Jerusalem Gemara on
' Shabbath,' 14) that while " wine could by
way of remedy be applied to the eyelid, on
the ground that this might be treated as
washing, it was sinful to apply it to the
inside of the eye" (Edersheim). And it
was positively forbidden (in the same Ge-
mara) to apply saliva to the eyelid, because
this would be the application of a remedy.
All medicinal appliances, unless in cases of
danger to life or limb, were likewise for-
bidden. Consequently, the Lord had broken
with the traditional glosses on the Law in
more ways than one (see Winer, ' Bibl.
Realw.,' li. 346 ; Lightfoot, ' Ad Joan. ix. ; *
Wetstein on Matt. xii. 9 ; Wiinsche,tn Joe)
Ver. 15. — Again therefore the Pharis.ei,
before whom the blind man bad been
brought, unwilling to rest with mere hear-
say evidence of such grievous transgression
of the Law, themselves also — or, in their turn
— asked h^ (iipiTiev, imperfect, were inter-
rogating) how he received (recovered) his
sight (see note on ver. 11). Not the miracle
itself, but the manner of it, interested and
excited them. And he said to them, (He)
put olay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and
I see. This is a shorter and significant
abridgment of the process already described.
The healed man seems to guess, by their
manner, that some charge was being medi-
tated against his Benefactor, and he shrewdly
omits the ealiva and the making of the clay,
and the order of the Saviour, and the place
whither he had been sent to wash.
Ver. 16 indicates, as the evangelist so
often does elsewhere (ch. vii. 43 ; i. 19),
that the words ai]d works of Christ produce
opposite effects on different classes. Certain
individuals of the Pharisees therefore said
among themselves, This Man — referring to
Christ, then uppermost in their minds and
in their machinations— This Man is not from
God, because he keepeth not the sabbath.
The form of the sentence is peculiarly con-
temptuou.s, the word " man " being thrown
veiy emphatically to the end of the sentence.
This, in their opinion, is another offenos
against the Law, after serious warning. Tha
THE GOSPEL ACOOBDINQ TO ST. JOHN. [oh. a. 1—41
p»3Tioii* contiOTeny (eh. t.) had produced
no effect upon Jesiu. He continued, in
their opinion, to invalidate all hiB olaims hy
violating the sabbath laws, which tliey had
brought to the highest point of perfection.
Benan and others insist on Christ's repeated
violation of the sabbath ; but the fact is that
the Lord sustained the highest meaning
of the sabbath, though he resolutely repu-
diated the inhuman glosses and manifest
absurdities of the traditionary customs and
rabbinical rules. Jesus could not be, they
thouglit (or argued), " from God," invested
with his authority, or doing his works, bo
long as he would not take their view of the
sabbath. This Jesus is making obstinate
assault upon their prejudices. On seven
distinct occasions the Lord chose to heal on
the sabbath, and thus to set the restrictions
of august ral)bis »t defiance. But even in
the great Sanhedrin, in the highest council
of the nation, sat men of the character of
Joseph, Kicodemus, and Gamaliel, who
would get gome idea of the Divine com-
mission of Jesus &om the simple fact of the
miracles. In this smaller court the op-
ponents of Christ ignore and doubt the
miracle itself, on account of the unsabbatio
heresy, while a few are convinced that signs
of this kiud (and probably tliey had many
in their minds) were in themselves proof
of Divine co-operation and approval. But
others said, How can a man that is a sinner
(on your hypothesis) do such signs 1 " As
far as they go, these miracles are demon-
strative proof that at least God must be
with him, as he has said, and they make it
extremely doubtful whether he can be a
bad man after all — can have yerily broken
the Divine Law." Such a speech as this
from Pharisees is an emphatic proof of the
{irofound effect produced by Jesus upon the
ife of the nation. It stands in dose asso-
ciation with the remarkable statement of
Nicodemus (ch. iii. 2), "We know that no
man can do these miracles (signs) which
thou art doing, except Ood be with him."
Jesus and rabbinism are here face to face.
Eiitlier he is from God and tliey are actually
making the Law of God void and vapid by
their traditions, or they and their code are
from God and he, having broken with
them, has broken with God, and the miracle
will turn out to be magic or falsehood, col-
lusion or worse. Thus a solemn crisis of
profound importance occurs. And there was
a division {axiana, cutting into two parties)
amongst them. These opposite effects and
conclusions are the confirmation of the
words of the prologue (ch. i. 4, 6, 11, 12),
•nd they farther triumphantly refute the
•barge that the author of the Gospel was
actuated by an untiring hostility to the
kingdom and polity of the ancient Isra«L
Yer. 17. — They ; i.«. the Pharisees, divided
in opinion, though probably united in theii
interrogation. Those, on the one hand, who
believed in the miracle, and held that it
carried Divine approbation of the conduct
of Jesus, and, on the other hand, those who
were so satisfied of the moral fault involved
in the transaction, that they held that the
miracle itself, if not a piece of deception or
collusion, might even indicate some dse-
moniac source, rather than a Divine one,
say therefore unto the blind man again — the
iri\iv points to the virtual repetition of in-
quiries already made (ver. 15) — What dost
thoa say concerning him, seeing that ha
opened thine eyes 1 " What explanation hast
thou to offer ? What view dost thou en tertain
of the Man himself? Some of us think that
his trifling with the sabbatic law puts out
of court the idea of any Divine aid having
enabled him to work this marvel. Other
some, as yon see, declare that the fact
which has occurred is proof that Jesus must
have had God's approval, and be sustained
by Divine grace. But what dost thou, tb«
healed man, say? What conclusion has;
thou adopted ? Seeing that he has opened
thine eyes, what sayest thou of Jesus?"
There is a bare chance that the man might
give a vague answer, or one which would
minimize the miracle. It is obvious that,
while the Pharisees were contradicting each
other and in danger of open collision, the
faith of the blind man who had received his
sight became stronger. The light was dawn-
ing on bim. The answer, so far as it weut,
boldly took the side of Jesus, and perhaps
its cue from the language of those who had
said, " How can a bad man do such signs as
these ? " And he said. He is a Prophet (of.
ch. iv. 19; vi. 14). Prophets, as divinely
sent men, are even more authoritative than
learned rabbis. If Jesus has broken through
some of these restrictions by which they have
" placed a hedge about the Law," ™rely he
had a prophetic right to do it. Tbe heal-
ing marks a Divine commis^sion, and the
healed man owned and freely confessed to
BO mucli as this : " He is a Prophet." Mai-
monides (quoted by Dr. Farrar) shows that
the idea was current that a prophet might,
on liis own ipte dixit, alter or relax even the
sabbath law, and that then the people were
at liberty to obey him.
Vers. 18, 19. — The narrative one* more
brings "the Jews" into prominence — ^the
hierarchical party, adverse to Jesus. The
angry magistrates who were in the court
allowed it to be seen at once that they will
not be tampered with, nor lose the chance,
if possible, of pursuing their malicious plans
already formed against Jesus. They take
the ground that no miracle had occurred.
At all events, they tuust bav* fortlter
OH, IX. 1—41.] THE GOSPEL ACGORDINO TO ST. JOHN.
•Tidenoeofthefaot. The 7ews tbMt did not
believe, or refused to believe, oonoeraing Mm,
that he had been blind, and received his
Bight, nntil they called the parent* of him
that had received his sight, and asked them,
Is this your son, who ye say was bom blind t
How then doth he now seel There were
three questions proposed after the delay
involved in fetchmgthe parents of the blind
beggar. The first was ideutification of the
blind man. The second was the fact of
his congenital blindness. The third was
the means of his cure.
Yer. 20. — ^To the first and second questions
the parents give affirmative answers. The
identification is complete, and the astounding
quality of the cure is demonstrated. His
parents (then) ■ answered them and said, We
know that tms is onr son, and that he was
bom blind. In none of the Gospels, and in
no narrative of this Oospel, is more certain
proof given of the reality of • perfectly in-
explicable phenomenon.
Yer. 2i. — The third question is prudently
remitted back to the oonsciousness and
testimony of the man himself. The parents
had some justification for their cowardice.
They had no information beyond that which
their son had given them. He had stumbled
forth as usual on the morning of that sab-
bath, and had returned home in transports
of joy. Their so:: had doubtless told them
the stoi-y (the use of oiSanev instead of
yipdaKOfiiv is significant). They knew by
inco!itestable intuitive knowledge the per-
sonality and lifelong affliction of their son ;
but, say they. We do not know (abeoltUely^
how he now sees ; or who opened his eyes,
we know not. Ask him (if yon want to
know) ; he is of full age, and therefore his
testimony is valid in your court. He will
speak (concerning) for himself. "We can
only come to know from his testimony what
he tells us, and he can himself speak for
himself, and tell you all he has told us."
Ver. 22. — The evangelist accounts for the
reticence of the parents by their fear of
mnsequcnces. These things said his parents,
because they feared the Jews. This passage
provides strong evidence of the technical
use of the terra "the Jews." Doubtless
these parents were Israelites, but they were
not " Jews " in tbe Johannine sense. The
" Jews " were tlie hierarchical and ecclesi-
astico-political authorities. For they had
already come to the agreement (Luke zzii.
5; Acts xxiii. 20; 1 Mace. ix. 70); had
mutually determin^— it does not follow that
the Sanhedrin had issued a public order,
but that a formidable party of " Jews " had
' Tischendorf, Lachmann, and Westcott
and Hurt insert oSv, with tt, B> and omit
nirolj, with B.T.
made a rm/Hiini, had pledged eaoh other %nS.
made it sufficiently known even to sucl;
persona oi the poverty-stricken parents, ol
the blind beggar, that it would be ea tried
out by the adequate authority in such a
matter — ^that if any man should confess
that he was Christ (" he " (airki') is remark-
able— it shows how full the thoughts of the
evangelist were of the Personality of Jt sus),
he should be put out of the synagogue ; or,
hecome untynagomied. The Talmud speaks
of three kinds of excommunication (cf. also
Matt. V. 22), of which the first two were
disciplinary; the third answers to <ompletu
and final expulsion (in ' Jer. Moed. E.,' 81,
d, hrspa hiy Kin, Edersheim). The general
designation was ehammata, from *1D^, to
destroy. The first form of it was called
neuphdh, and did not amount to more than
severe rebuke. It would exclude from re-
ligious privilege* for seven or thirty days,
according to the dignity of the authority by
whom it was pronounced (cf 1 Tim. v. 1).
The second form of iltammata was called
nt'ddut, which lasted for thirty days at the
least, and might be repeated at the end of
them. If these admonitions failed to pro-
duce their right effect, it might lead to the
third and final exoommunication, called
eherem, or ban, whose duration was in-
definite. The second of these forms was
accompanied by blast of trumpet and terrible
cnrses, which deprived the sufferer of all
kinds of social interoourse. He was avoided
as a leper ; if be died, he was buried without
funeral or mourning. The eherem was even
a more teiTible anathema, and might last
for life. The parents of the blind man
might easily fear such a curse. The ban to
which this blind man was eventually ex-
posed did not prevent him from moving
about the city. The ban pronounced on
Jesus led doubtless to the condemnation,
issuing in his ignominy and trial for a
capital offence. It was probably the second
of tbe three forms of anathema to which he
was ultimately condemned. It was quite
sufficient temptation for these poor parents
to have preserved an obstinate reticence.
Yer. 23. — Therefore said his parents. He
is of full age ; ask him. They would not
incur responsibility for the opinions of their
son about his Healer. They knew perfectly
well that it was the Jesus who was said to
be the Christ of the nation, and they would
not implicate themselvM in giving any
judgment on his claims.
Yer. 24.— So they ('• the Jews") oaUtd •
second time the man that was (had been)
blind, and said unto him; no longer asking for
any details of the process of the cure, they
■ought with ingenuity to blunt the edg* of the
powerful testimony which this man had bon*
10
THE GOSPEL ACCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. ix. 1—41.
to the piophetio rank snd even MesBianio
olaimi of JeaoM, by indaoing him to recant.
Qive glory to Ood, said they. Many have
nrged (see CaWin, De Wette,' Lange, Lttcke,
and Meyer) that this is only a solemn form of
adjuration, which corresponds with Josh. tU.
19 ; Ezra x. 11 ; 3 Esdras ix. 8, and was a
hypooritioal appeal to the man to eat his
own words on oath ; and Godet urges, " They
demanded that this guilty assertion, ' He ii
a Prophet,' should be blotted out by the
contrary one, ' He is a sinner.' " Moulton
says, " A formula used when a criminal who
was thought to be concealing the truth was
being urged to make a full confession."
Luthardt, Lampe, and others rightly observe
that this adjuration theory, though it suits
Josh. vii. 19, does not fit 1 Sam. vi. 5 or Jer.
xiL 16, and that the Pharisees rather wished
the man to give glory direct to God, and not to
Jesus. They implied that their action was
dictated by zeal for the honour of God, and
tempted the man to disolaim the mediation
of Divine grace thiongh the lips and at the
will of Jesus. They add, We biow (otSantv)
absolutely, on theologic grounds beyond the
comprehension of the poor man, and we can
sustain it with all the weight of our tradi-
tion and custom — ie« know that this Han is
a sinner. They give no reference, and do
not condescend to particulars. They would
overawe the man with their assumption of
superior knowledge.
Ver. 25. — He therefore amwered (and
said 'X Whether he be a sinner — using the
words of "the Jews" ironically — ^I know
not You assert it, but the facts of my
experience are altogether of a different kind.
I do not ktwiB, as you say that yon do.
The Jews reason from foregone prejudices ;
the healed man has no such evidence, no
such grounds — ^he adds in immortal words,
One thing I know with invincible conviction,
that whereas I was blind (De Wette says
there is no need to regard the ^i/ as an imper-
fect participle, and the present suggests the
whole career of the man from birth till that
memorable morning), now I see. The plain
consistent testimony of the man triumphs
over their logic, which sought to bewilder
his judgment. The language which a deeply
felt experience can always bring against the
a priori demonstrations of the insufSoiency
of the evidence of Divine revelation. I was
blind ; now I see the face of God in nature,
the kingdom of God all around me, the fact
of my own forgiveness, the dawning of •
brighter day.
Ver. 26.— They said therefore to him,'
■ K, A, B, D, L, omit xal c7;r«>, with
Tlsehendorf (8th adit), B.T., Tregelles, and
Westcott and ITort
* Olr it here aubstitnted by Tisobendorf
What did he to thee 1 how opened he fhiue
eyes ? They sought to draw from him the
explicit proof that Jesus had b^ken the
sabbath, or possibly to entangle him in
some different statement. The fact of the
supernatural change is practically conceded
to the obstinacy of the man's reiterated de-
claration, and the identification of his person
by others. Westcott here differs from the
majority of recent expositors, and supposes
that the " questions suggest that they were
willing to believe if the facts were not deci-
sive against belief." But the answer of the
man proves that he saw the cunning of his
antagonists, and was irritated by their con-
spicuous design to twist the infinite benefit
that he had received into the material of a
charge against his Benefactor.
Ver. 27. — ^He answered them, I told yo«
already, and ye did not hear (the Italic Ver-
sions and the Vulgate here omit the nega-
tion, which De Wette says would be easier
of comprehension ; but as it stands, the sen-
tence is equivalent to " you had no ears, yon
took no heed, if you had already listened to
the simple facts '') : wherefore would ye hear
it again f Yon will pay no more heed now
than then; or do ye want to transform it
into a charge? There is another alterna-
tive, stated in either humble pleading or
ironical retort, according as we interpret
the Kal. The next question is either, (1)
(Luthardt) Would you also be hU diiciplei,
like the many multitudes who are shouting
his praise ? Is that your bent? surely not !
or (2) it may mean, 1$ it possible that it m
(ft your mind, not only to find out all about
tlie how of this great miracle, but also to bc-
eoTne his disciples 1 Neither of these inter-
pretations is perfectly consistent with his
taunt, "ye did not hear." Therefore (3)
(Bengel) the most natural meaning is. Would
ye also, as well as myself, the poor beggar,
become his disciples 1 (so Westoott, Moulton,
and Lange). The poor man was roused,
ironical, and ready, notwithstanding the
threat of the great excommunication hang-
ing over him, to announce his own disciple-
ship to any extent and at any risk.
Ver. 28. — ^They reviled him, and said,'
(8th edit.) and E.T., on the authority of N%
B, D, E, L, and versions. Ae is found in A, r,
A, A The omission of iriXty does not stand
on quite the same ground, for it rests on
K*, B, D, and numerous versions, while it
occurs in K°, A, X, r, and many other
nncials.
* Tregelles, Tisobendorf (8th edit.), and
Godet, with N% D, L, and important cur-
sives, but not B.T., omit the xal before
i\oiS6pii(ray ; they also omit oSv after tKoi-
iifmvai', the reading of TA, K** B, and 6d,
and several Fathers
OH. a, 1— 4L] THE GOSPEL ACCOEDIHa TO ST. JOHN.
11
Then art the dlaoiple of that Man (iKeivov) —
between whom and hb there is an impass-
able chasm. Eeie is one of the strongest
indications of the irreversible breach be-
tween the Jews and Jesus — ^bnt we, instead
of being his disciples, are disciples of Hoses.
This speech shows that, whatever the blind
man meant to convey by the reproachful
entreaty of ver. 27, the Jews took it as
proof of his virtual confession of disciple-
ship to Jesus, and this they assumed was
tantamount to breaking with Moses. They
assume that their traditionary interpretation
of the Mosaic Law has all the authority of
the great Lawgiver himself.
Ver. 29. — They pursue the antithesis be-
tween Jesus and Moses, and thus make an
involuntary admission of his abnormal and
astounding claims. We know — it is the fun-
damental fact of our religious histoiy, and of
tho Divine revelation entrusted to us. We
know, by supreme conviction, as something
almost equivalent to a fundamental law of
thought, that God hath spoken to Moses.
(Observe the perfect \s\<i\TiKev, "hath
spoken " in such fashion that his words abide
for ever and are still souudiug in their ears.)
Moses was made a little lower than the
angels. God spake to him on Sinai, and from
the mercy-seat, and face to face as a man
speaketh with his friend (Exod. xxxiii. 11 ;
Dent, xxxiv. 10 ; Numb. xii. 8). The most
august ideas and associations clustered round
his venemble name. Jesus was supposed to
have challenged the supreme authority of
Moses, and no sort of comparison could be
drawn, in their opinion, between the two.
But as for this Man, we know not whence
he is. It is remarkable that, in ch. vii. 27,
they had been equally explicit in declaring,
" We know whence he is." Then they
thought to discredit his Messianic claim by
drawing a distinction between the well-
known parentage and home of Jesus, and
the coming of Messiah from some undis-
coverablo sonrce, some hidden place, where
God retained him before his revelation to
Israel (see notes, ch. vii. 27, 28). While,
however, Christ (ch. viii. 14) allowed the
validity of their superficial knowledge on
that occasion, he declared that he alone knew
whence he came and whither he was going
(see notes, ch. viii. 14). It is, perhaps, in
reference to this last expression that they
echo his own words. The supernatural
source of his being and teaching seemed
to their minds, throughout that discourse
and controversy, to vacillate between the
Divine and the diemonic. The contrast
between Moses and Jesus in this bitter
speech runs along the same low level. " We
know not whence " he derives his prophetic
character, or his right to legislate for the
people of God.
Ver. 30. — ^The man answered and said to
them, Why • herein ' is the ' marveUous thing
Lange translates, " With respect to this man,
this is marvellous, to wit." The B.T. has
accurately given the force of the yiip, the
combination of ye and dpa, by the rendering
"why?" The "herein" is the ignorance
which the Jews now profess of the Divine
call and mission of the Healer. Their con-
fusion, their obscurity, their vacillation, on
such a patent fact is the marvel of marvels,
almost more wonderful than the cure of his
blindness. That ye know not whence he is,
and (yet) he opened my eyes (koI not unfre-
quently has the force of "and yet " — simple
juxtaposition conveying a strong contrast;
see ch. viii. 55 ; vi. 70 ; vii. 4). The man
rises into holy and eloquent wrath. Their
entire liistory, their principles of judging of
a prophetic call, the whole modus of Divine
revelation, ought to have shown that one
whose simple will stood in such vivid
juxtaposition with work which none but
Almighty God could do, ought to have en-
lightened them. " The blind man, finding
he was argued with, grew bolder, and began
to argue in turn ; if he had not studied theo-
logy (say rabbinical casuistry and Mishnaio
accretions to the Divine Law), he at least
knew his catechism " (Godet).
Ver. 31. — ^We know — ^the new-bom dis-
putant takes up the language of these prond
casuists, and adopts the technical phrase
which they had used (vers. 24, 29) — we
know, yon and I, that God heareth not sin-
ners in any special sense bf miraculous ap-
proval (Job xxviL 9 ; xxxv. 13 ; Ps. cix. 7 ;
and especially Ps. Ixvi. 18, 19 ; Prov. xv. 29 ;
Isa. i. 15). One aspect of Old Testament
teaching shows that a man must delight
himself in the Lord in order to receive the
desires of his heart. If we ask anything
according to his will, he heareth us; but
the prayer of the sinner, the desire of the
wicked, is contrary to the wiU of God. When
the sinner turns from his sins to the Lord,
the cry for mercy is in harmony with the
will of God. In one sense every prayer is
the prayer of sinful men ; but it is the Divine
life working within them that offers accept-
able prayer. The prayer of the sinner as
such is not heard. We know God does not
listen to the cry of sinners, when, as sinners,
' The original position of the yiip (Meyer)
is determined in part by the onrious reading
of X, A, and cursives, %y yhp touto, "foi
this one thing;" the T.B. and R.T. here
read iy yhp roirif, with A, r. A, with man;
later uncials and cursives. K, B, D, with
Tregelles, Tisohendorf (8th edit.), read it
Toircf yap, the more ordinary position of yip.
Th is read before tmiiuiariy in B, 1, 83 ; bat
is omitted by T3., with A, D.
la
THE GOSPEL ACCOBDING TO BT. JOHN. [ch. ec 1—41
they Mk from the ground of their ain, to se-
cure their own sinfiil purpose ; but if any man
be a worshipper of Ood (the ykoA eeon^^s is
an Sira| Ktyintyav, and ocoura nowhere else
in the New Testament), and doeth his (Ood's)
will, this man he hearetti. The blind oeggar
has learned the deepest tmth of the Divine
revelation about the conditions of accept-
able prayer. -The immediate application
was the miraculous unwonted event as
answer to the effectual fervent prayer of
the righteous man (see Jas. v. 16—18). So
much for the general relation of this
Healer to God. The rabbis were never tired
of urging that the " answers to prayer de-
pended on a man being devout and doing
the will of God " (Edersheira, who quotes
<Ber.,' 6, 5; 'Taanith,' ui. 8; 'Suocah,' 14,
a ; ' Yoma,' 28, a). So that the man was
here fighting with drawn sword.
Vers. 32, 33. — Ttie man, having once begun,
will not be stopped in his argument. Since
the world began (^k roii aiUvos does not
elsewhere occur in the New Testament; we
have air' aiiivos three times, and an-i tuv
aiufoiv) it was never heard that any one
opened the eyes of one bom blind. There is
no record of any cure of blindness in the
Old Testament. The miracle stands forth
with grand distinctness on the page of
history. If such stories had been told,
neither he nor the author of this narrative
knew of them. TIis Pliarisees and Jews
have no reply to this burst of grateful but
indignant testimony to the uniqueness of
his Deliverer, and then, with a home-thrust
which cut through their weak objections and
repudiated their cruel inferences, he added,
TTnless this Han were from Ood, he oould do
nothing; he could neither have wrought
this marvel, nor any of the deep impressions
wrought upon you. " From God ; " that is
the man's final answer to the query, " What
.sayest thou of him, seeing that be hath
opened thine eyes?" God has the glory,
while I repudiate what yon give as a judg-
ment against him. Verily God has heard
liira as One who in this thing has simply done
his will. Thus the Jews are oompe^'^d for a
few moments to hear, irom one known as a
street-beggar, words of teaching along the
finest lines of a deep experience.
Ver. 34. — ^Vanquished by this logio of
simple fact and plain inference, the au-
thorities have no otiier weapon to use but
invective and persecution. They answered
and said to him, Thou wast altogether bom
in sins ; through and through a bom
reprobate. They take up the superstitions
idea which seems (ver. 2) to have been
floating in the mind of the disciples. From
sins of parents or from thine own sins in
thy mother's womb, thou oamest into the
world with the brand of thy infamy npon
thee. Thu thev admit the change that has
come over him by reverting to me peonliai
depravity which had been (tamped npon
his brow, according to their narrow inter-
pretation of Divine providence. And dost
thou presume to teach ni t — ^the chosen, the
learned, the approved ministers of God?
Dost thou, with all this heritage and mark
of separation from God, dare to instruct the
ehief paston and teachers of Israel? They
did not atop with cruel words, bnt in their
bitterness of spirit they thrsst him forth ;
they violently expelled him firom the syna-
gogue where they were then seated (so
Meyer, Maldonatus, Bengel, and many
others). We are not told that there and
then they excommunicated, or unsyna-
gogued, him. It is probable that this ban
followed, with the usual terrible formalities.
He had practically confessed tliat the highest
claims which Jesus liad ever made about
himself were true, and he made himself liable
to the curse already pronounced (ver. 22).
This marvellous narrative, with its life-
like detail, is not made the text of a dis-
course. It remains for ever the startling
vindication of our Lord's own word, that he
was Light to the world and Eyesight too, and
was able to supply both the objective con-
dition and subjective change by which the
nature of man could alone receive the light
of life. From ver. 8 to ver. 34 is almost
the only passage in the Gospel, with the
exception of the passage, ch. iii. 22 — 36, in
which we are not standing in the actual
presence of the Lord, or are not listening to
his judgments on men and things, and to his
revelations of the mystery of his own Person.
The narrative so far stands by itself, and
gives us an insight into the life which was
being enacted in Jerusalem contemporane-
ously with the Divine self-revelation of Jesos.
Vers. 85 — 41.— (10) The tttuei of <A«
ministry of light.
Vera. 35— S8.— (a) The vision of those uho
tee not These verses narrate the sequel so
far as the man was concerned. Westoott
add others rather exaggerate the bearing of
it when they say here was "the Veginniitg of
the new society." "The universal society
is based on the confession of a new truth "
(Westcott). Even in this Gospel the first
chapter shows that Jesus gathered disciples
about him who &om that time onward were
to "see angels of God ascending and de-
scending on the Son of man." In the second
and fourth chapters he " made and baptized
disciples." The twelve (oh. vL) would not
leave him in the midst of vridespread dis-
affection, because they oonfessed that he
OH. IX. l-< 41.] THE OOSFUL AGCORDINa TO ST. JOKN.
13
« ta " the Holy One of Qoi," who had *• the
m >rdB of eteinal life." Consequently, it is
enough to say that, when the authorities of
the Jewish ecdesia excluded the disciple of
Christ, the Lord admitted him to a nobler
fellowship; but the fellowship, the society,
>iad been already formed.
Ver. 35. — Jesus heard that they had oast
him out ; or, thrust him forth. Jesus is
represented as "hearing," not from the man's
own lips, but from the current report. He
is not said to have become acquaiated with
the circumstauoe by intuition, but to have
heard by the ordinary processes of knowledge.
This simple touch shows how consistent the
writer is throughout with the main thesis
of his Gospel touching the perfect humanity
of the Son of God, that he "was made
flesh," and had " come in the flesh," though
he was " from God." The excommunication
noisily and widely bruited was further proof
of the war to the knife between " the Jews"
and Jesus. The man hns fallen under
the ban for practically avowing in the most
public way that Jesus was " the Prophet,"
if not the Christ. And having found him.
So, then, the Lord, as the good Shepherd,
sought out the lost sheep in the wilderness,
and did not rest until he found him.
The daylight that had made an altogether
new world for one who had aforetime never
looked on human face, had been strangely
checkered and shadowed. He only saw
angry faces and averted glanoes, and even
his cowardly parents would have hesitated
to leceive him into their poor abode; but
Jesus found him, and said, Sost thou believe
cu the ' Son of Qodi Not " Dost thou wish
to believe 7 " but " Dost thou put thy trust in
the Son of God?" Dost thou recognixe the
' Tischendorf (8th edit.), Westoott and
Hort, and Moulton, on the authority of K,
B, D, with Sahidic and ^thiopic Versions,
read rod avep^ov. But Meyer, Lachmann,
Tregelles, and B.T., with A, L, X, r, A,
and other uncials, 1, S3, and all cursives and
nuineious versions, read rod @eov. Wes'
octt admits the wide early currency of the
latter reading, but thinks that the diffusion
and frequent use elsewhere of the term
" Son of God " might more naturally have
led to alteration than the alternative reading
would have led to the reverse process. The
very phrase "Son of man" is diffloult to
account for or understand in this connection;
but Westcott thinks the use of it due to
the fact that the term meant more than the
oorrent Jewish conception of " Son of Ghxl,"
and that the Lord here suggested to him
"One who, being Man, was the Hope «#
fact that the Messiah of the nation's hope
has come f Art thou believing in him ? It
would be more natural that the more current
appellation Son of God, rather than the more
recondite idea of Son of man, should have
been held out before the healed man. The
" thou " is emphatic, and contrasts the state
of the mind of this man with that of " the
Jews." He had declared that his Healer wuts
" from God," that he was " a Prophet," One
who "did God's will," and whom "God
heareth," even when he asked for apparently
impossible things. Christ tests the quality
and calibre of his faith.
Ver. 36. — He answered and said,' And
who is he, that (Tvn) I may believe on him 1
The conjunction adds much to the eager-
ness of the reply. His faith was ready for
full expression. He half suspected, as the
Samaritan woman (ch. iv. 25) did, that Jesus
was pointing to himself. The ris; rather
than tI; ("who?" rather than "what?")
shows the intensity of the man's desire to
find and hail and trust " the Son of God."
The disposition, the posture, of his mind is
that of faith. The adequate object for that
faith has not been revealed to him. Apt
symbol of many in their passage from dark-
ness to light. When receptive, susceptible,
conscious of need, with some notion, though
an obscure one, of whom and of what they
most of all need, many are disposed even non
to utter the same importunate request.
Ver. 37. — [And '] Jesus said, Thou hast both
seen him, with the eyes so recently opened.
Hast thou not found out that I am thy
Healer, thy Prophet, thy Messiah? The
idpaxas refers to the present interview, not
to any previous one ; for we are not told that
be had already sought or found bis Bene-
factor (Liicke, Meyer, Luthardt). Thou
hast seen him with the eyes of thy spirit
as well as the eyes of flesh, and, in addi-
tion, he that talketh with thee, familiarly as
man with man, is he — "that sublime Person
who seems to stand far off from thought and
experience" (Westcott). The Ixeivot of this
passage and ch. xix. 35 also is a fairly
classical nsage for expressing, in the lips of
the speaker, a reference to himself pointed
at and presented objectively as a third
person (see Meyer, and our note on ch. xix.
85, and its bearing on the authorship of the
' The introduction of the xai, on the
authority of K, B, D, X, and many otlier
uncials and cursives and versions, is accepted
by Tischendorf (8th edit.X B.T., Luthardt,
Meyer, etc.
' Tischendorf (8tb edit.) and B.T. omit
Si, with K, B, D, X, 33, and some versions:
the considerable authority for Si is rendered
more doubtful by yaiiation of readings — kbI
i^ jtid sKmr, eUk
14
THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST. JOHN. [oh. ix. 1—41.
Gospel). Kowhera does our Lord more
openly bdmit that he was the Christ, the Son
of God. The disciples scarcely rise beyond
the climax of this revelation eyen on the
night of the Passion. The man's faith was
waiting for its Object, and the vision comes
to bis unsealed spiritual vision.
Ver. 38. — ^And he said, Lord, I believe —
the Kyrie means more than in ver. 36 — and
he worshipped him. The verb irpoiritvvuv
is used by John for homage paid to God
(oh. iv. 20 ; lii. 20 ; and twenty-three times
in the Bevelation, always in the sense of
"worship "). This prostration, when no prayer
was offered, no forgiveness asked, but a
simple act of faith exercised, was nothing
less than the highest homage.the man could
pay. The adoration of this man is a fitting
climax to the scene (ch. viii. 59), and antici-
pates that of Thomas (ch. xx. 28). The
higher significance of the Sonship dawned
upon him in the unearthly tone and manner
of the Lord. These scenes, and the offer of
Divine homage unrebuked by Jesus and
uncommented upon by the evangelist, are
among the most potent arguments for the
belief of the Church in the Divine nature of
the Lord.
Vers. 39— 41.— (5) The hlindneti of thoie
who are tatisfied with their twilight.
Ver. 39. — The sight of the man, enlight-
ened and prostrate in adoring gratitude, led
Jesus, in the face of the bystanders, with
Pharisees among them (ver. 40), to declare
the general effects which would follow from
his entire self-manifestation (so Meyer,
Godet). Westcott says, " Not to any one or
group, but as interpreting the scene before
him." A sublime monologue. And Jesus
said, I oame for judgment. Not xpliriv, to
execute judgment, but els Kplfia, with a view
to bring about a judicial decision on the
moral condition of mankind (see notes on
eh. iii. 17, 18; t. 22, 23; viii. 11, 15, 16) as
a matter of fact. " This is the icplcrts, that
men love darkness rather than light." Christ
came to save — ^that was his supreme purpose ;
but to the Son is given the whole xptirts, and
Kpi/iio will foUow the revelation of the Son of
God. He is the Touchstone of humanity.
What men think of Christ is the question
which decides in every age their moral
condition before God. Into this world of
sin and strife, of crossing lights and strange
delusions, of ignorance and superstition (eis
Thv K6(rfiov is different when tovtov is added;
see oh. viii. 23 ; xi. 9 ; xii. 25, 31 ; xiii. 1 ;
xvi. 11 ; iviii. 36) — not the world as the mere
cosmos, or the sphere of creative activity,
nor even the whole of humanity as ch. iii. 16,
but humanity viewed in its separatiun from
grace, and in all its need — in order that they
who see not might see ; t.e. not those who
mwiij f»A tiiat they cannot see (as LUoke,
Meyer, etc.), but the practically blind — the
liAl jSAesrovTes, those who are sitting in dark-
ness, with the capacity for sight, but not the
opportunity ; who cannot, as a matter oi
fact, apart from the revelation of new light,
see the face of God ; the babes to whom the
Lord of heaven and earth has been pleased
to unveil himself (see Matt. xi. 25); the
poor in spirit, who do not but now may see
the kingdom, and the pure in heart ready
to behold their God. So far tlie Kpt/ia
declares itself to be a blessed consummation
— sight to the blind, cleansing to the leper,
life to the dead. Even the man bom bUnd
suns himself in the heaven of the Saviour's
smile. The Light of the world shines upon
them, and they see. But Chiisfs ooming
brings out also the character of those, and
pronounces judgment on thdse, who say of
themselves, " We see ; " " We have never
been in bondage;" "We need no repent-
ance ; " " Abraham is our father ; " " We
know the Law ; " " A¥ho (nevertheless) do
not come to the Light ; " who are not " of the
truth; " and the beaming of his unappreciated
glory involves in their case, that those
who see might become blind (rin^Aof), inca-
pable of seeing. Those who have the know-
ledge of the Law, " the wise and prudent "
(Luke X. 21), who boast their freedom, their
knowledge, their advantages, their profes-
sion, may, nay do, by resolute turning away
from " the Light of this world," lose their
power of spiritual vision. But the unso-
phisticated, needy, even the publicans and
harlots, consciously sitting in the region of
the shadow of death, do by faith and repent-
ance find thai the great Light has unawares
shone upon them.
Ver. 40. — Those of the Pharisees who were
with him. This expression does not simply
mean who were near him at that moment,
but who were to a certain extent siding with
him (ch. viii. 30, 31), while criticizing and
rejecting his message; who were incensed
with him for promising to them " freedom "
and sonship, and whose faith in his claims
was of the most superficial and vacillating
kind. These wavering, self-satisfied Phari-
sees heard these things, and they said to
him, Are we blind also 1 Many commentators,
who call attention to the contrast between the
Tv(t>\ol and /iii ffK^Tovres of ver. 39, think that
the speakers who made use of this word did
not draw the distinction, and meant nothing
more than ju5) ^AeVovTcs by their use of
Tvil)\oi. But this is unsatisfactory ; whatever
it means in the one clause, it ought to mean
in the other. There is a difference between
" hecoming hlind," and being " the blind."
They ask whether they are blind also, i.e. at
blind as those who have, according to Christ's
own dictum, beoome so. They seem to adndt
that mae who have the power of tight hava
OH. IX. 1—41.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
IS
been blinded by the rery light that shinei
npon them, but they are la doubt with
reference to their own case.
Ver. 41. — ^The reply of our Lord is not
meant to be a cnishing and final retort, con-
demning them to hopeless night, but was
obTionsly intended to show them that they
are not yet free from sin, that they are only
partially appreciating the light which shines
upon them. If ye were blind — ^incapable of
sight; if ye had all along been deprived of
the faculty of perceiving the true Light that
shineth in the darkness (a condition of things
which would have emancipated them from
responsibility, and which Christ would not
admit to be the case); perhaps more, if ye
had been irtterly blind to the light which
is shining upon you now, which, however, is
not true — ye would not have sin. This is
akin to the solemn language of ch. xv. 22 —
24. They did not themselves admit that
there was any congenital blindness about
them. They did not pretend or expect to
ride off on such a irpSctiaa-is, such an excuse.
Could they be, judicially or naturally, blind?
The very idea was an absurdity, and so Jesus
added, But now ye say, We see. You even
boast that you are "instructors of the
ignorant, and leaders of the blind; a light
to those who sit in darkness, having the form
of knowledge and truth in the Law " (Eom.
ii. 17 — 21), You are the very opposite of
the "not-seeing" (ji^ 0\4TovTes); you are
self-satisfied; you will not come to the Light.
What is the issue? The Lord seems to
pause before his answer (the oii>, "therefore,"
is rejected by the best manuscripts and
critics).: Your sin abideth ; or, remaineth. It
will remain until you fully admit the great
principle and reason, the motive and charac-
teristics, of my mission. The very facility
you profess, the intimacy you claim with the
Law and its founder, and your partial know-
ledge of my claim, take away your excuse.
The discourse which follows ihows how
entire must be the submission to Christ, how
complete the union with him, of those who
say, " We see.
H0MILBTIC3.
Yers. 1 — 12. — Citr» of fftt man bom blind. This new miracle caused a fresh
outburst of Jewish hatred against our Lord. Of the six miracles of blindness recorded
in the Gospels, this only is a case of blindness from birth.
I. The cubioub question or the disciples. "Master, who sinned, this man or
his parents, that he should be bom blind ? " 1. Their conviction was that affliction vmu
in all cases the consequence of sin. (1) In the moral government of God there is a
necessary connection between sin and sufifering (Rom. vi. 23). (2) Yet the suffering
may be sent to prevent sin as well as to punish it. 2. Though they were disciples,
they erred respecting the connection between sin and suffering. There was an
alternative question. (1) They seemed to think it possible that the man bom blind
should have sinned before he was bom, in some pre-existing state. The disciples
were the victims of many traditional errors and delusions. (2) They had more ground
for believing that the affliction of blindness was the efiect of the sin of the beggar's
parents. Some fact of this kind was familiar to their minds in the wording of the
second commandment (Exod. xx. 5), and in the representative relationship of family
life (Heb. vii. 10). (3) The disciples submitted the question to our Lord because of
its extreme difBculty. The one supposition seemed ungrounded and impossible, the
other seemed not in conflict with the justice of God.
II. OcB Lobd's answer to THEiK QUESTION. " Neither hath this man sinned, nor
his parents : but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." 1. Our
Lord doe» not assert the sinlessness of the beggar or his parents. 2. But he denies any
nwraj connection in this case between the individual and family sin and the blindness
from birth. It is a warning that we should not be too ready to regard every affliction
as a Divine judgment. 3. He deals with the case from the practical rather than from
the speculative side, representing it as an occasion for the exercise and display of the
Divine power and goodness. (1) Our Lord carries it back into the sphere of the
Divine counsel. (2) He represents God as bringing good out of evil. 4. Our Lord
emphasizes the Divine necessity that engages him in this blessed work. " I must work
the works of him that sent me, while it is day : the night cometh, when no man can
work." (1) This miracle occurred on the sabbath, probably on the evening of the day
which was marked by his long dialogue with the Jews in the temple. He not only
went about every day doing good, but every hour was devoted to a holy activity.
16 THE GOSPEL AOCOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. [en. a. 1—41-
(2) The moments were precious, because the work of his human activity was rajjidly
coming to an end. Our working season is at best a short season. "The night
Cometh " to end all. (3) His function as being " the Light of the world" imposed this
incessant activity upon him. "As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the
world." (a) Therefore the true Light cannot but shine upon the world's darkness.
(6) And he is the only Agent to remove the physical and spiritual darkness that
appealed to his compassion.
IIL The method of the mibaolb. "When he had thus spoken, he spat on the
ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with
the clay, and said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloatn." Why did our Lord act in
this manner ? 1. Partly to test the faith of the blind beggar. 2. In all the cases oj
miracle involving the lo^s of connection with the world of sense, Jesus takes care to have
personal communication established, so as to assure the sufferer of his presence and
supply a foundation for faith. (1) The deaf man cannot hear Christ's voice, but the
momentary touch of his ear established the necessary communication. (2) The blind
could not see the look of Divine compassion which others could see, but the clay or the
spittle would be felt as indicating the presence of One whose words held out the hope
of cure. (3) The means arc, after all, though under a physical aspect, designed to
affect the mental condition of the sufferer.
IV. The success of the miracle. " He went his way therefore, and washed, and
came seeing." 1. His ready obedience was a sign of his faith. 2. Sis faith in
Divine power at once opened up to him a new world. The eye establishes between
us and the world a nearer and wider communication than any other organ of sense.
3. Christ puts honour upon the exercise of true faith and obedience to his commands.
V. The curiosity or the bbgoae's neighbours RESPBCTiNa the cikcumstancbs
OP THE miracle. "Is not this he that sat and begged? Some said, This is he;
others said, He is like him : but he said, I am he." 1. /Some acknowledged his
identity, but others tried to evade the fact of the miracle by affecting to doubt his
identity. 2. They all alike laid stress upon the manner, not upon the fact, of the
mirade. " How were thine eyes opened ? " 3. The beggar's frank acknowUdgment
of cdl the facts. " The Man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and
said unto me. Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I
received sight." (1) He must have been previously iamiliar with Jesus, else he could
not have known his name. His presence every day at the temple, as he begged of ths
passers-by, put him in the way of knowing much concerning the acts of Christ.
(2) It is a proof at once of his faith and of his gratitude that he publicly confessed his
obligations to the Saviour. 4. The effect of this declaration on his neighbours. " Then
said they unto him. Where is he ? He said, I know not." (1) Jesus had evidently
disappeared at once from the scene, perhaps exhausted by the anxieties of his long
conflict with the Jews in the temple. (2) The curiosity of the Jews to know where
Jesus was was prompted more by hatred than by the desire to do him honour.
Vers. 13 — 34. — The investigation of the miracle. This was prompted by the
unfriendly questioners first referred to.
I. The inquiry op the Pharisees. 1. TTiey first examined the beggar as to the
facts of his cure. These it was as impossible to. ignore as it was difficult to explain.
2. The performance of the cure on the sabbath day was the pivot upon which the question
turned. "Now it was the sabbath day that Jesus made the clay, and opened the ejes
of this man." Of the three and thirty miracles of our Lord recorded in the Gospels, no
less than seven were performed on the sablmth day, as if to show, in opposition to
Pharisaic perversions, that works of mercy were essentially included in the sabbath law.
II. The division amonq the Pharisees. " Therefore said some of the Pharisees,
This Man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said. How
can a bad man do such miracles? And there was a division among them." 1. The Hi-
conditioned party concede the truth of the miracle, but imply that it must have been
done by the power of the evil one. They take theii stand upon a false idea of the
iiabbath. 2, The friendly party, including men like Nicodemm and Jomph o^
Arimaihiea, fed the difficulty of a lad man doing works of mercy and love through
Divine power. The difficulty is ethical as well as theological.
m. TX. 1—41.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHIT. 17
ni. The -WTrNESs op the begoab himself. "They say unto the blind man
•gain, What gayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine eyes ? He said. He is
a Prophet" 1. fle does not hesitate to oppose the Judgment of the Pharisees in words
that bespeak the firmest conviction. 2. He recognizes in the miracle the energy of Divine
power, and in Jesus the charcuiter of a Representative of God. 3. How often a simple,
unlettered heliever sees what learned rahhis, or doctors, or synods, cannot see I
IV. The appeal of the Phaeisbbs to the begqab's pabbnts. 1. It was the
suggestion of their unbelief. " But the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had
been blind." Unbelief always seeks to justify itself in some way. None are so blind
as those who will not see. 2. They expected that the parents, through fear of
excommunication, would either deny the identity of their son, or the fact of his
blindness from birth. 3. Mark the wariness, yet the cowardice, of the parents.
(1) They adhere strictly to matters of fact. They declare the identity of their son
and his congenital blindness, but decline to commit themselves as to the method of
cure, or as to the person who had effected it. (2) They devolve the responsibility of
an answer as to the most critical point upon their son. " He is of age ; ask him."
(3) Their caution is due entirely to fear. " These words spake his parents, because
they feared the Jews." The excommunication was a serious thing in a thoroughly
ecclesiastical community. It entailed social disadvantages and discomforts, as well as
exclusion from the religious privileges of the Israelite.
V. A FEBSH appeal TO THE BLIND BEQQAB. " Then again called they the man that
was blind, and said unto him, Give God the glory: we know "that this Man is a
sinner." 1. They demand a denial of the miracle as in some sense essential to a right
view of God's glory, (1) They desire to obliterate a fact by a false interpretation of
the sabbatic law. (2) They regard the assertion of the beggar that Jesus was a Prophet
as blasphemy, because it impeached at once God's truth and God's holiness. (3) The
Pharisees represent themselves as the depositaries of thieological knowledge, but assign
no reason for a conclusion adverse to Christ's claims. Their conduct is eminently
unreasonable. They oppose fact to knowledge, 2. The answer to their appeal bring*
further discomfiture. " Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not : one thing I know,
that, whereas I was blind, now I see." (1) The beggar declines to settle theological
problems. His reticence k wiser than the bold but groundless assertions of th«
Pharisees. (2) He takes his stand firmly upon fact. Once he was blind, now he sees.
The difBculty is on their side ; it is for them to explain it. The fact is without dispute.
3. The anger of the Pharisees. " Then they reviled him, and said. Thou art his
disciple ; but we are Moses' disciples." (1) They confront unanswerable logic with the
language of insult. (2) They oppose the authority of Moses — no doubt on the sabbath
law — to that of Jesus. On the ground of their allegiance to Moses they reject tbe
clearest evidences of Christ's Divine mission. "But if ye receive not Moses' writings,
how can ye believe my words?" (3) Mark the crushing rejoinder of the beggar.
" Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he
hath opened mine eyes." (a) The Pharisees claimed special knowledge to decide upon
the authority of any one professing to be a prophet, yet they failed to give account of
all the facts of the case. (6) The man asserts a fact of great theological import to settle
the claims of Jesus : " Now we know that God heareth not sinners." (a) It is a fact
based on Scripture teaching (Isa. i. 11 — 15 ; Ps. Ixvi. 18 ; cxix. 7). Ail men, no
doubt, are sinners, but the Scripture statement applies specially to men living iu
habitual sin and without faith in God. (B) The privileges of believers are fully asserted.
" But if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth." God
hears the prayer of the man whose religion is both speculatively and practically true.
(c) The miracle wrought in the present case was without parallel. " Since the world
began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was bom blind." No
science or skill had ever effected a cure of this sort. Therefore there must have been
guperhuman and Divine power exercised in the operation. " If this Man were not of
God, he could do nothing." Thus his general argument from Scripture and his con-
clusion alike deny the assertion of the Pharisees that Jesus wag a sinner. (4) The
passionate abuse lavished on their critic. " Thou wast altogether bom in sins, and dost
thou teach us ? And they drove him out." (a) The Pharisees cast in his teeth the
•klMuity of hig birth as a sign of special gin. They forget that they are inly, by tbeii
JOMK— n. *
18 THE OOSPBIi ACOORDIKra TO BT. JOHN. [oh. ix. 1—41,
act, acknowledging the reality of a miracle they had all along tried to evade or deny.
(6) They are aghast at the assumption of a person under God's curse undertaking to
teach tlieology to the recognized guides of Israel, (c) They expel him with an Impatient
contempt from their presence.
Vers. 35—38. — The moral result of the miracle. The bodily cure is to lead to spiritual
enlightenment.
I. Jesus seeks out the outcast beggar fob blessing. "And when he had
found him, he said, Dost thou believe on the Sun of God ? " 1. It is the office of tht
good Shepherd to seek out the sheep cast away, as if to f'Ufll the psalmist's words, " When
my father and my mother forsake me, the Lord taketb roe up." 2. Something more
than miracle is needed to impart faith. He had been the subject of a bodily cure, but
our Lord is now to make him the subject of spiritual illumination. Miracles alone
cannot work faith. 3. The courageous fidelity of the man in the presence of the Pharisees
makes him worthy of the greater blessing in store for him ; yet he is saved wholly by
grace. 4. Mark the directness of ow LonTs question, "Dost thou believe on the Son
of God ? " (1) It could not be evaded or misunderstood. (2) The Object of faith was
more than a prophet, more than the Messiah ; he was God's own Son, a Divine Person,
the Author of eternal salvation. 5. Mark how our Lord leads him on to a clearer recog-
nition of himself. The man asked, " Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him ? "
His faith was already looking out for its object. The answer is, " Thou hast both seen
him, and he it is that talketh with thee." The very Person who had given him restored
sight, and who here honoured him by his conversation, was the Object of his faith.
IL Mark how quickly faith follows on cub Lord's wobds, how quiobxt
CONFESSION follows ON FAITH, AND HOW QUICKLY WOESHIP FOLLOWS ON CONFES-
SION. 1. Faith is based on knowledge. " Lord, I believe." The man receives Christ's
testimony with alacrity, and accepts him as his Redeemer. 2. The confession is
prompt, unhesitating, and enduring, 3. The worship is as sincere as the confession.
They who believe in Christ for salvation will be sure to worship him. The worship of
Christ is common te Christendom.
Vers. 39 — 41. — Moral result of Ghrisfs coming into the world. The incident now
ended suggests a wider reflection.
I. The DOUBLE result of Christ's advent. " I am come into this world to
exercise judgment, that they which see not might see ; and that they that see should
become blind." 1. The Son did not come for judgment, hut judgment was the result of
his coming. His advent tested the false and the true ; it revealed what was in the
hearts of men ; it brought light into the darkness with two opposite results. 2. T?ie
twofold result of the judgment. (1) As it affects those who " do not see " — that is,
the ignorant, who are conscious of their spiritual blindness, dnd therefore ask for the
light. They are made " to see." Light arises out of the darkness of sin, ignorance,
and unbelief, so that they realize all the fulness of life, righteousness, and faith!
(2) As it affects those " who see " — who claim to have " the key of knowledge " (Matt. xi.
25), and are " confident that they are guides of the blind, lights of them which are in
darkness " (Rom, ii, 11). Being unconscious of their real ignorance, they are judicially
blinded so that they should not see the truth. Being " wise and prudent," they despise
the revelation of truth, and relapse into utter darkness, as the judgment of God upun
their careless or hostile attitude toward the truth.
II. The PERSONAL APPLICATION OF THE TEST OF JUDGMENT. " And those of the
Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said to him. Are we also blind ? "
1. The question is dictated by the pride of sect, and by a touch of anger that they who
were so learned should he classed with the ignorant rabble. 2. The answer of Jesus is
terribly severe. (1) He seems to say— Would God you were really blind! There
might in that case be hope of light penetrating the darkness of your hearts. Conscious
ignorance would be a preparation for saving knowledge. (2) But they were at once
blind and unconscious of the fact. " But now ye say, We. see." (3) This blindness
was fatal, (a) They had no excuse for it. " If ye were blind, ye should have no sin."
They were, therefore, witnesses against themselves. (6) Sin rested upon them because
they were responsible for their blindnesi.
oa. Et 1—41.] aBB GOSPEL ACCOBDINQ TO ST. JOHN, U
H0MILIB8 BY VARIOUS AUTHOBa
Vers. 1 — 41. — The passage of a soul from darkness into light. This gnphlo and
dramatic nairative begins with the healing of a bodily privation by the exercise of
Christ's miraculous power. But its chief interest lies in the spiritual process which it
unfolds. It relates how a young man, poor and blind, but intelligentj candid, and
brave, received spiritual as well as bodily illumination, and how he displayed insight in
apprehending Christ's character, cotirage in resisting Christ's adversaries, and gratitude
in acknowledging Christ's claims. The several steps of this process deserve attentive
study.
L The oommbncehsnt ahd ths seal explanation ov tee whole fbooess is
TO BE found in THE HEBOY OP GoD. Our Lord gives what may be called the final
cause of this man's blindness when he Instructs his disciples that the intention of the
Creator was to be found in the opportunity afforded for the manifestation of the Divine
energy and grace in the work of restoration. It is well to look for human explanations,
but it is better to receive, when they are afforded, such as are Divine. In studying
the transformations of human character the wise man will look for the deepest reasons
in the purposes of the Eternal.
II The attention and intbbkst of this majt max exoitbd by Jebub' com-
passion AND BENEFICENCE. Himself receiving a signal proof of Christ's pity in the
exercise on his behalf of Christ's healing power, the man could not fail to feel the
charm of his Benefactor's character. In this the experience of many has been parallel
with his. There are ever those who, seeing what Christ has effected for the benefit of
humanity, and reflecting upon the advantages which have accrued to themselves through
the work of Christ upon earth, are led to inquire into the gospel, and to ask what there
is in the Saviour to account for the influence he has exerted over hnman society.
What he has done naturally leads to the inquiry, " Who is he ? "
IIL The ebflection of this man upon the mission of Chbist was fubtheb
PBOHOTED BT THE INQTHBIES OF HIS NBIOHBOTJRS. Thosc who had loug been acquainted
with him asked him of his own experience, asked him of his healer ; and such inquiries
naturally led him to form more definite convictions.
** Truth, like a torch, the more 'tis ihook it shines."
Seasons of religious interest and inquiry often serve the purpose of oompelling the
unsettled and undecided to endeavour at least to understand and to justify their own
positiori.
rV. 'This man's convictions webb cleabed and his faith stbenqthened bt
OPPOSITION AND PERSECUTION. The fire that bums the dross purifies the gold. A
weak nature may be harmed by adversity, terrified by threats, coerced by violence.
But this man's best nature was brought out by contact with opposition. He was not
to be browbeaten. He turned round upon his persecutors, and put them in the wrong.
Even their injustice in excommunicating him was unavailiog; he was gaining a
spiritual standing from which he could smile at the threats and actions which were
intended to dismay him. Often has it happened in the history of Christianity that
times of persecution have strengthened and steadied the faith of true believers. Some
of the noblest characters that have adorned the Church have been cradled in the storm.
V. ClBCUMSTANCES AND DiVINE TBACHINa LED THIS MAN FEOM STAGE TO STAGE
or Cheistian belief. This appears in a very marked manner from the view he
gradually came to take of his Benefactor. First he spoke of him as " a Man called
Jesus;" then he pronounced him to be "a Prophet;" later on he asserted him to be
" firom God." He was following the light he had, and this is ever the way to fuller and
Clearer light. Thus he was led to take the final step, the natural result of those
preceding.
VL This Kan's abdent faith and pbofound wobship wxbb oallbs fobtk bt
TBM dstebview HE HAD WITH Jebus HIMSELF. There was already a candid and
teachable disposition ; there was already an affectionate gratitude towards Jesus. It
was only needed that Christ should fully declare himself. And when he did this, it k
10 THE GOStaL ACOORmNO TO ST. JOHN. Coh. a. 1—41
ohserraWe that the man restored to sight saw spiritually as well ss physically. He
beheld the Son of God standing hefore him; he believed and worshipped. All that had
gone before led up to this, and without this would have been incomplete. Now at
length this once blind soul passed into the clearness and the fulness of the light of heaven.
Now he could say with reference to his spiritual state what he h«d before said of his
earthly vision, " Whereas I was blind, now I see." — T.
Ver. S,— The final cause ^ human suffering. No man, with an eye to observe and a
heart to feel, can look abroad upon human life without being impressed and saddened
by the spectacle presented to his view. There is so much of privation, of pain, of
weariness, of disappointment, of distress, that 'it sometimes seems as if "the whole
head were sick, and the whole heart faint." " Life," it has been said, " is a tragedy to
those who feel." But men are so constituted that they cannot be satisfied to observe
and to feel. They are compelled to think, and many are compelled to theorize. The
prevalence of want and misery leads many to formulate a pessimistic philosophy, which
accounts the evil in the world to exceed the good, and which seeks an explanation of
the facts in the theory that there is no benevolent Deity, but that the supreme power
in the universe is a brutal and unconscious Fate. This daring and blasphemous
doctrine has, indeed, many advocates. But there are very many more who seek a lest
bold solution to the difficulty. It does not follow, because a speculation is comparatively
modest, it is therefore sound. Our Lord's disciples faced the fact of human suffering,
and by suggesting an explanatory theory, which was altogether inadmissible, gave him
an opportimity both of rejecting it and of offering an authoritative interpretation of the
facts.
L Sm IS IN A GENERAL TI£W TO BB BEOARDED AS THE OAUSK Or HIHIAN FBIVATION
AND BUTFEBiNa. Our Lord himself taught this on such occasions as that on which he
said, " Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee." Experience and observation
teach us that violation of the Divine laws impressed upon nature is the cause of very
many of the hardships, pains, and calamities that befall mankind. The link between
sin and suffering is forged and riveted by the hand of the Divine Qovemor of the
universe.
n. Men, whose knowledge is vebt limited, should be slow to ATTBnnTi
INDIVIDUAL PHYSICAL ILLS TO INDIVIDUAL SINS. Sin as A wholc is answerable for most
of human evils, nnd many are the evils which devolve upon every generation as an
inheritance. But we should often do injustice did we charge a man's sins, or the sins
of his ancestors, with his bodily infirmities. Our Lord warned his disciples not to deem
those Galileans sinners alK>ve others, on whum the tower of Siloam fell. And he
expressly exonerated both the blind man and his parents from responsibility for his
afiliction and privation.
UL If WB CANNOT ALWAYS DISCOVER THE EFFICIENT CAUSE OF HUMAN PRIVATION
AND BUFFERING, WB MAY ACCEPT OUR LoRD's REVELATION OP ITS FINAL CAUSE. There
is a prevalent tendency of mind, especially among the scientific inquirers of our day, to
disparage teleology. We are told to observe that a thing happens, to inquire how it
happens, but not to venture into the speculation why it happens. Intention, design,
are widely denied as the explanation of human actions, as the explanation of natural
phenomena. Our Lord Jesus, the great Prophet, the Divine Eulightener of man, tells
us that there is a reason for human infirmities and calamities. " That the works of God
should be made manifest in him " — such was the reason why this man was bom blind.
Here opens up before our mental vision a vast field of inquiry and thought. For if this
be so, then there is a purpose in physical evil, and that a moral purpose ; then it is
permitted and appointed by God, the All-Merciful. Then God does concern himself
alike with the existence and the alleviation or cure of such evil ; then the works of
our beneficent God may be made manifest in the case of even a lowly sufferer. Thai
there opens up before us the possibility and the prospect that the world may come to be
pervaded by the illnmination of Divine lore and pity, and by the radiance of a blessed
and glorious hope.
** And even pain ii not in vain ;
for out of discord springs a iweet harmonious strain.*
ofi. IX. 1—41.] THE GOSPEL ACOORDINO TO ST. JOHN. M
Ver. 4. — The day it for labour. Very instructive and very encouraging is the way in
which, in this passage, our Divine Lord associates his people with himself. In assuming
our nature he accepted the ordinary conditions of our life, its duties and its limitations.
Generally spealdng, what no man could do he would not do; what all men must
submit to he would submit to also. Neither then nor now is he ashamed to call us
brethren. As Son of man, he partakes both our nature and our lot. His Spirit and his
language assure us of this. Accordingly, his experience is not merely something for us
to admire ; it is for us so to ponder that we may share it. He partakes our conflict
that we may partake his victory. In the words of the text these principles are made
manifest, in their application to the " work " which gives meaning to human life.
I. 'Yma CHABACTBR OF THE EARTHLY SEBVICB. The works thcmselves to which
Jesus here referred were special. By "works" he undoubtedly intended miracles, signs,
wonders — such deeds of power and mercy as that which the condition of the blind man
suggested that he should perform for his benefit. But our Lord often spoke of his
" work " in a more general sense ; and even here there is nothing exclusive of his
spiritual ministry, to which this language certainly applies. This saying of Jesus casts
light upon the cliaracter of the earthly service rendered by himself, and required of all
his faithful disciples and followers. 1. Diligence is characteristic both of the Master
and of his servants. No reader of the Gospels can fail to be impressed with the labori-
ousness of Christ's public life. There were times when he had no leisure even to eat ;
there never was a time when he neglected an opportunity of benevolence. Whether
in teaching or in healing he was ever occupied, and occupied for purposes unselfish and
brotherly. 2. His works were the proof of his obedience. Our Lord evidently lived a
life of devotion to the Father who " sent " him. He did not his own will, but the
Father's. It was his meat to do the will of him who sent him, and to finish his work.
His advent, his ministry, his death, were all proofs of his obedience. Though a Son,
yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. How much more must sub-
)«ction to the Father's will befit us, who are the creatures of his power, the subjects
of his dominion 1 It gives dignity to our life to feel that we too are sent into the world
by God — that we are his messengers, his servants, his children, bound to do his behests,
and to live as accountable to him. 3. Obligation characterizes all true service. Even the
Son of God could say, " I must." On his part there was no compulsion. He of his own
accord undertook a life of consecration and self-denial. What he did he " must needs "
do, for the fulfilment of the Divine purposes, for the satisfaction of the benevolent
yearnings of his own heart, and for the salvation of mankind. In our case there is a
stringent moral obligation to serve God. As creatures, we are bound to obey a righteous
Maker ; as redeemed, emancipated freedmen, we are bound to glorify a Divine Deliverer.
We are not our own. The duty that binds us to service is indeed a duty sweetened by
grateful love, but a duty it cannot cease to be.
II. The limitation op tile earthly service. Our Lord condescended to accept
the natural limits of human life. The day is for labour. Christ's day was from the
dawn at Bethlehem to the evening on Olivet. There are those of his followers whose
day is even shorter than his. There are many whose day is far longer. But in the
case of every one of us there are limits which we cannot pass over. There are the
" twelve hours " of the day, to which we cannot add. From this language we learn
that the day, the period for our work on earth, is : 1. A prescribed, unalterable period.
We cannot add a cubit to our stature, a year to our life. There is " an appointed time "
for man upon earth. 2. A period during which the light still shines upon our path.
If a man walk in the day he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of the world.
Christians are favoured with the light of revelation — with the light of the Spirit given
during the gospel dispensation. It is for them to walk and to work while the daylight
lasts. 3. A period during which strength is unspent. The labourer toils until the
lengthening shadows tell him that the day's work is approaching the close. He needs
repose with evening, but until the evening his vigour enables him to continue his
efforts. Whilst the Christian lives, God gives him power to serve. God is not a hard
Taskmaster ; his demands do not exceed his gifts. The Toice from eternity that speaks
with authority bids us "work while it is day."
III. The special motive to the baethly bebvioe. " The night eometli, when no
msn can work." There has never been spoken by human lips anything more solemn,
22 THE GOSPEL AOOOBDINQ TO BT. JOHN. [oh. a. 1— 4L
and at the same time more predoni, than tU». We all, when we think upon the
matter, feel this declaration to be bo indisputably true. Yet we are all proneto orer-
look, sometimes »lmost anxious to forget it. 1. Consider this reflection as bearing upon
Christ himself. He knew that the end of hia earthly life and ministry was near. But
he knew also that much remained for him yet to do and to suflFer. There was a work
for him to accomplish whilst he was still in this world — a work which he must accom-
plish within the swiftly closing day, or not at alL His advanced and final lessons to
his disciples, his last assertions of supernatural power, his crowning revelation of
majestic meekness and patience, his mysterious sufferings, — these all had to be crowded
into his last brief days. The cup had yet to be drained, the cross had yet to be
borne. All must be finished before the twilight deepened into darkness. Fo? the
Father had given him all this to do ; and he would leave undone nothing that he had
undertaken. 2. How powerfully does this reflection bear upon our own moral lifel
Every one of us who is alive to the real meaning of his existence, must feel, and does
feel, that this short day of life is given us, not for pleasure, but for progress; not for
ease, but for toil. If, through weakness and temptation, this feeling sometimes fails us,
there is one effectual method of reviving it. " The night cometh 1 " Venit nox I There
is much to be done that must be done before the sunset of life's day, if it is not to
remain undone for ever. Here or nowhere ; now or never 1 That the future life will
be a scene of service is not to be doubted. But earthly service must be rendered upon
earth. Sere the gospel must be embraced ; here the new birth to spiritual realities
must commence the life that is Divine. Now is the day of salvation. The earthly
service must be tendered in this life. The voice comes, "Go, work to-day in my vine-
yard." Neglect or refuse to obey that summons, and that piece of work will remain
undone. Yet the time is very short, and night is very near. Labour, before the hand
be palsied, dive, before the substance be beyond control. Speak, before the tongue
be for ever silent. Do all as looking forward, onward, to the end.
Apfuoation. Let the Idboriout remember that not all labour Is wise and blessed.
Work for self, and such work will be consumed in the fire that shall try all things.
But work for God shall stand ; no power can destroy it. Let the indolent remem^r
that time unredeemed can only witness against them at the last. Let the young
remember that, if a lengthened day be given them, the greater will be their responsi-
bility and the larger their opportunity of commending themselves as faithful labourers
to the jnst and gracioius Master. Let the aged remember that, near as is night for them,
they have a witness yet to bear, and a memory of inspiration to leave behind.
" Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." — ^T.
Yer. 26. — Spiritual sight contrasted with tpiritital lUndnesn. In this instance, as in
many others, the miracle is also the parable. The whole narrative is full of spiritual
teaching and beauty. The candour and sagacity of the man who received iua sight
from Jesus are evident in the witness he bore — witness to what was within his own
experience, witness which none other was so competent to bear as he. All who have
felt Christ's spiritual power will adopt this language. Whatever they know not, this
they know, that, whereas they were blind, now they see.
L The bpieitual blindness of siNrtJL jckn. 1. This is compatible with keenness
of natural vision and of intellectual discernment. Men " having eyes, see not." It is
marvellous how far-sighted people may be in worldly affairs, and yet may lack
spiritual vision. 2. It evinces itself in privation : (1) Of true knowledge — the know-
ledge of self, and, above all, the knowledge of God. (2) Of Divine guidance. In great
darkness the blind man is led, not knowing whither he goeth. The spiritually unen-
lightened sees not the way of life, of safety. (3) Of heavenly joys. Sight is the occa-
sion of much natural pleasure ; and they who see not Diviue realities know nothing
of the highest delights of which the soiil is capable. 3. It is unconscious of its own
loss. As the blind from birth are, whilst in their blindness, utterly unable to conceive
how much they lose, so those whom the god of this world hath bUnded say, " We see "
and know not that they are blind and misera'ble.
n. The mission of Christ to give sight to thk spmiTUALLT blind. 1. Observe
the motive which animated him in the fulfilment of this beneficent work. It was pity.
Common humanity pitiss the naturally bUnd; Divine love oommiserates those who
OH. IX. 1—41.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN, 28
lack spiritual vision. 2. The power that effects this marvellous change. Th« poor
man upon whom Christ wrought this miracle justly argued that his Benefactor must
possess Divine authority. Spiritual enlightenment is the prerogative of God. He
"hath shined into our hearts." And we are justified in attributing to a Divine Saviour
the many glorious miracles of spiritual illumination which our Lord has wrought for
men. 3. The means by which Christ works. The provision of the gospel dispensation
is all-sufficient for this purpose. On the side of man, there is faith exercised by the
sufferer in the Healer, without which no soul is opened to the heavenly rays. Chi the
side of God, there is the illumining Spirit, whose agency is indispensable, who sheds
forth the light, and who cleanses the spiritual organ, and renders it susceptible to the
quickening, celestial beams. 4. The manner of this enlightenment. It is immediate,
thorough, and enduring.
III. The spikitual bight which Christ oontebs. The exclamation, "Now I
seel " was an iniiication of present experience, and an earnest of future development.
Christ, in bestowing the gift of spiritual vision, opens the eyes: 1. To self and sin.
2. To God himself — his attributes and his purposes. 3. To the meaning of life — its
realities and opportunities. 4. To the unspeakable privileges of the Christian calling.
5. To the unseen realities of eternity.
Application. The language of the man who recMved his sight is especially
encouraging to those who are troubled in their mind because they have not consciously
undergone changes of which others speak with confidence. It is neither the process,
nor the time, nor the mode of enlightenment, which is of supreme importance. It is
the fact that the change has taken place. Our natural state is one of spiritual blind-
ness. If " now we see," then we have reason for rejoicing, and for grateful acknow-
ledgment of our Saviour's healing mercy. — ^T.
Ver. 27, — An appeal for disciples. Admirable, indeed, were the bearing and the
language of this poor man when in the presence either of Jesus or of the Pharisees.
When confronted by the Lord's enemies, he was not worsted in the discussion, and he
was silenced only by violence. If there was a shade of irony in this appeal, still there
was justice in it. The language is such as may well be addressed, by those who have
benefited by Christ and have attached themselves to Christ, to all whom their
influence may reach.
I. Thk oharactbb or this DisorPLBSHiP. There was reason in the designation
" disciple," as applied to all who attached themselves to the Lord Jesus. Observe : 1.
The Master and his lesson. Christ is supremely able to teach. There may be learned
(1} wisdom from his lips ; (2) holiness from his life ; (3) love and pardon from his
cross ; (4) obedience from his throne. 2. The scholar and his spirit. On the part of
him who would be Christ's true pui)il, there must be (1) reverence for the Master's
authority ; (2) diligence in the study of his character, his words, and his life ; (3)
subjection to all commands, however this submission may involve self-denial ; (4)
perseverance in application to Divine lessons.
II. The hindrances to this discipleship. There may be observed, as militating
against such pupilage : 1. Pride, which flatters men that they need no teaching, that
they are a sufBcient lesson and law to themselves. 2. Irreligion, which assures men
that other masters are as good as Christ, that there is no special faculty to itistruct and
to govern residing in him rather than in others who claim obedience. 3. Unspirituality,
which too readily suggests that Christ's teaching is too holy, that his standard of
goodness is too high, for human attainment. By these several formidable obstacles
multitudes are kept from resorting to Jesus in that reverent, lowly, and teachable
temper of mind which alone can secure their enlightenment and salvation.
III. The motives to this discipleship, 1. It is our nature and our need to learn.
2. None is so able to instruct us as is the great Teacher, the Divine Master. 3. To stand
aloof from his teaching is to remain ignorant of what it most concerns us to know, 4,
Christ is willing to receive and to welcome us into his school. There is no need, in
order to become his disciples and to learn of him, to abandon lawful avocati(»>s; n*
need to dispense with human teachers who are not rivals to Jesus, The door of A*
Kshool is open, and the great Master is waiting and ready,
ArFUOATioif. 1, A question to answer for yourselves. "WUl y liao b« kia 4ia«
S4 THE GOSPEL ACCOKDINa TO ST. JOHN. [oh. ix. 1—41.
eiples?" It is not the first time this question has been put to the hearers of the
gospel ; it is urged once again. It is not too early for any to begin discipleship. And
it is not too late for any who may have delayed hitherto, now to respond to the
summons. 2. A question to propose to others. This is the invitation which the Church
is bound to address to the world. If one who had been a poor blind beggar could urge
it upon his superiors ; if he could speak for Jesus, though persecuted for his boldness ;
why should any Christian be deterred from witnessing and appealing to his fellow -men,
either by the sense of his own un worthiness and insufficiency, or by the seeming unsuit-
kbleness and insensibility of those to whom the appeal is made ? — T.
Ver. ZZ. — The attestation of Chrisfs works to his Divinity. The natural good sense
of the man born blind was sharpened by the experience through which he passed, and
by the controversy in which he was involved. Hence it was that several of his sayings
anticipate "the mature arguments of the most thoughtful defenders of the Christian
faith. The manner in which he here argues from the character of our Lord's works to
his Divine commission and authority, is deserving of all admiration. This is an argu-
ment as valid as, and perhaps more effective now than, when it was first spontaneously
propounded.
I. The bpiritual character of Christ's wohk proves his Divine origin and
POWER. God is a Spirit ; the realm of spirit is that which is to him of deepest interest.
It is evident that if the Son of God has visited earth, it must have been in order to
introduce principles of vitality and blessing into the spiritual existence of men. This
is exactly what Christ has undeniably been doing. To him men owe the enlighten-
ment of the mind by spiritual truth ; the new law of moral life ; the new motive of
Divine love ; the great distinctive social principle of self-denying benevolence ; the
effective consolation for human sorrow ; the true encouragement for those tempted to
depression and hopelessness ; the glorious piospect of the spiritual renewal of mankind ;
the mighty inspiration owing to the revelation of an immortal life.
II. The incomparable efficiency with which this work was done is proof of
Christ's Divine origin and authority. To appreciate this, we should compare the
work of Christ with that of others, e.g. with that of the most renowned of earth — con-
querors and kings, sages and religious leaders. How meagre their sway ! how transitory
their dominion I How rapidly have they become merely a memory, a name 1 On the
other hand, what moral significance has characterized the work of the Lord Jesus !
During his ministry, what transformations of character he wrought, what extreme and
desperate cases of sin and wretchedness he successfully dealt with 1 And, after his
ascension, " greater works " than these — which were yet equally his works — accompanied
the preaching of his gospil. Well might Julian the apostate exclaim, Vicisti, OaliUee I
Well might Napoleon acknowledge that the empire of Christ transcended all earthly
monarchies in true and lasting solidity and glory. If this Man were not of God, could
such results have attended and followed his earthly mission — fulfilled, as it was, upon
a scene so limited, in a period so brief, and in circumstances so lowly ?
III. The wide extent of our Lord's work is evidence of his Divinity. Even
during his three years of labour, Jesus brought blessing, not to Israelites alone, but to
Samaritans, Phcenicians, Greeks, and Romans. And when Pentecost inaugurated the
mission of the Church, then the descent of the Spirit and the utterances in many
tongues were a prediction of a universal religion. The middle wall of partition was
broken down. One new humanity was fashioned from diverse and seemingly discordant
materials— from Jews and from Gentiles. And Christianity has from that time onward
been proving its adaptation to man as man — to the barbarian and the civilized, to the
East and the West, to persons of all ages, ranks, and characters. The Son of man is
proving himself to be the Saviour of man.
TV. The Divine authority op Christ is supported by the perpetuity and by
THB EVBB-OROWING PREVALENCE OF HIS WORKS. Other systems are for a period, for a
generation, or for a century; "they have their day, and' cease to be." But Christ's
mighty works go forward as in an unbroken and ever-swelling procession, testifying to
their Author. His power to save and bless is as yet undiminished, and it is reasonable
to believe it to be inexhaustible. " This Man " has done, and is doing, all this 1 Who
can he be but the Son of the Eternal ?— T.
CH.IX. 1— 41.] THE GOSPEL AOCOEDINa TO ST. JOHN. 26
Vers. 35 — 38. — A heart made ready for faifh. In this interview the purposes of
Christ's lore with regard to this poor man were fully accomplished. The opening of
his bodily eyes, the trials to which he was afterwards subjected, led up to the con-
summation desired by his Benefactor. By gradual stages he had come to that point, at
which only a fuller revelation of the Lord was required, in order that his faith ipight
be perfected.
I. A MOMENTO0S QUESTION K0TJSB8 INTEREST AND HOPE. The man whosc eyes had
been opened had already acknowleged Jesus to be a Prophet. And now he, whose
claims had hitherto been but partially understood, was about to advance them in such
a manner as to elicit a full comprehension and a full admission of them on the part of
the disciple. Startled indeed must the poor man have been by the question, " Dost
thou believe on the Son of God?" This language opened up before his mind a new
vision, to behold which needed indeed a new illumination. It is clear tl^at the man
whose sight was restored had begun to see with the eyes of the fcpirit. Was he now
prepared to owe all to Jesus — ^to see all in Jesus?
II. The question is met by an inquibing, candid mind, and by a beady hbart.
1. An inclination to receive teaching is apparent in the inquiry, " Who is he ? " 2. A
reverential submission to the qualified Instructor may perhaps be discerned in his
deferential manner of addressing his Benefactor — " Lord ! " 3. A resolve to follow out
the dictates of reason and conscience is evident in the language, " tbat I might believe
on him." Let him but know the Divine, and he would hasten to jiresent his homage
and his faith.
III. The Divikb Savioub eeveals himselk 1. He declares that he is already
actually seen and known. The Son of God, who was seen by the man whose eyes were
opened, is, in a sense, seen and known, through his iucarnation and advent, by all to
whom'his gospel comes. 2. He condescends to stoop to the level of our capacity and
fellowship. He "talketh with" all who are willing to listen to his words, to welcome
his conversation and counsel. There is marvellous condescension and grace in the
revelation which Jesus makes of himself to all who are disposed to direct the eye of
the soul to his presence, the ear of the soul to his voice.
IV. The bagbb response of faith and worship. The unhesitating confidence and
confession here recorded were not unreasonable. Many causes concurred in bringing
about this spiritual attitude. The benefit the man himself had received, no doubt dis-
posed him to give his favourable attention to every representation made by Jesus of
himself. But the miracle was itself, at all events to him, conclusive evidence of the
superhuman authority of his Benefactor. The queries, denunciations, and reproaches
of the Pharisees had made him think more profoundly upon the mission, the character,
perhaps even the nature, of Jesus. And thus, when the Lord advanced his Divine
claim, the poor man was prepared, not only to admit that claim, but to welcome and
to rejoice in it. He could not suspect such a Being of vain egotism or of falsehood.
There was but one alternative. Jesus was what he declared himself to be — the Son of
God. And, this being the case, what more natural and reasonable than his confession
and his conduct ? He believed ; he worshipped. Less than thi.s would not have been
justifiable ; more than this would not have been possible. For in his implicit confidence
and in his devout homage this poor man anticipated the action of the Church of Christ
throughout aU time. Convinced by his own works of the justice of his claims, Christ's
people delight to confess his lordship and to live to his glory. — T.
Ver. 39. — Enlightening and blinding power. Christ's fiist coming to this world was
not for judgment, but for salvation. Vet it appears, again and again in the course of
his ministry, that judgment was a necessary incident of his teaching and authoritative
action. By him " the thoughts of many hearts were revealed." There was a virtue of
moral discrimination and separation in his ministry of which he himself was well
aware. Hence his assertion that whilst he brought sight to some who were blind, the
result of his coming was that some who boasted that they saw were proved to be
Bpiritually blind.
I. Chbist's bnlightenino powbk. 1. This power was exercised for the benefit of
the ignorant, the sinful, the helpless. The blind man, whose story is told in thli
chapter, is an example. He needed not only physical but spiritual sight. Hi§ know-
2« THE GOSPEL ACCOEDINQ TO ST, JOHN. [oh. it. 1— tL
ledge wag yery limited ; but it was in his favour that whatever knowledge he had, he
used aright. The blindness which befell Saul of Tarsus, in the crisis of his spiritual
history, was symbolical of that imperfection of spiritual vision of which he only became
conscious when Christ met him by the way. These two examples are from two opposite
extremes of society. 2, This power was exercised by the communication of truth,
accompanied by the influences of the enlightening Spirit, Gradually did Jesus reveal
himself to the man bom blind; by signs, by words, by his own gracious character.
'I'hus did light enter into that hitherto obscure nature, and penetrate all its recesses.
A heavenly influence called forth faith and reverence, gratitude and love. The mission
of the Messiah, as foretold by the prophet, included the recovering of sight for the
spiritually blind — a beneficent service which the Lord Jesus has been rendering from
the time of his earthly ministry onwards until now. In his light his people learn to
" see light."
II. Chbist's blinding poweb. 1. Although our Lord says that he came " that they
which see might become blind," It must not be supposed that this was the aim of our
Lord's mission to earth, in the same sense as were the diffusion of Divine light and the
impartation of spiritual vision. He said on one occasion that he came, not to send
peace on earth, but a sword ; yet we know that the main object of his coming was
that peace might prevail, although one necessary consequence of his work would be
that men should be divided against one another. 2. The explanation of the blinding
result of the Saviour's ministry is to be found in the action of a law dixinely appointed,
according to which those who have good brought near to them, and who are indifferent
to that good, have their indifference intensified into hatred. Neglect of privilege leads
to deprivation of privilege. It is said that organisms secluded for generations from the
light of day lose the organ of sight. So is it in spiritual relations. Such was the case
with those Pharisees who boasted of their spiritual discernment, but who in fact loved
darkness rather -than light, and abode in darkness until their spiritual vision was
quenched in blindness and the night of impenetrable gloom. — T,
Vers. 1—7. — The Uind man and the sight-giving Saviour. Notice this blind man —
I. In relation to the disciples. 1, To them he was a notorious object of retrihutive
justice. His blindness they regarded as a special punishment for some particular sin ;
they looked upon him, as Lot's wife of old, as a standing monument of iniquity, only
with this diSerence, he was alive, bearing his punishment on this side. Their notion
is, upon the whole, correct. Sin is punished, and sometimes in this world. 2, An object
of speculative curiosity. Suggesting a problem not easily solved, and a difiBculty which
they wish to he removed. In the light of popular Jewish teaching and also in that of
heathen teaching the difficulty stared tiiem. Of one thing they were certain, that his
blindness was a retributive punishment for sin — the sin of his parents or that of his
own. But which ? That it should he on account of the sins of his parents they could
easily understand ; but if on account of his own, how could this be when he was born
blind ? 3. An advantaijeoits object to present the question for solution to Jesus. The
blind man was probably well known to them, and they had often before discussed this
aspect of his blindness, with various results; but now here is an opportunity of a
final solution of the difficulty. They have fuU confidence in Jesus' ability and readiness
to clear the matter for ever, and they lost no time, but asked, "Master, which did
sin," etc. ? 4. An object who did not excite in them any practical sympathy. They
regarded him as the religious teachers of the nation generally would regard him — as the
child of sin, a monument of retributive justice, a subject for curious speculation ; and,
as far as they were concerned, they would leave him with feelings of proad contempt,
and satisfaction with their own state as compared with his,
II. In relation to Jesus. 1. To him he was an object who attracted his speciai
attention. " As he passed by, he saw a man," etc. How many passed by without
seeing him at all, and how many saw him with indifference I And probably the
disciples did not notice him before they saw the Master's attention fixed upon him.
He saw him first, and saw him as no one saw him before. He had many eyes fixed
u|io]i him, but never such as these ; ho had many a gaze from passers-by, but not one
oontalalDg such feelings, sentiments, and meaning as the one which was on him now.
S. Si Mm &• «MM tttt cm otiject qf retributive Justioe, bui a tpedaily letting em on
0H.IX.1— 4L] THE GOSPEL AOOOBDING TO BT. JOHN. 27
wAom to mantfeit Divine operation$. While fully »dmitting the law of retribution, he
excludes this case from the category, and at once removes the disciples' question (o)
from the speculative to the practical, (b) from the human standpoint to the Divine,
And although the blindness of this man could not be viewed entirely apart from sin,
yet to Christ it appeared as a special occasion to manifest Divine operations. (1) The
operation of Divine mercy. Where there is no misery, no mercy is needed ; and the
greater the misery, the greater and Diviner the mercy which relieves. This was a
special case of human mfsery, advantageous to a special display of Divine mercy. The
man was blind from his- birth. (2) The operation of Divine power. Where human
skill is helpless, the power which helps must be Divine. To restore tliis man to sight
no himian doctor could, nor even would sincerely make the attempt. His restoration
was evidently and gloriously the work of God. (3) The operation of Divine grace.
He had a mind requiring enlightenment, a soul in need of salvation, and this popular
child of sin presented a glorious opportunity for the display of redeeming grace. (4)
In this man Divine operations were signally manifested. God works continually, in
giving sight to men at first, and in an infinite variety of ways, but his operations are
unseen and unobserved ; but in this man they shine and blaze, so that all must see
them but the totally blind. They were manifested to the man himself, and through
him to others. (6) This man restored by Christ was a most convincing and attractive
specimen of Divine operations. He was so well known as being helplessly blind from
his birth, and was now about to bo even better known as perfectly restored by ^esus.
Thus he who was popularly thought to be a monument of sin and its terrible ^ '■n-
sequences, becomes the popular monument of Divine power, the convincing specimt.-
of Divine mercy, and the notorious advertisement of redeeming grace in Christ. Still,
he was only a specimen, extraordinary only in the manifestation, but quite ordinary
in the course of Divine operations. It is only the work of God, what he ever performs
in Christ. 3. To Christ this man was an object who vividly reminded him of his
mission on earth. (1) As a mission of real and untiring activity. " I must work," etc.
i2) As a mission involving a great variety of activities. " The works." Not one or a
ew, but many and various — as various as the physical and spiritvial wants of the
human family. (3) As a mission which is Divine and representative in its character.
" The works of him," etc. He never forgot the Divine and representative character of
his mission, involving special duties, obligations, and responsibilities in relation to him
who sent him. (4) As a mission which must be performed in due season. " While it
is day," etc. He had only a day, and with regard to his earthly life this was short.
Even in this hour of his triumph and brilliancy, in giving sight to the blind man, he
was reminded of its brevity. This very act hastened the approaching night. Those who
shine brightly on the night of the wicked world cannot expect a long day. (5) As a
mission in which his disciples had to share. " We " (the proper reading) " must work,"
etc. The Master and the disciples were one, and their mission one. He came not only
to work himself, but also to teach them to work. They were as yet apprentices, but
now it was time to begin to break them in under the yoke and remind them of their
duty, and all the more as day was drawing to a close. (6) As a mission the necessity
of its fulfilment was felt by him with increasing force. " We must," etc. This came
from his Divine commission, from human woe, from the greatness and importance of
the work, and the brevity of the time. Prom above, around, and from within came
the inspiration of his work, which found appropriate expression in " We must work,"
etc. 4. To Jesus this man was an object on whom he would give a practical illustration
of his mission. " When he had .spoken these things," etc. The speech ended in action,
and tlie action was in perfect keeping with the speech — a grand but most natural and
touching peroration. Christ taught his disciples by practical illustrations. The miracle
was a full answer to their question, and a practical specimen of his mission. (1) Meant
were used in the performance of the miracle. Sometimes he would exercise his Divine
power without the use of means at all, even without a word, only the fiat of his will ;
but here very few words are used — it is all action. " I must work." (2) The means
used were in themselves utterly inadequate to produce the ultimate end. Clay and
spittle and washing in the pool of Siloam. These means, however efficacious in popular
esteem, were utterly futile to give the man his sight. (3) These means, nevertheless,
were tuitahle to answer the md Jena had in view. He knew when uid when not to
28 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. n. 1—41
use means, and knew as well what means to use. He never thought that these would
bring the man to see outwardly, but they would help him to see inwardly. They
served best to strengthen his faith and give due publicity to the miracle. He could
not go to and return from Siloam without attracting attention. Jesus caused every
movement to serve some useful purpose ; thus the man began at once to manifest the
works of God. (4) The faithful use of the prescribed means answered the ultimate end
of Divine mercy and human want. The man's faith was strong and prompt.^ He was
not promised his sight, only told what so do; the rest he inferred. He believed and
obeyed, and the Divine energy came with the obedience. He washed, and came seeing.
He was born first blind, he was bom now seeing, and some saw tlie Divine glory
flashing from his eyes.
Lessons. 1. There are full compensations for all evil in the Divine economy. If
there is misery, there is Divine mercy. If some are bom blind, their blindness will
answer some benevolent purpose. There is One boni to help and give sight. Evil miist
ultimately serve goodness, and misery must glorify mercy. Divine compensations are
seen now, but to a greater extent hereafter. 2. The fact of human sin and misery it
not for carious speculation but for practical sympathy. The life of Christ was one of
benevolent activity rather than of idle speculation and theory. What right-minded
man, when a house is on tire, will stop to know its cause before doing all in his power
to put it out ? Bather than idly inquiring into the origin and mystery of hunaan evil
and misery, by every possible effort let sin be destroyed, and misery and sorrow be
alleviated, and with and after the effort will come satisfaction, and ultimately full light.
3. Qod answers tetter than we ash. Our requests may be idle and wrong, but the
answers are right and Divine. Still let us ask, and our mistakes will be rectified in the
Divine answers. We are glad that the disciples asked respecting the man's blindness.
The full reply is found in Christ's miracle of Divine mercy and might. 4. The humblest
means wre not to be despised if prescribed by Christ. From the human side Divine
means are apparently very inadequate, and even contemptible. The spittle and clay
and washing in the pool of Siloam for Jesus and the blind man were very humble
beginnings, but led to a glovious result. Faithful use of divinely prescribed means
were the channel through which Divine energy came to the man which resulted in his
sight, and through the same channel of faith and obedience Divine illumination will
ever come to the soul. — B. T.
Vers. 29 — 34. — A noble defence. Notice —
I. A MARVELLOUS IGNORANCE. " Why herein is a marvellous thing," etc. Their
ignorance of the origin and history of Jesus was marvellous considered in reference to
the persons themselves. Ignorant : (a) While they really knew so much. 'I'ho sum ol
their general religious knowledge must be considerable, (b) While they professed and were
supposed to know so much. They professed to know all about the Divine cuuimunica-
tions to Moses ; professed to know the less, but profoundly ignorant with regard to the
greater, (e) While they ought to know so much. From their religious training and
position as the religious leaders of the people, they ought to know much. Their
ignorance was marvellous when considered in relation to the case before them, very
marvellous indeed in the light of the following considerations so lucidly and cogently
brought under their notice by the man that was blind. 1. The testimony of the miracle.
(1) The miracle was an unquestionable fact. As proved by the man himself, by his
parents, by his neighbours; and the genuineness of the miracle was admitted by the
council. (2) It was an unquestionable fact, unquestionably involving the exercise of
Divine power. This was generally admitted. Admitted by the opponents themselves.
" Give glory to God." (3) The Divine power was unquestionably exercised by Christ.
" He opened mine eyes." This connects him most intimately with the Source of Divine
power, if it does not point to him as that Source. 2. The usual way of Ood's impar-
tation of his Divine power. (1) It was imparted in answer to prayer. This was the
law by which God's extraordinary power was imparled to the prophets and seers of old.
In answer to prayer. (2) It was imparted only in answer to the prayer of the devotional
and obedient. Notorious sinners are not in the habit of prayer, and their prayers as
such would not be answered. If they prayed so as to be answered, they would cease to
be notorious sinners. " Qod hearetb not sinners : but if any man be the worshipper,"
DH. IX. 1—41.] THE GOSPBli A(XX)RDINa TO ST. JOHN,
eto. (3) This mU of Divitie impartation of power was ledl and generally known.
" We know," etc As if he were to say, " Even I know this, much more yon."
(4) Ignorance of the Divine character and origin of Christ was marvellous. " He opened
mine eyes." 3. The uniqueness of the miracle. (1) It was unique in relation to the
general experience of that age. Such a miracle was never witnessed by any one present,
nor by any one then living. (2) Unique in relation to the oral and written history of
the world. " Since the world began was it not heard," eto. History, oral or written,
ancient or modern, does not furnish such an instance of Divine power in sight-giving
as this. (3) Unique in relation to the miraculous performance of the great men of the
past. As compared with theirs, it stands alone and singular. " It was not heard that
any man." Jewish history could boast of the names of great men who through God
performed works of wonder and might ; but this eclipsed them all. Not even Moses nor
Elijah performed such an act with regard to sight. (4) Unique in \t& peculiar character
and originality. An equal amount of power had been displaj^ed before, but not in the
same way. Defective sight had been restored, and total blindness had been removed ;
but never a man who had been born blind had his eyes opened. This was reserved for
Jesus. This original and new miracle was reserved for a new dispensation — a dispen-
sation of spiritual insight and Divine illumination. And if Christ was a sinner, he was
more original, eminent, and Divine than the most illustrious and boasted saints of all
past ages. 4. The temporal circumstances of Christ. These were such as to be most
unfavourable to impress the public and gain a personal reputation. Temporal circum-
stances are generally favourable and productive of this. Such as: (1) An illustriout
lineage. To come down upon society in the splendour of an illustrious descent goes far
with it. But this Jesus did not. He appeared as the Son of Joseph and Mary. True,
he descended from David ; but this was scarcely known, and the connection was so
distant that the efTect would be little. (2) Great wealth. This has a great influence.
This Jesus had not. He was the reputed Son of a poor carpenter, and was a poor
Carpenter himself, and as such appeared before the public and was known by them.
(3) The patronage of the great. This goes very far in gaining popularity and reputa-
tion. But Jesus had not this. From his first public appearance the aristocratic
element of the nation was against him, and the social and religious leaders of the people
were his deadly foes. (4) The fame of learning. This is a most powerful element of
success ; but Jesus had not this. He was not brought up in any of the celebrated
schools of his nation, nor sat at the feet of any illustrious rabbi. It is not known that
he ever enjoyed the advantage of any school besides that of home, and he was notorious
as a Teacher who had no human learning. From the poor village and the common
workshop he emerged as the teacher of his nation. All his outward circumstances were
against him, so that it was well said, " If this man were not of God, he could do
nothing." But, in spite of his disadvantage, his doings &r eclipsed those of his most
eminent predecessors, which plainly and irresistibly leads to the inference of the man
that was born blind that he was of God — he was indeed Divine.
II. The most obstinate kbligious biqotkt. Their marvellous ignorance was the
offspring of the heart rather tlian of the head, of the will rather than the understanding.
It was the offspring of the most obstinate religious bigotry whose character their conduct
here reveals. 1. As most hitter in spirit. " Thou wast altogether," eto. This language
is : (1) Most slanderotis. A slander on the man, on his parents, on the Creator who
made him, and on the Saviour who healed him. The charge was not true. (2) Extremely
mean. To upbraid the man with a calamity for which he was not responsible, and to
rake up in his breast the painful reminiscences of a misery which he had so long
endured, but which happily now had passed away, (3) Most irrelevant. It is not to
the point. What mattered it whether the man was born in sins or not? That had
nothing to do with the fact of the miracle, and the character and claims of him who had
performed it. 2. As most proad in spirit. "And dost thou teach us ?" The spirit evinced
here is : (1) Most contemptuous. " Dost thou," etc. ? Contempt of all who dare to differ
from their opinion is characteristic of bigots. This man not only differs from the cotmcil
but teaches them ; their contempt is unbounded. (2) Most proudly self-satisfying.
" Teach us ! " (3) Most unphilosophic and unprogressive. What philosopher worthy
of the name would disdain to listen with respect to one who was the object of such a
wonderful operation, in whose eyei were still rays of Divine light, and in whose sonl
80 THE GOSPEL ACOORDINO TO ST. JOHN, [gh.ix.1— 41,
was still burning the inspiration of such an experience? Where is the man in his right
mind who would not listen with attention and due deference to such a tale? The
members of the Jewish council listened with consummate pride and seething contempt,
proving themselyes to be most unphilosophic, ungodlikejUnprogressive, and blind to tlie
greatest and most brilliant light. 3. At most intolerant in spirit. " And they cast him
out." And for what? For exercising the right of private judgment, and respectfully
expressing his honest convictions and defending the truth. Their conduct was:
(1) Most weak. Mentally and morally weak. They could not refute his arguments nor
stand the light. (2) Most unreasonable and vmjust. A Church has a right to exclude
those who are immoral, and violating its fundamental principles. But this was not the
case here. A coming Messiah was the most fundamental doctrine of the Jewish Church.
This man was excluded for accepting him. (3) Most orttd. (4) Most fatal. When
a Church begins to persecute, it begins to cease to exist; when it excludes the light o<
truth, it cannot last long. — ^B. T.
Vers. 35—38. — A happy meeivng. We hare in this passage —
I. Jbsub in beaboh foe the outcast. 1. He had- lost sight of him for a while.
He had not seen him since he went on the path of duty and obedience to the pool ol
Siloam. It was well that they should be apart for some time. Important purposes
were thus answered. But neither Jesus nor the man was idle. Jesus was about his
Father's business ; and the man that had been blind, according to Christ's statement,
was busily manifesting the works of God. Establishing the miracle and pointing to
the claims and Divinity of its wonderful Performer. 2, Jesus sought him. If out of
sight, he was not out of mind, " Jesus heard that," etc. He listened for him ; his ear
was on the watch for intelligence respecting him. If you listen attentively you will
hear soon. Jesus sought him in distress, when his need was greatest. 3. Be found
him. "Seek, and ye shall find." Jesus knew this law and obeyed it. No one sought
so sure to find as he. He never gave up the search till it resulted in finding, whether
for the lost piece of silver or for the wandering sheep. Why did he seek this man ?
(1) Thtre was a fellow-feeling. He heard that they had cast him out. By the law of
sympathy he looked out for him. He was an outcast from the synagogue himself; he
had now a companion. (2) The man sought him. We are not told this by the recorder,
but we know it. He was full of Christ since he had received his sight. He could
scarcely see nor talk of anything else. His mind and heart yearned for him. Especially
now in his distress and persecution. (3) Jesus was anxious to succour and help him..
Tu give him his soul's want and his heart's desire — what would make him satisfied and
happy. He knew that he needed and desired a spiritual Guide and a Saviour, and he
hastened to give to him himself. Jesus is a Friend in need, and the need of the guilty
and weary soul.
II. Jesus' demand roB faith. " Dost thou believe," etc. ? 1. Hiis is the reason-
able and natural demand of the miracle. Faith in its great Performer. It was a Divine
act of mercy, and was eminently calculated to inspire iaith — to open the eye of the soul
to see the spiritual, the eternal, and the Divine. Christ looked out for fruit after
cultivation and sowing. 2. A most worthy Object of faith is introduced. "The Son
of God." The human soul should have an object of faith suitable to its spiritual
condition and wants, and worthy of its native dignity and high capacities. Such an
Object is here introduced — the Son of God, who also is the Son of man, whom faith can
grasp, and being grasped will elevate the soul and fill it with satisfaction and joy.
3. A simple test of adherence is only required. " Dost thou believe," etc. ? The
memory is not taxed, the understanding is not burdened, but the willing acceptance of
the heart, or faith, is made the test of adherence and the bond of union. It is very
simple and easy, and yet most effective. " Dost thou believe? " — that is alL
III. Faith ih pbayee. This was the prayer of faith inspired by the demand of
Jesus. 1. The prayer is to theproper object. " Lord." Although the man's knowledge
of Jesus was limited, yet he knew sufficient to appeal to him for more light He felt
confident that he who opened his eyes could and would give him greater illnmination
still, 2. The prayer is for a necessary revelation. " Who is he?" The elementary
exercise of feith requires some elementary knowledge of its object. We are not expected
to belleTC on a SkTlour we know nothing or but little ot Christ requires feith, and faith
aB.iz.1— IL] THE GOSPEL ACCOEDINO TO ST. JOHN. »1
recinireg knowledge, and no sooner is it bom than it begins to ask questions respecting
its object, and the first is, " Who is he? " He is worth inquiring after. The choice of
the object of faith is most important ; this man very properly prays for light to choose.
3. The prayer i$ made in the proper spirit. The spirit of reverence, importunity, and
readiness to believe and accept. " Who is he,' that I might believe ? " Not that I
might consider and think over it ; but let me know the Son of Grod, and I will believe
in him. He prayed for knowledge for a practical and for the highest purpose — to
believe.
ly. Faith's fbateb anbwebed. 1. It toot answered at once. The man was
fortunate enongh to ask the question respecting the Son of Qod, " Who ia he ? " to the Son
of Gk>d himself, and who could answer it so well and so readily. There is no delay in
the transmission of the prayer, nor in the return of the reply. The prayer was eager,
and the answer quick, 2. ITie anstaer vxis very modest. " Thou hast both seen him,
and it is he that," etc. Modesty is ever characteristic of true greatness, and was charac-
teristic of Jesus. Often he preferred the third person to the first in speaking of himself.
In heavenly and Divine society he thought it not robbery to be eqaal with Ood, but in
the form of a servant he naturally felt and manifested the modesty of a servant,
especially in revealing to the soul his real glory and position as the Sonaof GK>d and the
Saviour of the world. Genuine faith feels modest in the presence of its genuine object,
and its genuine object feels modest in the presence of genuine faith. The mutual
recognition produces the natural and modest blush of virgin love. 3. The answer
revealed tine Son of God as nearer to the man tha/n he perhaps expected. We say
" perhaps," for there was but a thin veil between him and the full recognition of Jesus.
Doubtless he believed him already to be the greatest prophet that ever lived, but had
not as yet known him as the Son of God and the promised Messiah, and scarcely
expected to find him so near. Faith often finds its object nearer than expected. When
faith is intense and eager, the Son of God, the Savioiir, is present then, and reveals
himself.
V. Faith's confession. 1. It is very prompt. If Christ's revelation of himself
surprised the man at all, the surprise was most agreeable and sweet. The revelation
did not damage the interest of Jesus nor retard the movements of faith, but rather
improved the one and hastened the other. There was not a moment's hesitation, but
straight and swift as an arrow's course faith flew to embrace and confess Jesus as the
Son of GJod and her sovereign Lord. " Lord, I believe." 2. It is very short. All the
questions and answers which passed between our Lord and the man were characteris-
tically brief. It was business and not talk. Intense 'aith, being the concentrated
sentiments and a decoction of the truest feelings of the heart, occupies but little time
and language in expression. Some of the most important transactions between faith
and her fondest object are very brief. Intense earnestness wastes not itself in words.
3. It is very decisive and fuXl. " Lord, I believe." In an ocean of language you may
not find a drop of thought, while in a few drops of language you may find an ocean
of meaning and reality. This man's confession of faith is as short as it can well be,
but is quite as comprehensive' and hearty. This short confession contains a long and
a full faith. It is full of heart and soul, full of submissive and willing obedience, and,
better than all, it is full of Christ.
VL Faith woBsnippiNa. "And he worshipped him." 1, An act of overwhelming
gratitude. 2. An act of the profoundest reverence. 3. An act involving the highest
exercise <^ faith. The man could speak no more, his heart was too full for speech.
The attitude of prayer alone suited his condition and shall alone express his feelings ;
and, overburdened with the splendour and love of the Son of God and the delight of
finding him, he falls before him and worships. We gladly leave him there, and disturb
him not. Gladly do we leave faith at the feet of her Lord in the glow of devotion,
in the glory of worship, and in the ecstasies of Divine fellowship. What passed between
the soul and her Saviour was too sacred to be recorded in our Gospels, but was faithfully
recorded in the gospel of eternal life.
Lessons. L Comparatively trivial occurrences are often the occasions of the greatest
results. The ejection of this man who was bom blind and cured by Jesna was tht
occasion ot the founding of the Christian Church. To this outcast Jesus first revealed
himself as the universal Object of faith, and faith in him as the tost of adherene* mi
32 THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINQ TO ST. JOHN. [oh. n. 1—41.
fellowiUp, In tliis sense the outcast was the first member of the Christian society.
The Jewish Church failed to fulfil its mission and embrace its own Messiah and the
BaTionr of the world, hence the establishment of the Christian society, and the ultimate
secession of Christ and his followers from the Jewish for ever. 2. What was considered
at the time a painful loss may ultimately prove to be the greatest gain. The practical
ejection of this man from the religious privileges of Judaism was to him doubtless a
great trial and a serious disadvantage, but when he found Christ he found infinitely
more than he had lost. Cast out from the ship of Judaism into an angry sea to take
his chance, but the surging waves threw him on the " Book of ages " — a most happy
exchange, from a sinking ship to a high and solid rock. 3. When Jesus is on the look
out for faith, and faith for him, a quick bargain is struck when they meet. Such was
the case here. 4. Faith often gets much more than its highest expectation. This man
defended Jesus of Nazareth, but found in him the Son of God. There are sweet
surprises in the experience of faith, and happy fortunes in spiritual merchandise. In
• snort time this poor man found an eternal fortune. — H. T.
Ver. 4. — The supreme Worker and his opportunity. " I must work the works of him
that sent me, while it is day : the night cometh, when no man can work." This, like so
many of the memorable sayings of our Lord,is an incidental one, arising out of the circum-
stances of the hour. On a sabbath day in autumn — the last autumn of his earthly life
— our Lord paused as he passed through the streets of Jerusalem to look at a blind
beggar, known to be blind from his birth. The sight was sad enough, but instead of
exciting the pity of Jesus' disciples, it seems only to have awakened their speculative
curiosity. Taking it for granted, as was usual in their days, that special suffering must
needs be a retribution for special sin, they asked their Master the question, " Who was
to blame for this man's blindness? " Was be sent eyeless into the world for some fault
of his own, or was he suffering for transgressions of his parents ? Our Lord put the unwise
question aside. The disciples were far from the mark. There was a wider and deeper
philosophy of suffering than they were dreaming of, and for the calamity before them
there was more than sufficient reason in this, that the man's blindness was now to be
the occasion of God's signal mercy. Christ, therefore, refuses to be drawn into any
fruitless and bootless discussions regarding the origin of evil either physical or moral.
This was not his mission into the world. He had come amongst us to triumph over
evil, not to explain it, and so he says to his disciples, " I must work the works of him,"
etc. No saying of Christ's brings his true manhood more distinctly before us than
these words do. Before he could utter them he must have " emptied himself of his
glory, and taken upon him the form of a servant." There were times, indeed, in his
ministry when he used language which could only become the Son of God, as when he
spoke of the glory which he had with the Father before the world was. But here
he speaks with equal plainness as the Son of man, in all things made like unto his
brethren. We can never forget that Christ's mission into the world was unparalleled,
even as he stands alone in his relation to the Father. Still, it was in our nature that he
accomplished this whole work of his. He did not seem to be a man, he was " the Man
Christ JesHS." These words, therefore, reveal to us the spirit, the motive, the principle ,
of the only perfect human life that ever was lived, and it is in this respect that they
set him forth as our Example.
L Our Lord here distinctly acknowledges a will higher than his own, and
tells us that in laying out his earthly life this will was his guiding star. He had all the
sensibilities of a sinless human being. He not only knew by experience the urgencies
of hunger and thirst, and longed for rest from exhausting toil, but he loved congenial
society like that of the family of Bethany. How must he have recoiled from the cou-
tradiction of sinners I How sensitively must he have shrunk from contact with vic«
and squalor I But he allowed not such natural feelings, pure as they were, to reign
supreme among his motives, or interfere with his life-work. " Even Christ pleased not
himself." " I came down from heaven," he said, " not to do my own will, but the will
of him that sent me." Here, surely, there are great, though simple, lessons for us alL
In our daily lives we feel the force of a hundred different motives. We are swayed by
our own tastes, by the example and opinions of others, by the force of outward circum-
stances ; but do w« see rising above all these, and piercing thr^gh them, and shedding
OB. IX. 1—41.] THE GOSPEL ACOOBDING TO ST. JOHN. 33
a light over them, the will of our Father in heaven ? We are sent into the world with
different gifts and capacities. "We find ourselves placed in widely different stations and
spheres. But have we laid it to heart that God has a purpose in placing us here, and
that this mysterious gift of life is not like a freehold — an independent possession — still
less like a plaything which we may do what we like with, hut that it is a trust from
above, a stewardship under its Giver ? Plainly this was Christ's view of life, and to
reveal this to us in light and clearness, by example as well as by precept, was one
great end for which he came into the world. For he came not only to atone for our
sins and to reconcile us to God, but also to show us, as it had never been seen before,
the meaning and purpose of life, connecting the whole of it with a perfectly holy and
righteous will. Multitudes without number have realized this in their own experience,
and thus the humblest lives have been ennobled, and the busiest lives consecrated
by a motive and an influence not of this world. Oh! if we would work without
becoming the slaves of our work, if we would enjoy our freedom without being ensnared
by it, we can only do so as the servants of God. Have you learned this great life-lesson
from Christ? Let no one say that because our Lord's work was necessary for the
redemption of the world, therefore ours is of no consequence. On the contrary, it is
as important for us to do the will of God in our sphere as it was for Christ to do it in
his, and assuredly he will impart his Spirit to all who come to him in faith and take
his yoke upon them. And how do these words of Christ, " I must work," speak to us
of the sacvedness of duty 1 They show that the idea of obligation was distinctly
present to his mind. He felt that it was right to obey his God and Father who had
sent him, and instead of this feeling being irksome or burdensome, it was one source of
his spiritual strength. " He put on righteousness as a breastplate." On the one hand
his love to God did not make his obedience seem superfluous, and on the other hand
the idea Of duty never chilled nor lessened his love. He showed how love and obedience
are like two fair blossoms which spring from the same root. And what is that root ? It
is the life of God in the soul of man. Here, again, " let the same rnind be in you
which was also in Christ Jesus." Seek to cherish and cultivate the spirit of loving
obedience. If Christ, by his infinite sacrifice, has reconciled you to God, redeemed
you from the curse of the Law, it is that you may serve his Father and yours from the
heart. If he has stripped obligation of its terrors, he has strengthened instead of
weakening its power. " This is the love of God, that ye keep his commandments."
II. The text teaches us that Christ felt the preciousness of opportunity and
THE VALUE OF TIME. He Calls Ws earthly life day, and its termination he calls the
coming night, when no man can work. This language of his cannot be mistaken. He
foresaw, indeed, with perfect clearness the glory which awaited him, and the unending
work which he was to accomplish by his Spirit in tlie ages to come ; but his life-work
here below was the necessary and divinely appointed preparation for it all. The seed-
time was essential to the harvest, and it was a limited seed-time, not to be repeated.
It was only in the present that Christ's words of life, fresh from his human lips, could
be spoken ; that his acts of personal kindness and compassion could be performed ; that
his example, destined to be so infinitely fruitful, could be set forth. And therefore he
prized that present, the day allotted to him, and not in feverish haste, but in all the
calmness of spiritual strength, he took possession of it, and used it for his Father's
glory. " The night cometh, when no man can work." Taken by themselves, these
words only express a simple fact which no one would think of proving or dream of
denying. Life comes but once to each of us,and however we may spend it or misspend
it, no portion of it will return to be spent over again. We cannot prolong it at will,
or persuade it to linger. Relentlessly it moves like the hand of a clock or the shadow
on the sun-dial. All our earthly activities, our duties, our charities, our services in the
cause of God and man, must needs be included in it. When the night cometh they
must cease. Every man who has any earnestness of purpose about him has felt the
stimulus of such thoughts as these. Whatever his pursuits may be, whether the
objects he takes an interest in are of a lower or higher kind, his heart often whispers
to itself, " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do," etc. Nay, fiirther, many an idler
has been rebuked into activity, and many a dreamer wakeaed up out of his useless
reveries, just by the thought fastening itself upon him that he is allowing life, with all
its opportunities, to Blip away, and that it will never return. Now, if you have entered
toas—a, *
M THE GOSPEL AOCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. a. 1—41.
on the life of Ohrist's disciples, does this motive lose its force? Surely not. You h»T«
learned from your Master the true worth and importance of life, and you have been
taught to spend it under the eye of "the Father who, without respect of persons,
judgeth according to every man's work." Whatever be your station or sphere, this ia
the case. Here and now, within the narrow limits of the present, you have your
opportunities of service allotted to you, your only sphere for " works of faith and
labours of love." And these opportunities, if wasted or let slip, can never be recalled.
Why should they be lost? These words contain a motive which no Christian can
afford to lose. Does any one say, " It does not apply to me or to the multitudes
who are already tasked to the uttermost by the necessary cares of life and the item
demands of business " ? Ah I God is not like a hard master, reaping where he has not
sown, and gathering where he has not strawed. If your necessary toil is performed in
a Christian spirit, in the spirit of a faithful servant, it will be accepted as a free-will
offering. Even to the slaves at Colosse the Apostle Paul says, " Whatsoever ye do, do
it heartily as to the Lord, and not to men. ... Ye serve the Lord Christ." Yet surely
in the busiest life there is room for deeds of kindness and words of sympathy, for giving
the cup of cold water, for proffering the timely advice, for doing many things for Christ's
s&ke which no man can require at your hands. But especially those whose position
in the world is independent, and who have much freedom of choice as to how they shall
employ their time, should lay these words to heart. It is you who are most of all
tempted to lead a desultory life. Society, as it is called, seems to expect it of you.
People suppose that you must have time for every trifling engagement, and it is go
much easier to let each day be passively surrendered in this way than to redeem the
time for any definite purpose. But how should this one thought, " the night cometh,"
help you resolutely to resist or break through such petty distractions! It is but a
portion, after all, of this brief life that yon can call your working day. Necessary cares,
needful rest, and relaxation must have their share. Sickness may at any time swallow
up yoa know not how much of the remainder. See that yon consecrate your yet
unbroken daylight to the service of God and man. You have every motive to do so,
and you may well be stimulated and encouraged by the example of many around you ;
but oh, how affecting the thought that your Master, when he dwelt on earth, said to
his disciples, " I mVfSt work the works of him that sent me, while it is day : the night
Cometh, when no man can work " 1 — G. B.
Ver. 39. — Spontaneous Judgment and sdf -enacting verdict. "And Jesui said. For
judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see," eto. If the
words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened in a sure place, we need not
wonder that the words of Christ himself should sometimes be startling in their sharp-
ness— should pierce like a two-edged sword. The text before us is an example of this,
and though it contains a paradox which in substance occurs frequently in the Bible,
it is expressed here with peculiar point and severity.
I. First of all, look at these wokds in the light of the occasion which called
THEM FORTH. They are the solemn verdict of our Lord on the opposite effects of the
work of mercy which he had just wrought in Jerusalem. He had opened the eyes of
A blind beggar by sending him to wash at the pool of Siloam. The miracle had excited
attention, wonder, discussion, and ere long the thoughts of many hearts were revealed
by it. On the man himself the immediate effect of the miracle was remarkable. It
brought out the simplicity of his character, and his loyalty to his Benefactor and to
■ truth. He already knew Jesus by name, and in the joy and wonder of his heart he
rightly concluded that the common report was true, and that Jesus was a Prophet. But
a severe ordeal awaited him. The great religious guides of his nation summoned him
into their presence, and with all the skill of practised casuists they urged him to
disown his Benefactor or deny his Divine power. Still the man stood firm, and rather
than prove false to his conviction that Jesus was a Prophet, he submitted to the terrible
sentence of excommunication. Ere long our Lord heard of this good confession, sought
out and found the man who made it, and revealed to him the mighty seoiet that he was
the Sou of God. And at his words the smoking flax of true faith burst into flame im
the poor man's heart, and he fell down and worshipped the Messiah. Thus, in •
■piritual u well m a natural sense, Jesus gave sight to the blind. B«t now what ww
at EL 1—41.] THE GOSPEL ACCOBDmG TO ST. JOHN. 86
the effect of the same miracle on the Pharisees? Had they known nothing of Jesus
before, it was surely enough in itself to awe their minds and prepossess them in his
faTour. Common generosity, common fairness, would have required this. But, in fact,
Jesus had been before them for well-nigh three eventful years, so that they were far
from ignorant of his character and career. He bore all the marks of a prophet, and
more than a prophet. He spake as never man spake, and they knew it. He healed the
sick, cleansed the lepers, raised the dead, cast out devils, and they knew it. His life was
one of perfect moral loveliness and unapproachable moral grandeur, so that none of
them dared to reply when he said, as he had a right to say, nay, as he was bound to say,
"Which of you oonvinceth me of sin?" Yet, with some exceptions, these Pharisees
had shut their eyes to this great Light that had come into the world, and each .new
exhibition of it made them blinder stilL They had even said, " He casteth out devils
through Beelzebub, the prince of the devils." And see how they dealt with the work
of mercy which had just been wrought in their streets. They had sifted and resifted all
the circumstances, and it was well they did so.
" Truth, like a torch, the more 'tia shook it shinei.''
But when the great fact had become patent to all, they wilfully shut their eyes to its
meaning, and wreaked their hatred of the Holy One on the lowly object of his mercy ;
and all the time these Pharisees boasted that they had the key of knowledge, and in
their own esteem were the clearest-sighted men of their day. And now the two parties
stood before our Lord — the poor blind beggar who had entered the kingdom of light,
and the supercilious Pharisees who were drifting further and further away from it.
Thus is explained the seeming paradox of the text, " For judgment," etc
n. Eteb since Christ and his gloeious gospbl came into thb world these
WORDS HAVE BEEN EECBiviNQ FBE8H FULFILMENTS. Among his greatest titles are
these, " the Light of the world," " the Sun of Righteousness ; " and one of the greatest
objects of his mission is to give light to them that sit in darkness, to deliver men from
pernicious error and bewildering doubt, to clear up and answer the questions that are
»\ike urgent for the old and the young, for the learned and the unlearned, declaring to
us why we are placed here, and what destiny awaits us, and above all showing us the
path of life. I need only add that our Lord's claims to do this are partly based on
the great open standing wonder of his life and death and resurrection, and partly on
the intrinsic power of his gospel itself — his words, which are " spirit and life." But how
do people dead with this great light that has come into the world ? Some accept it
gladly in early life, even in the first dawnings of intelligence; and some are sooner or
later brought to accept it, after much providential discipline and many mental struggles.
But one thing is very noteworthy. Both the former and the latter accept it humbly
and thankfully. They give to God in Christ all the praise. The very light they
receive reveals to them by contrast the natural darkness of their minds, and they know
how that darkness would again enwrap them were they left to themselves. Hence, so
far from being proud of their spiritual vision, they habitually pray " that the eyes of
their understanding may be enlightened," and they at least can set their seal to this
word of Christ, " I am come . . . that they that see not might see." Surely there is
grace and truth in this saying of Christ fur each one who feels how blind he is by nature
to the mystery of God's light and love. Is it strange that some consciousness of this
blindness — sad and painfid as it is — should be the beginning or the accompaniment of
a good work in you ? It is not, it cannot be, a state to rest in — " a land of darkness
and of the shadow of death" — ^but it brings you practically within the sweep of Christ's
mission. He came " to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the prison,
and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house." Tours is a case for the great
Physician, for the mighty Deliverer and Restorer. Qo to him in the simplicity of faith
and prayer ; for this is the method of bis grace, to he found of them that seek him.
You have heard how he hath revealed himself to others. Tell him that a cloud yoa
cannot sweep away, a veil you cannot lift, comes between you and him. He will be
faithful to his promises. For you also " he will destroy the face of the covering cast
oTer all nations, and the veil that is spread over all people." " With thee, 0 Lord, ii
the fountain of life; in thy light we shall see light." But, ssd to say, there is another
•Itemative. Too nany continue nneonscious of their darkness. We vucj pul Mid^
30 THE GOSPEL iCCOEDING TO ST. JOHN. im. ix. 1—41.
for the present open scofTers and presamptuons sinners, who make no secret of It that
they hate the light and love the darknesB, and who can scarcely keep their tempers
when sacred things are mentioned in their presence. There is no need to speak of
such as glory in their shame, and sport themselves with their own deceivings, and sear
their consciences as with a hot iron. The text does not apply probably to these, but to
a different class. There are men who are neither attracted nor gladdened by the Light
of the world, and in whose case the chief reason is that they turn a cold and critical and
unhumbled eye on the Object of faith. Ah 1 were they to listen to some of the graver
whisperings of their own consciences, which we believe are the strivings of God's Spirit
within them, they might become conscious of want and darkness; but they cannot bear
this. Dismissing such feelings as unworthy of them, they persist in saying, " We see ! "
Instead of looking up to Christ with the reverence due to One who is so immeasurably
exalted above them, and who, in all that he is and all that he has done, is so wondrous
an exception to the whole human race, they rather seek to weigh him in their own
poor balances and assign him a place in their own narrow system. They must needs
find some explanation of his miracles which would then be no miracles, and of the
mysteries of his kingdom which would then be a mere province of the kingdom of
nature. And is it at all wonderful that the gospel should be foolishness to such, and
that the more they cherish such a state of mind the less fit they should be to proSt by
the gr( at Light which yet shines around them ? By an inevitable consequence (if God
prevent not) their prejudices become stronger and their eyes become blinder. When
God's hand is lifted up, they will not see. VVhen his Spirit works in the hearts and
lives of others, some explanation — perhaps a very shallow one — suffices for them.
Conversion they will call a reaction from one extreme to another ; heavenly tempers,
even happy death-beds, the effects of a sanguine temperament ; the spread of Christ's
kingdom the mere contagion of enthusiasm. But thus the words of Christ are still
verified, " I am come . . . that they which see might be made blind." For there is such
a thing as being " wise in our own eyes, and prudent in our own sight." It is an old
warning, " Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory
in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches." Ah, if the pride of wealth is
a blinding thing, so that it is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven ;
if the pride of power or social position is a deliision and a snare ; — so it is with the
pride of human wisdom. Strange to say, it is not seldom found among men who, by
whatever standard you estimate them, are no wiser than their fellows ; just as, on the
other hand, some of the greatest minds have been the humblest. But wherever this
pride of fancied wisdom reigns, it blinds the eye to the glory of the Eedeemer. If you
think } ou can look down, as it were, from above on Christ and his grace ; if your
ambition is to
" Sit as a god holding no form of creed,
But contemplating all ; "—
you must needs be in a false and perilous position. It is not thiu that you can hold
communion with the Holy One. Christ has no blessing for the self-sufficient, no healing
for the whole. Remember his words, " I thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed
them unto babes." Hence —
III. These words teach us the obavb besfonbibilitt of havino to do with
Christ. " For judgment he is come into the world." Not yet for final judgment and
retribution; that is reserved for the last day. But one inevitable result of his appearing
among men has ever been to test and prove them, and to manifest the secrets of their
hearts. And this must be so ; for he is the supreme Revelation of God — of his holiness
and truth, of his grace and love, of all that makes up his glory. Even in the depths
of his humiliation this was the case. Think of the day when he stood arraigned as a
Prisoner before the Jewish and the Roman tribunals ; surely it was he, betrayed and for-
saken as he was, who sat in reality on the judgment-seat, while Annas and Caiaphas,
and Herod and Pilate, and priests and people, passed in review before him, and were
weighed in his balances and found wanting. And so it must ever be as each human
soul is brought face to face with Jesus Christ. Ah 1 some of you may think that you
are judging him, but all the time it is he that is judging you. If you will not humblj
oa. IX. 1—41.] THE GOSPEL ACCOBDING TO ST. JOHN, 87
acknowledge your poverty and ignorance, and thankfully accept his grace, it U a righteoui
thing that he ehould leave you to become blinder than before. His glorious gospel
cannot leave you as it found you. It must be the savour of life onto life, or the savour
of death unto death. And hence the solemn words which Jesus spoke of some of the
men of his day, " If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin: but now
they have no cloak for their sin." This must be so. Yon cannot escape from Christ.
His love and grace cannot be trifled with. " God is not mocked." You remember
that the declared purpose of his mission is one of infinite mercy. " God sent not his
Son into the world to condemn th« world ; but that the world through him might be
saved."— G. B.
Vers. 1 — 3. — Manifetting tht worht of Ood. Jesus had Just been, as we should
reckon, in danger. If a furious crowd had taken up stones to cast at us, we should
have been too much concerned for our safety to notice people by the way. Of course
Jesus was in no real danger. His time was not yet come. His whole demeanour was
worthy of the sublime utterance, " Before Abraham was, I am," Notice —
I. What bobt of object attracted the attention of Jesus. A blind man,
blind from birth, so known possibly from a label on his breast. Such a one might not
attract attention from the disciples, at least not at first. As strangers comparatively in
Jerusalem, their attention would be arrested by the splendours and novelties of the
capital city. We remember how they were impressed by the huge stones with which
the temple walls were built. Jesus did not go about the world as a sight-seer ; he went
about as a Doer of good. The blind man was to Jesus a far more interesting sight than
any building. We may be sure Jesus looks down on the world in the same spirit
to-day. And surely we also, if we claim to have any abundance of the Spirit of Jesus
in us, will also note all such as are here represented-by the man blind from his birth.
We must note the blind rather than those that see, the crushed and sorrowing rather
than those who are full of life's natural enjoyments.
II. The question op the disciples. The question no doubt seems to us, upon
first looking at it, to have neither wisdom nor consistency in it ; yet there is this merit
about the disciples, that they did ask a question. The blindness of this man was not
to be taken as a matter of course, like the rising of the sun or the blossoming of the
flowers. Note where the emphasis lies in the question. It lies on the word " born," not
on the word " blind." The disciples did not profess to-be in utter darkness on the point.
Either the man himself must have sinned, they thought, or else his parents, that he
should be born blind. Probably they had some belief in the transmigration of souls.
1'hey would think he had existed ahready in some other state, where perhaps he had
been a dreadful sinner, and so now for his sins in that former state he would be bom
into this present life blind. The alternative supposition, and a very natural one, was
that his parents had sinned. For the sins of the fathers are visited on the children.
" The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and. the children's teeth are set on edge." So the
question of the disciples was partly excusable. On the other hand, they narrowed the
field of inquiry, nor was there anything practical in their question. They were dwell-
ing on the irrevocable past. How different is the spirit in —
III. The AN6WEB OF Jesub. 1. He takes off all hhane from tht man and his
parents. They had quite enough burden to bear already. Consider what a charge and
grief a blind child must have been to its parents. They may have been to blame, but
even where blame is, it is not the first thing to be thought of. Jesus came, not to
condemn, but to save. A physician goes none the less readily to the bed of a sick man
because his sickness has come through his own reckless and vicious ways. 2. Jesus
points out one good result of this man's blindness. He looks not so much at the i>ast
an at the present and the future. The blind man is to have no more years of privation,
idleness, and emptiness. Here a great compensation came to him, that a work of Ood
should be manifested in him. Jesus wants us to face the misery of the world in all its
magnitude, meaning that we should have the same comforting reflection with Paul, that
where sin abounds grace much more abounds. We have a Physician whc never shakes
his head, saying he can do nothing, and then goes empty away. We should say boldly
of every evil now afQicting men that it is hei« to give oooailcu for maaUiMiaBg the works
•fGod.— Y.
88 THE GOSPEL AOCOBDING TO ST. JOHK. [oh. nt. 1— *1.
Ver. 4. — Tht limitt of opportunity. Hero is a unlrergal illuBtration. We need no
inyestigation of the local and the ancient to comprehend its meaning. We all under-
stand the difference between night and day in respect of opportunity for work. Not
but what civilization has made considerable encroachments on the realm of night in
this particular. It is now true, not only of the astronomer and of the ardent student,
but of many besides, that " night is the time for toiL" And yet, even with all the
increased night-work of the world, it is to be hoped that such work will ever be the
exception and not the rule. Night is Nature's way of announcing her daily sabbath.
Day is peculiarly the season for useful work, for honest pursuits ; to take too much of
the day for rest is, in a measure, to waste it. Night is peculiarly the season for rest,
and those who are out in it must be on some special, perchance some dishonest, errand.
Day is the largest opportunity the honest man can get; night is the largest opportunity
for the thief.
L Applt thb liuitb of oppoetunitt in thk cask of JmuB BiusELF. Of course,
it is only true in a particular sense that a night came to Jesus in which he could not
work. But in that sense there was great importance in the truth. There were certain
things which Jesus could do in flesh and blood, but let him pass into the spiritual body,
and those things become impossible. When the records of bis life came to be written,
those records had to be filled with instances of benevolent industry. Every day found
him looking out for every chance of doing a good work. No one can bring against
Jesus the charge of beidg one who talked a great deal and did very little. Every
human being comes into this world to do a work of God, though the vast majority
never seem to apprehend the mission. AU the more reason that Jesus, therefcfre, should
make manifest that he came into the world for action. Others were busy about their
own work, and, however long life might be, it would be all too short to complete their
aims. And so Jesus felt that life had to be full of useful, strenuous, Gkxl-manifesting
work.
n. The lesson to ub fbom the bbief LmrrB of wobkiko tdib. We waste
much of life through not making the best of opportunities. Here were the disciples
idly speculating on how a certain thing had come about. There was no way of know-
ing, and no practical result could come from the inquiry. Not that Jesus would deter
us from speculations and conjectures ; there can be no harm in imagining the causes of
what is ; no harm in guessing at the possibilities and probabilities of the future. But
in this world of need there is so jnuch to do, that we must never let anything come
between us and doing. To know what men have thought is all very well ; and we do
well to meditate on every possible cause and origin of what is evil; but we may
meditate so much as to become mere sceptics, hanging in nncertainty between belief
and unbelief. When life has all closed up and its last day faded into the west, the
question will be, "What hast thou donel" This life of flesh and blood is given to
serve our day and generation. — ^Y.
Yer. 22. — Exxomm/wnication. Here is • weapon that attacks religion in the name
of religion. Here are people whom the plainest facts would prompt into a confession
of Jesus as the Christ, if only they were left to tfiemselves. The truth as it is in
Jesus is on one side; threatenings of dire consequences on the other; and truth suffers
for the time from the ecclesiastical powers that be.
I. SuPBESTiTioir AS OPPOSED TO Jesus. Here is a special foe, over and above the
ordinary foes with whom Jesus has to deal. Whether any reoZ confession of Jesus
would have come from the parents of the blind man, if they had been left to them-
selves, cannot be conjectured. That which deters one does not deter another. There
are people who would not be deterred from confessing Jesus by any amount of physical
pain. They can rise above that; it is merely a thing of the body; something specific
and measurable. But the same people, if a threat of excommunication came in, would
at once be^n to hesitate. We do well to study the difficulties the gospel has ever met
with through superstition, just because they are difficulties foreign to most who are
brought up in a Christian land. We are not likely either to be threatened into
ChristianUy or threatened out of it. But undoubtedly there are many parts of the
world wkere the fear of some dreadful spiritual consequence operates to keep many
from even leekfaig at the oUums of Jesus. How different the epAi of the true rdi^on
tiH. IX. 1—41.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST. JOHN. 89
is from the spirit of the false ones 1 The priests of superstition have to use every
available means to keep their dupes under control.
II. The BtrccBss op these spieitual threatbninos. While we have to deplore
the hindrances to the gospel which come from these erroneous instructions and tradi-
tions, we must also rejoice at what good there is in evil. That is not utterly evil
which proves the hold of the supernatural on mankind.
III. The failure of these bpibitdal thbeateninos. In the case of the parents
the threat was successful; in the case of the son it failed. There will always be a few,
at all events, whom no possible inducement can keep back from faithfulness to truth.
Fear of losing their place in the true great assembly is a mightier motive than that of
keeping connection with any visible ecclesiastical system. — Y.
Ver. 25.-^Z%« testimony of individual hUssing. L The best answer to critics
OP Jbsub. Here are the fitting representatives of that vast multitude who in all ages
have striven to heap scorn on the Name of Jesus. " We know," they say. That was
just the way Nicodemus talked when he came to Jesus. He came with patronage on
his ton gue — " We know thou art a Teacher come from God." Thus also we read concern-
ing some of Jerusalem that they were sure Jesus could not be the Christ, for as to the
Christ no one knew whence he would come ; but as to Jesus, they knew whence he
was. And the quondam blind man did well in not meeting argument with argimient.
Let the opponents of Jesus bring forth the knowledge in which they are so confident ;
those give them their best answer who can point to some indubitable change in their
own experience. Christianity is propagated by testimony rather than argument.
Many people are quite capable of appreciating evidence who would be utterly bewildered
at the very entrance of an argument. Controversy, which some are so fond of, has
done little for the cause of Christ. But testimony has done a great deal, even such
ttstimony as was here presented — testimony to the senses. He who used to be seen as
s blind man is now seen with full power of vision. Here is a welcome change — a-
change that has to be accounted for, not as to the disposition producing it, but as to the
power. It must be a kind and gracious power that gives sight to the man born blind.
If the reverse had happened, if the seeing man had been struck blind, this would need
explaining, even as really happens in the case of Elymas (Acts xiii. 11). There, of
course, the explanation lies ready to hand in the judicial and admonitory. Happy
those who, when specious and conceited arguments against faith in Jesus are laid
before them, can fall back on the testimony of their own experience. Something good
has happened to them which they believe Jesus to have produced.
II. The 8TK0NOH0LD OF A Cheistian'b faith, a Christian is under no compul-
sion to answer the questions, the doubts, the arguments, of other people, unless indeed
he has set himself the task of convincing them. If we would win people to Christ,
we must be all things to them, and meet argument with argument, if that will do good.
But questions and doubts may sometimes rise in our own minds, and the true answer to
them is in getting down to fact, and observing how those who once were blind have
now come to see. A living Christianity, actual and manifest results of the gosp«l,
these are our strongholds when the struggle comes. ."
III. A QUESTION AS TO OUR OWN EXPERIENCE. All OUT intellectual conclusions con-
cerning Jesus are in vain unless there has been a deep personal experience. No matter
how careful the search, no matter how sound the reasoning, it is all in vain. Many
have written to support Jesus as the Christ, but when we read between the lines, we
see how all their talk is from the outside. They can recommend Jesus to others, but
it is pretty plain they have not accepted him for themselves. How can we truly know
Jesus, how can we be sure of our hold upon him, unless there has been some deep
beneficial change in ourselves ? A far deeper experience is possible for every one of
OS than this man went through. Of all those bom naturally blind, only a few have
ever had natural vision added to them — the few, namely, that Jesus dealt with. But
of those born spiritually blind, i.e. all of us, it is the Divine intent that we should all
say in due season, " Whereas I was blind, now I see." — T,
40 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOKN. [oh. x. 1—42.
EXPOSITION.
OHAPTBB X
Vert. 1—21.— 5. Ohrist the Shepherd of the
pHik of God. The discourse which now fol-
lows was the Lord's parabolic or allegoric
reply to the conduct of the Pharisaic malig-
nants. These men, claiming to be infallible
guides of the ignorant, to be yeritable shep-
herds of the flock of God, had ignored the
advent of the true and good Shepherd, had
opposed the Divine call and supreme claim
of the Messiah, had set themselves to dis-
turb and dislocate the relations between
him and those who saw his glory and found
in him the Consolation of Israel. They had
excommunicated the adoring disciple who
had passed out of lifelong darkness into
marvellous light. They had exaggerated
the faint glimmer of light which had broken
upon their own blindness into true vision.
They had said, "We see," and thus shown
themselves to be wilfully in the wrong.
Their sin abode upon them. The fold of
God's sheep was something different from
their own expectations and definitions.
Tlieir way into it proved that they did not
know its true nature. To meet this crisis
our Lord delivers a triad of related and
parallel pictures, which differ from the ordi-
nary parable (irapaPoX-li). The parable is a
picture which is complete iuitBelf,andinvites
the reader to discover some answering spiritual
truth. It consists of a careful setting forth
of some physical fact, some fragment of
biography, some personal or domestic detail.
It is true to life and experience, and em-
bodies some ethical principle or religious
emotion ; and while it does not explicitly teach
either, yet it suggests them to the inquiring
mind. The parables of the synoptic Gospels
are not exclusive or rigid in their form.
The so-called parable of " the Pharisee and
the publican " and that of " the good Sama-
ritan " are at once transformable into pat-
terns or principles of action. The element
of its own interpretation is also conspicuous
in that of " the rich man and Lazarus "
and "the rioh fool." With these latter
ipecimens of our Lord's teaching may be
eompared the allegorio illustrations of the
present disoourse. These pictures are "trans-
parencies" (Godet), through which the
Saviour's spiritual teaohing pours its own
illumination. They both alike differ from
the "fable," a form of address in which
personal characters and activities are attri-
buted (as in the apologue of Jotham, etc.)
to the irrational or even to the inanimate
creation.
'Phe first of the similitudes before us has
more of the character of the parable proper,
because it does not at once carry its own in-
terpretation with it. Vers. 1—6 represent
in parabolic form the claims of those who
aspired to provide a "door," t.«. a sure and
safe entrance to the theocratic fold. In vers.
7 — 10 our Lord interprets and expands the
first representation by giving special signifi-
cance to the words he had already used,
adding something to their meaning, and
contrasting his own position with that of
all others. From the eleventh to the eigh-
teenth verse he once more reverts to the
original picture, and claims to occupy a
relation to the sheep of God's hand of far
more intimate and suggestive kind than
what was connoted by the door into the
fold. He is " the good Shepherd." In that
capacity he adds other and marvellous fea-
tures. The parabolic or allegorical language
passes away into vivid description of the
leading features of his work. The parable
at last glows into burning metaphor.
In the first paragraph our Lord gives a
parabolio picture of flock and fold, door
and porter, robber and shepherd. In the
second paragraph he emphasizes the rela-
tion between the door and the fold, claim-
ing to be " the Door." In the third he illus-
trates the function and the responsibility of
the true "Shepherd," and the relation of
the shepherd to the flock, and he claims to
be the Shepherd of Israel.
Vers. 1— 6.— (1) The pardbU of the fold
and flock, the door and the porter, the robber
and the ahepherd.
Ver. 1.— Verily, verily, betokens the deep
solemnity and importance of the matter in
hand, but not a complete break in the eir-
cumstanoes — neither a new audience por a
new theme. The adoption by Jeremiah
(xxiii. 1 — 4), by Bzekiel (xxxiv.), and b/
DH.!.!— 42.] THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN.
41
Zeohariah (xi. 4 — 17) of similar imagery
to denote the contraBt between the true
and false shepherds, and the anticipation by
the prophets of a time when the true and
good Shepherd would fulfil all Jehovah's
pleasure, throws vivid light on these words
of our Lcvd. Verily, veiily, I say unto you,
He that entereth not by the door into the
fold of the sheep, bnt olimbeth np some'
other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
Several commentators of eminence have
maintained that by " the door," in this first
rierse, our Lord (as in ver. 7) meant at once
to designate himself. This is not neces-
sary. He rather summons the Pharisees to
recognize the fact that there is a door, a way
of sure and divinely appointed admission to
the " fold of the sheep," through which the
veritable Shepherd passes, bringing his flock
with him by well-knowu voice and manner.
Later on, our Lord claims to be the one Way
by which all under-shepherds can gain true
access to the flock, and all the sheep of
God's pasture caa find protection and free-
dom ; but here he suggests the principle of
discrimination between a true shepherd and
a thief or robber. The (cXeWrjs is one who is
selfishly seeking bis own ends, and would
avoid detection; the Ajitt^s is one who
would use violent means to secure his pur-
pose (Judas was a " thief," Barabbas was a
" robber "). The false shepherd disdains
the door, and climbs up some other way
along his own selfish lines of action (d\Ao-
xiSev is used in this place only, equivalent to
" from some other quarter than the ordinary
home of the shepherd"). His purpose is
not to benefit the sheep, but to seize them,
or slaughter them for his own purposes
(Ezek. xxxiv. 8). The Lord suggests that
many have assumed to sustain the relation
of shepherd to the flock and fold of God,
with no inward call either of commission or
profession. They have been eager to insist
on their own rights, have mistaken their
own narrow traditions for the command-
ments of God, have imposed upon starved
and worried souls their own selfish interpre-
tations of that commandment, and have
shown that they had no legitimate access to
the hearts of men.
Ver. 2. — But he that enters in by the door
if a shepherd of the sheep. Let him be who
he may, Pharisee or priest, prophet or king,
pastor or evangelist, unless he approach the
sheep by the right " way" he demeans and
condemns himself. If he come by the door
into the fold, he may be so far presumably
a shepherd. One fold might contain several
flocks, and a shepherd might lead these
flocks into difierent enclosures according to
his wisdom and care for his sheep. Neander,
Godet, and Watkins think it possible that
the whole imagery may have been borrowed
from the eye. The shepherds towards even-
ing were probably gathering their scattered
flocks, according to Oriental custom, into
their well-known enclosures, and Jesus with
his audience might have seen them doing
it if they gazed out from the courts of the
temple over the neighbouring hills (see also
Thomson, ' The Land and the Book,' i. 301,
a passage which provides an admirable com-
mentary on this parable). There is no abso-
lute need that the customary and well-known
habit of the country-side should have been
visible at the moment. The abundantly at-
tested practice furnished to his hearers all
needful corroboration. The deeper signifi-
cance of the passage lies in the prophetio
symbolism of Jer. xxiii. 1 — 4; Isa. il. 11;
Ps. xxiii. I — 3; Ixxviii. 52; Numb, xxvii.
17; Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 31; xxxvii. 24. Jehovah
was the Shepherd of Israel (Ps. Ixxx. 1), and
he would appoint once more in their Messiah-
King a David, who should be his gracious
Representative and Agent. All these repre-
sentations were gathered up in Chrisfa
wonderful parable of the lost sheep (Luke
XV. 3 — 7). Thoma endeavours to credit the
author of the Gospel with this ideal picture
of the contrast between the true and falsa
shepherd.
Yer. 3. — ^lo him the porter openeth.
The doorkeeper of the fold has been vari-
ously interpreted. Bengel and Hengsten-
berg say, "God himself" is meant; Stier,
Alford, and Lange, "the Holy Spirit;"
against which interpretations may be urged
the subordinate position assigned to the
"porter," as compared with the shepherds
themselves. Lampe and Godet think that
" John the Baptist " was intended ; while
Meyer and De Wette say that it is one of
those elements of the parable which is
dropped out of our Lord's own exposition
for which we need not seek any special
application. Westcott thinks it must vary
with the special sense attributed to "sheep"
and "shepherd," and that we must think
of it as " the Spirit working through his
appointed ministers in each case." The
"doorkeeper," if Christ be himself the
"Door," is the keeper of that door — the
agency, the ministry, the ordinances by which
the excellences and power of Christ were
or are manifested. We are reminded of sub-
sequent use of the imagery in Paul's Epistles
(1 Cor. xvi. 9 ; 2 Cor. ii. 12 ; Col. iv. 3 ; of.
Acts xiv. [27) ; but the full meaning of the
phrase is only suggested, and we haJd better
wait for Christ's interpretation of some
parts of this allegory. The context provides
a specific filling out, first of one part of the
imagery, and secondly of another part of it
The two interpretations are not to oe forced
at one and the same time upon the parable.
Our Lord continual : And the sheep hear bia
a
THE GOSPEL ACOOBDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. i. 1— 42L
Toioe. When a shepherd approaches the
door to fetch the folded sheep which belong
to him, the porter opens that door for him ;
<.«. a true shepherd who has at heart the
interests of the sheep and of their supreme
Owner, flnds the way made ready for him.
In the fold are many flocks. All the sheep
give heed to his voice. He oalleth' his own
sheep by name, and leadeth them oat. They
know a shepherd calls, and then that shep-
herd addveeses his own sheep by name, and
he leads these forth into the pasture. Even
in our own pastures the shepherds know
each sheep by name. Aristotle (' Hist. Auim.,'
vi. 19) tells us the bell-wether knew his
name, and obeyed his shepherd. Arch-
deacon Watkins gives a quotation from
Theocritus' ' Idylls,' charmingly illustrating
tlie habit. The shepherd, by the mere call
to his own sheep, would separate them from
those whicti did not belong to bun, and lead
them forth to their pasture in the wilder-
ness. This method of Oriental life illus-
trates the function of all true shepherds of
men. It has had many partial fulfilments in
the history of the Church and of the world.
During the period of the old theocratic
dispensation, many "thieves and robbers"
made havoc of the flock; still there were
prophetic and kingly men who, sent by God,
found their way to the heart of. Israel;
many came to know that a prophet had been
among them, and they followed him. It is
equally true now, though all the external
conditions are changed. The full applica-
tion of this part of the allegory is only seen
when " the good Shepherd " seeketh his
sheep: but the meaning of the first picture
ii obscured by hurrying on to the enlarged
and double exposition which Christ gave of
the two parts of his own parable, and much
is lost by endeavouring to force into a pri-
mary exposition of vers. 1 — 6 the features
borrowed from a twofold interpretation of
the separate ideas suggested by the compo-
site image.
Ver. 4. — In like manner, our Lord con-
tinues to describe what every true shepherd
of men has done and ever will do: When
he hath put forth all* bis own, and not
another's, drawn them by the music of his
voice, or constrained them by the sweet
» Tisohendorf (8th edlt,),Tregelle3, Alford,
and B.T., on the authority of H, A, B, D, L,
X, 1, 33, read tbuirei in place of KoA.f < (T.E.),
a reading which emphasizes tiie individuali-
zing care of the shepherd.
' Td tSta trdrra is the reading of H'-", B,
D, Ii, X, 1, 22, 33, and is sustained by
several versions, adopted by Tisohendorf
(8th edit.) and B.T. T^ tSia Ttpo^ra is the
reading m T.B., on the authority of A, r,
A, A, Vulgate, and both Syriao Versions.
violence of his love, or even compelled them
to go forth from a fold in which they may
find security, but not pasture ; and when he
has marshalled them into obedience and into
thankful trust by the strength of his sym-
pathy and knowledge of their need, he goeth
before them. He is their leader and ex-
ample ; he shows them in his own life the
kind of provision made for them ; he shares
with them the perils of the wilderness, and
first of all is prepared to grapple with their
fierce foes, " He drinks of the brook in the
way." The highest meaning, the only com-
plete interpretation, of this passage is found
when Christ himself is the Shepherd, who
does inmmon from the old enclosure " all
his own," all who have entered into living
harmony with himself. And the sheep follow
him : for they know his voice. Kothing is
here said of " lost sheep " or of " goats ; "
these are all the " ideal sheep " of the fiock,
individuals who recognize the voice of the
true heaA&t, and discriminate their own
shepherd from all others, whether pretenders
to their affections or destroyers of their lives
— wolves or butchers, thieves or robbers.
Should we persist in interpreting the apo-
logue as it stands, a question arises about the
rpd^ara that are not the shepherd's " own."
Some have answered it by supposing that
the latter are the chief of his own flock, who
will bring the rest after them. The truth
is not obscurely hinted of that election to
highest privileges and duties, which does
not declare that the rest are not sheep at all.
Ver. 5. — But a stranger will they by
no means follow, for they know not the
voice of strangers. The negative is strongly
expressed. The sheep, who know their
shepherd's voice, will not take the lead of a
stranger or an alien ; i.e. of a " thief or
robber." If these secure the sheep at all, it
is by_ violence or stealth, by unfair means,
by illegitimate methods.
Ver. 6. — This parable spake Jesus unto
them. The word Trapoi/ila occurs only in
this place and in ch. xvi. 25— t29 ; 2 Pet. ii.
22. It is the LXX . rendering of ht^o proverb,
in Prov. i. 1, a similitude or didactic saying.
The Greek word means any speech (oTjuos)
deviating (jrapH) from the common way
(Lange). It may deviate by its sententious
or parabolical form, which conceals under a
closed metaphor a variety of meanings. But
they,thePhaTisees,who were confidentof their
own position, and gloried in their influence
over men, and whose moral nature waa steeled
and armed to resist even a possible reference
to themselves as " thieves," or " robbers," or
" aliens," and who would not admit any o(
Christ's claims to their own disparagement,
understood not what things they were
which he was saying to them. The blind
man had heard hia voice obeyed, found
oi. X 1—42.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
43
bealing, advanced step by step from a bare
knowledge of " a man Jesus " to a confes-
lion of him as one empowered by God ; to a
belief that he was a " Prophet," able to relax
Mosaic Law ; and finally to a ready acknow-
ledgment that he was the Son of God. The
Pharisees were conscious of neither need,
nor blindness, nor desire of salvation, nor of
the Shepherd's care or grace. They will not
go to him for life. They can make nothing
of his enigmatic words. They take counsel
against him. Their misconception contrasts
strongly with the susceptibility of the
broken-hearted penitents. 80 far the parable
or proverb corresponds with the parables of
the kingdom in the synoptic Gospels, and is
open to many interpretations.
Vers. 7 — 10. — (2) Allegory of the door and
the fold, in which ChriH claimt to he "the
Door of the sheep."
Ver. 7. — Jesus therefore (oZk, with its re-
sumptive force, introduces the effect upon
Christ of the unsusceptible character of tlie
Pliarisees). Some pause may have occurred,
during which these men displayed their
bitter feeling and utter lack of appreciation,
and he proceeds first to give them an expla-
nation of the words, which should leave
them in no doubt as to one emphatic mean-
ing which they contained. Said ' again
onto them, I am the Door of the sheep: This
exposition of the allegory is introduced by
the solemn Amen, amen. Christ first calls
attention to the " door " into the sacred
fellowship of men with God. On a subse-
quent occasion (ch. xiv. 6), he said, " I am
the Way " to the Father ; " no man cometh
unto the Father, but by me." The parable
as it stands refers to true and false teachers
of the people, and to just and unjust claims
to confer upon the sheep of God's pasture
safe and sure access to God, and all privi-
leges of Divine life. In interpreting it, he
declares first that he is the one Door, not of
" the fold " so much as of the sheep, in their
individual capacity. This corresponds with
every claim made by him and made in his
Name, that he, in all the fulness of his Per-
sonality, had always been the one Medium
by which, in the theocracy or beyoutl it, men
have drawn near to the Father. The Logos
is the Angel of the covenant, the Eock in
the wilderness, the great High Priest, the
Veil over the holy place, the propitiatory
Sacrifice, the Prophet, the King. He it is
who ever and always has given consolation
and peace to his people. He is the one
method, agency, reality, by which not only
' Tisohendorf (8th edit.) omits irdXiv au-
Tots, on the authority of K"*, 1, 63 ; in former
editions he included it, with Lachmann,
E,T., and Tregelles. B has iriKiv without
the shepherds, but the sheep, enter into the
fold, and go forth thence to pasture.
Ver. 8. — All that came before me' are
thieves and robbers, Great difQculty has
been felt by commentators in understanding
"before me." Tlie words clearly gave the
early Gnostic heretics a text on which they
established their dualistio rejection of the
old dispensation. Their absence from certain
texts led Augustine and others to empha-
size the word " came." " All who come," i.e.
in their own strength or wisdom, when not
"sent" or authorized by God. Other en-
deavours have been made (see Meyer and
Lange) to give it a non-temporal meaning,
such as xaip^s, " independently of me." Wolf
and Olshausen make vph equivalent to inr^p,
" in the place " or " in the stead of me " (30
Lange, Lampe, Schleusner). De Wette and
others accept the temporal meaning, " be-
fore," i.e. in point of time, and include under
it the entire corpus of Old Testament saints
and teachers, and therefore regard the say-
ing as inconsistent with tlie gentleness of
Christ. But with ch. v. 39, 45 — 47, and many
other passages in this Gospel, it is certain
the words could not mean to denounce all
who came as teachers or shepherds before
him in mere point of time as " thieves and
robbers," whom the sheep did not hear.
Therefore the vpb must be to some extent
modified in meaning. We agree with West-
cott and Gtodet in limiting Ttph ifioi, by throw-
ing the emphasis on the "came," and by
adding, moreover, to it the esseatial point,
" came making themselves doors of the
sheep " — claiming to have the " key of know-
ledge," professing vainly to open or shut the
door of heaven. That is, no other has ever
had the right or claim to be such " a door."
The Baptist, the prophets, one by one,
Abraham and Moses, in their day made no
such profession. The dignity belongs to
Christ alone. The language may receive
accentuation from the pressing urgency of
false Christs, as well as the hopeless system of
Pharisaic pride. Thoma sees here tbe mere
diessing out of St. Paul's language, con-
demnatory of false prophets and ravening
wolves who would not spare the flock of
Christ (Acts xx. 29), and Christ's own words
in the synoptists (Matt. vii. 15 ; xxiii. 13,
etc.). Special reference is made to the cere-
monial superstitions, to "the hedge about
the Law," to the cruel slavery of modem
Pharisaism, which had done what neither
prophets nor priests of old had attempted.
' riph ^/i4o5 follow f\eov in K°, A, B, D, K,
L, X, but precede in a few authorities and .
T.E. The words are omitted by E, P, G, M,
S, U, A, Vulgate, and many versions, nume-
rous critical quotations. So Tischendorf (8th
edit.}, but not B.T., 01 Weitcott and Hort.
u
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. x. 1—42.
Archdeacon Watkins emphasizes the present
tense, " are thieves," etc., making Christ's
reference obvious to the lawyers and scribes
of his own day, who were closing the door, and
plundering those whom they kept out of the
kingdom. But the sheep did not hear them.
The true sheep have not been seduced by
them. The teaching of these Pharisees baa
not prevailed over susceptible souls.
Ver. 9. — I am the Door: by me — by living
relation to me — ^if any man ; t.e. either
shepherd or sheep, for in this part of the
interpretation they are not distinguished, and
they alike need "salvation" and "pasture."
By me if any man enter, he shall be saved,
and shall go in and ont, and find pasture.
"Salvation" here spoken of refers primarily
to deliverance from dangers, protection from
the ravenous wolves without the fold, and from
false shepherds within. " Go in and out " is
a phrase frequently used " to denote the free
use of an abode by one who is at home in
the house " (Deut. xxviii. 6 ; xxxi. 2 ; Acts
i. 21). The believer who enters into fellow-
ship with God, and is " saved," does not " go
in and out " of that state, but can as a child
share by turns the Divine repose of the
home, and the high privilege of his sonship
in the world. " He claims his share in the
inheritance of the world, aecure of his
home"(Westoott).
Ver. 10.— The thief oometh not, but that
he may steal, and kill, and destroy. Christ,
elaborating, evolving, what is contained in
the image of " thief," regards his rival as the
thief of souls ; he whose pretension to be a
way to God is based on no inward and eternal
reality, who comes for no other purpose
than to make the sheep his own, not to give
them pasture ; to sacrifice them to his selfish
ends, to use tbem for his own purposes, not
to deal with them graciously for theirs ; but
to destroy, since in the pursuit of hia selfish
ends he wastes both life and pasture. A
terrible impeachment, this,of all who have not
recognized the true Door into the sheepfold,
who would shut up the way of life that they
may exalt their own order, would diminish
the chances of souls in order to secure their
own position. This forms the transition to
the second interpretation of the parabolic
words ; for he adds, I came that they might
have life, and that they might havelt abun-
dantly ; more even than they can possibly
use. This is one of the grandest of our
Lord's claims. He gives lilve God from over-
flowing stores (Titus iii. 6). Those who re-
ceive life from him have within them pe-
rennial sources of life for others— fulness of
being (see notes, ch. vii. 38 ; iv. 14). One
of the differentijB of " life " is "abundance "
of inmjly beyond immediate possibility of
use. Life has the future in its arms. Life
propagates new life. Life has untold capa-
cities about it — ^beauty, fragrance, strength,
growth, variety, leproduotion, resistance to
death, continuity, eternity. Li the Logos is
life — and Christ came to give it, to com-
municate " life to the non-living, to the dead
in trespasses, and to those in their graves "
(ch. V. 26).
Vers. 11 — 21. — (3) The functions and re-
Bponsibilities of the veritable Shepherd, and
the relation of the Shepherd to the flock.
Ver. 11. — 1 am the good Shepherd. The
word here rendered " good " means more
than the " true " (iXTjfl^s) or the '« veritable "
(iXjifftK^j) ; more than 6.yae6s, good, in the
sense of being morally excellent and in-
wardly fulfilling God's purpose that the
sheep should be shepherded. The word
KdKis suggests a "goodness" that is con-
spicuous, that shows and approves itself to
the experience and observation of all. Thus
the Lord fills up the meaning of the first
parable by emplmsizing another element in
it. There may be many shepherds worthy
of the name, but he alone justifies the de-
signation (cf. Ps. xxiii. ; Isa. xl. 11 ; liii. ;
Ezek. xxxiv. ; Jer. xxiii.). This imagery has
inwrought itself into Christian literature and
art. The earliest representations of Christ in
the catacombs depict him as " the good Shep-
herd" (TertuUian, 'De Fuga.,' c. 11; Hermas,
' Sim.,' vi. 2) ; the earliest bymns and
latest minstrelsy of the Church dwell fondly
on the image. which portrays his individual
watchfulness, his tender care, his self-sa-
crificing love. The good Shepherd layeth '
down Mb life for the sheep ; not only does
his work with his life in his hand, but he
deliberately lays down his life and consciously
divests himself of his life, and is doing it
now. The Shepherd dies that the sheep may
live (of. 1 John iii. 16 ; ch. xv. 13). Else-
where Jesus says, " The Son of man gives
hia life a ransom for many " (Matt. xx. 28).
The thought is very grand, and is a strange
addition to the claim to be the Shupherd of
Israel, and gives intense pathos to the lan-
guage of our Lord to Simon Peter (ch. xxi. 6),
" Shepherd my sheep." The further de-
velopment of the parable shows that in the
metaphor he regards his deathas no disastrous
termination of the Shepherd's function, but
as an event in his career. Hence it is not
just of Eeuss (' Theol. Chretien,' ii.) to con-
tend that our Lord does not here suggest a
vicarious or propitiatory death on his part
This is a veritable deaUi, which secures the
life of tlie sheep, and does not arrest the
Shepherd's care (see vers. 17, 18).
' N*, D, and Vulgate read iiiaatv, but
B.T., as well as T.B., Lachmann, Alford,
Tisoheudorf (8th edit.),Tregelles, M'Clellan,
and Westoott and Hort, read ri9ii<rw, with
«°, B, L.
eH.x.1— 42.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST. JOHN.
45
Ver. 12.— Ee> tliat if • hireling, and
not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are
not, seeth the woU ooming, and leaveth the
sheep, and fleeth (the word /uirOuThs oc-
curs in Mark i. 20). The hireling is con-
trasted with the shepherd. The protector
of a flock, who, though not a thief, or robber,
or alien, yet has no unselfish regard for the
sheep, is guilty of cowardice, and his shame-
less flight from danger may do as much
harm to the flock as the thief or robber.
Godet would, at all events at first, limit the
reference to the priestly party, who ought to
have had more courage and real care for the
sheep, but were utterly unable to bear the
brunt of assault from Sanhedrln and Pha-
risees. The latter represent, as he thinks,
the ravening " wolf." But surely all who
have merely mercenary or selfish motives
in their treatment of souls, and who flee at
the approach of danger or death, are here
held up to grievous condemnation. All
who proclaim themselves to be "the door
of the sheep," who, independently of Christ,
and without the animating breath of the
Divine Spirit, are considering themselves
rather than the flock which they profess to
instruct and protect, are the hirelings here
denounced. In the hour of real peril they
turn and flee. " Whose own the sheep are
not." They do not seek the destruction of
the flock which is not theirs, but they neg-
lect and forsake when they should be.
faithful unto death. They have not identi-
fied themselves with the object of their pro-
fessed care. The wolf is the deadly power
ever seeking the destruction of the soul, and
even compassing it ; it is the metaphor for
every sort of power opposed to Christ (cf.
Matt. X. 16; Luke x. 3; Acts xz. 29).
And the wolf snatcheth them, and soattereth
(them '). " The seizing and scattering "
shows how these hostile powers not only
devastate, but destroy; not only crush in-
dividuals, but ruin Churches, ^e sheep do
not belong to a hireling, as they do to a
shepherd. Ko living bond of common ia-
terest links them to each other.
Ver. 13.— (The hireling ' fleeth) heoanie
* B, Q, L, omit Si, and are followed by
Tischendorf (8th edit), Westcott and Hort,
and B.T.
' The rJt Tfofiira of T.B. are found in A,
X, r, A, A, in the majority of cursives, the
Vnlgate, and both Syriac Versions ; but M,
B, D, H, L, 1, 22, 25, 33, omit, with Tischen-
dorf (8th edit.), Tregelles, Westoott and
Hort, and B.T.
* These words of T.B. are found in A*, X,
A, 69, in Vulgate and Syriac Versions ; but
are omitted by Tist^endorf (8th edit.), Tre-
gelles, Alford, and B.T., on the authority of
K> A*, B, D, L, 1, S3, and numerous ver-
bs is • hireling, and eareth not for the
sheep. He only cares for himself. He is
no match for the wolf of temptation, or dis-
ease, or death. He wants to reap the per-
sonal advantage of his temporary office, and,
if bis own interests are imperilled, he can
leave them to any other hireling, or to the
wolf. Melancholy picture this of much
deserted duty.
Vers. 14, 15. — The Lord resumes: I am
the good Shepherd. He now makes his dis-
course more explicit. He almost drops the
allegory, and merely adopts the sacred meta-
phor. His self-revelation becomes more full
of promise and suggestion for all time. He
takes up one of the characteristics of the
shepherd which discriminated him from
"hireling," "thief," or "robber." And I
know mine own, and my > own know me, even
as the Father knoweth me, and I know the
Father. This more accurate text, transla-
tion, and punctuation of the Revised Ver-
sion brings into living comparison the
mutual knowledge of Christ and his own
sheep, with the mutual knowledge of Christ
and the Father. Christ's personal know-
ledge of his people is that which comes into
their religious consciousness. They know
his knowledge of them. They know him to
be what he is-r-to be their Lord Ood, as
they realize his personal recognition and
care. The one involves the other (see Gal.
iv. 9 ; 1 Cor. viii. 3). The particle of tran-
sition is more than a mere illustration (jcaBiis
is more than Scnrcp ; xiSclis introduces not
infrequently an explanation, sometimes a
causal consideration, or an illustration
which accounts for the previous statement ;
see ch. xv. 12 ; xvii. 21, 23). The know-
ledge which the sheep have of the Shep-
herd corresponds with the Son's knowledge
of the Father, and the Shepherd's know-
ledge of the sheep answers to the Father's
knowledge of the Son ; but more than this,
the relation of the Son to the Father, thus
expressed, is the real ground of the Divine
intimacies between the sheep and the Shep-
herd (cf. oh. XV. 10; xvii. 8). Then the
Lord repeats and renews the solemn state-
ment made at the commencement of the
sentence. And I lay down my life for the
sheep. Such knowledge of the peril of " his
sions. If they are omitted, the remainder
of the verse must be attached to the pre-
ceding verse, throwing the middle clause
into parentheses. Tit irpoPara are bracketed
by Alfoid.
' The T.B. here reads, ytviiffKOfuu iiri tbj'
iiuiv, with A, X, r. A, A, and most of the
later autlioritics. TiviaKovtrl fie rd e/td is
read by Tischendorf (8th edit.), Tregelles,
Alford, Westcott and Hort, and B.T., with
K, B, D, L, with versions and Fathei*.
46
THE GOSPEL ACCOBMNG TO ST. JOHN. [oh. x. 1-AZ
own" inToIvea him in eacrifice. WlereM
in ver. 11 this is attributed to the "good
Shtpberd," now he drops tlie first part of
the figure, and says, " I am laying down
my life."
Vers. 16 — 18. — (o) The continuity of the
Shepherd-activity, notwithitanding the laying
dovm of his life.
Yet. 16. — ^And other sheep I have, which
are not of this fold : them also I must bring,
and they shall hear my yoioe. " The other
sheep," not of this fold, not sheltered by
the theocracy, not needing the pasturage of
such privileges— Gentiles they may be,
earnest souls of many a name, denomination,
;ind profession, are, while he speaks, and
even before the formation of his Church,
* his own." " Other sheep I have." Though
they have never as yet Ijeard his voice, they
are his. His relation with them is personal
and direct and spiritual, not dictated or
conditionated by "the fold." They will
hear his voice. We in vain ask the ques-
tion, "When?" He alone can answer it.
Many a Cornelius in every nation is accepted
by him (o£ Acts x. 85 ; xiv. 17 ; xvii. 27 ;
xxviii. 28). But the passage contemplates
a wider application : " Them also I must
bring, or lead, among my own." They are
scattered abroad now, but eternal Love, by as-
suming Shepherd-wise relations with them,
determines not to bring them to one place
or enclosure — to express such a thought we
should have had, not a')'o76ti', but trvpayayeiu
(cli. xL 52) or upoirayayfTv (Westcott) — ^bnt
to bring them into personal relations with
himself. They shall become one flook, one
Shepherd. Tha ti^Bp. English translation of
iroitii/ri, viz. " fold," should Ee^ specially
noticed. If "Mr liprd hn*^ r""""* tn (.pn^oy
the idei^ nf t.hp rigrid anc.lnaiiTp infr* wliinh all
the scattered sheen sboiild be gaiharMJ, h«
would have used the word avKfi. The word
TTolfivTi is. However, studiously chosen. The
error hag done grievous injury. There is no
variation of the Greek text, or in the earliest
versions. It came through the Vulgate ovile
into Wickliffe's Version, and into many other
European versions. The Old Latin Ver-
sions were correct, but .Ternme led the way
vnto the 'Bnir"""**" tTOnfj]ft|,inn Tyndale
percelveii jti true meaning, and Luther
beautifully preserved the play upon the
words. Coverdale, in his own Bible (1535),
followed Tyndale ; but in 1539, " the Great
Bible" followed the Vulgate (Westcott).
When naturalized, it sustained the false and
growing pretension that outside the one
" fold" of the visible Churcli the good ahep-
berd was not ready with bis care and love (see
for the only adequate translation of iroliiviii.
Matt. xxvi. 31; Luke ii. 8; 1 Cor. ix. 7,
where the Authorized Version has correctly
Mndered it " flook "). Christ, on other oooa-
■ions, carefully warned his disciples against
such narrowness, and here he declaref that
the sheep, independently of the fold oi folds,
may yet form one great Jloele, undof one
Shepherd. When he described himself as
the Door, he was, as we have seen, careful
tu speak of himself as " Door of the sheep"
and not as the Door into the fold. He laid
down his life in order to break down the
partition between Jew and Gentile (Eph. li.
13), between God and man, and between
man and man. "In Christ Jesus there is
neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female,
bond nor free." There may be many folds.
Different nations, ages, times, and season*
may cause variations iu these ; but there is
but one flock under the watchful guardian-
snip ot one Snepherd.
Ver. 17. — Therefore doth the Father lov*
me, because I lay down my life, that I may
take it again. The Sik rovro points to the
whole of the previous statement, and in to
a more complete exposition of the precise
point in it on which the Divine Father's
love idyaTr'i) rests. The "I" and "roe"
refer to the incarnate Son, t.e. to the Divine-
human Personality of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Father loveth me, tepaitae, not merely
that I lav down my life, for such might be
the consequence ot Helplessness in the pre-
sence of victorious and desperate foes. The
love which merely " laid down life " would
be a Buddha-like self-sacrifice, producing
certain moral effects upon the minds of the
oriluokerg, and revealing a large and loving
sense of the need of others. Tet m such
expression of his sacrificial love he wonld
have relinquished his undertaking. There
would have been no more that he could do
for his flock. His Shepherd-functions wonld,
in the (.onsumniating act, cease. He would
h<i n hBaiitifnl IVTftmnry, Tint ft living Energy;
a glorious Example, not the Author of
eternal salvation. He wouia cease io be
trie great Shepherd of the sheep. Now, the
Father's love contemplated more than this,
viz. the Lord's own purpose to talce up
again that life which he was prepared volun-
tarily to lay down for the sheep. Thus be
would indeed die, that he might be more of
a Shepherd to them than he had ever been
before. How otherwise would he personally
biing the otiier sheep into his flock, or be
known of them, as the Father was known
by him? Christ declares that after his
death he would still exercise royal rights,
bf. as much a Divine-human Personality as
ever. Christ, as a sinless Man, the sinless
One, might indeed, after the victory over
the tempter in the wilderness, or from the
Mount of Transfiguration, have returned to
the spiritual world without accomplishing
on exodus oa Gh>lgotha; but he chose, he
willed, to lay down his life. Having don«
m. X. 1— ta.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHK.
41
this mnoh, he might have joined the great
majority, and heen their Head and Chief,
and left his work to be commented on by
others. Bat such a consummatioi i would have
fallen far short of the true and sufficing object
of the Father's hve. Christ declares that
tlie very end of his death was his resurrec-
tion from death. In retaking Ids Ufe, he is
able to continue, on perfectly different terms,
the shepherding of bis people ; be becomes
in the highest sense, the great Shepherd, the
good Shepherd, the archetypal, and the
veritable Shepherd of the flock of God.
Ver, 18. — No one taketh ' it away from
me, but I lay it down of myself. Should
the aoristbe the true rcadHig, then the whole
"^!?" ^'HiP''""*'"" "'"'■*■ ^"'"^ ''"'"' '•«e^'^^'^p■^
''T th" '^'"''^ "ft fti]readv accomnlishedj as a
completed fact. The oiSfh, "no one" —
neither God, nor man, nor evil spirit — taketh
it, i.e. my life, away from me, from myself,
in the exercise of my sovereign will, in the
tall consciousness of spontaneity. J am
laying it down, not in consequence of my
impotence before the powers of darkness,
but " from myself." This proceeding is in
perfect harmony with the will of God the
Father ; but it is Christ's free act notwith-
standing, and of all tilings the most worthy
of the Father's love (cf. here ch. v. 30,
which appears at first to be in contradiction
with the statement of this verse ; but the
closing words of the verse rectify the im-
pression ; see also ch. vii. 28 ; viii. 28).
Christ justifies his extraordinary claim to
lay down and after his death (retaining
then the full possession of his Personality),
to reasBume the life which for a while, in
submission to the doom on human nature,
he had resolved to sacrifice. He says, I have
{4(ou<riav) right — or, power and authority
combined — ^to lay it down, and right to take
it again. This oommandment received I
from my Father. I have power to do both
these things. No other has ever put forth
such a claim, aud the discharge of it " from
himself," i.e. spontaneously, is stated to be
in consequence of an ivToAi. an apuoint-
ment, an ordinance, he had received from the
Father. The Divme purpose was realized
in hia perfect freedom and his perfect and
absolute fulfilment of the Father's wUl.
The narrative of the agony in the garden,
given by the synoptists, confirms the blend-
ing of his own freedom with the Divine
order ; but the language of this Gospel (ch.
xviii. 6 (cf. Matt. xxvL i53), and xix. 11),
' The R.T. here places in the margin
^pty ; it is the reading of N*, A, D. It is
not accepted by the Eevisers, nor by
Tischendorf (8th edit.), nor by Tregelles;
but Westcott and Hort insert it in the text,
putting a!jp» in the margin.
and the best researches into what ia oiled
" the physical cause of the death of Christ "
(see Dr. Stroud's valuable work on that
subject), all confirm the voluntary nature of
our Lord's suffering and death. " To cover
this incomparable privilege with a veU of
humility, he thougiit good to call it a
command. The Father's mandate was.
Thou shalt die or not die, thou shalt rise
again or not rise again, according to the free
promptings of thy love" (Godet). It was,
however, the Father's appointment that
Christ should freely exercise this stupendous
consequence of his perfect obedience. So
that all the assurances that God raised him
from tlie dead are confirmed by the mode in
which he speaks of his Divine right.
Vers. 19— 21.— (6) The twofold effect of
this declaration.
Vers. 19, 20. — There arose ' a division
again among the Jews because of these words.
Aud many of them were saying, He hath a
dsemou, and is mad; why hear ye him I
The^ivision among the Jews had repeatedly
taken place: — In ch. vii. 12, 30, SI, 40, 41,
and ix. 8, 9, 16, we see different stages of
the hostiliiy and diffeient aspectsof opinion.
They reached a similar point of expression
in cli. vii. 20 ; viii. 48. With bitter madness
the Pharisees charged the Lord with being
under the power of a " daemon," and with
consequent raving, t.e. with irrationality
and even evil motive. By this means " the
Jews " sought to dissuade the people from
any attention to such \6yovs (sermones,
Vulgate), discourses. They would not have
done this if the impression on some had
not been conspicuous and overpowering.
" Why hear ye him?" This was not the
first time such division had occurred, and
hence the TrdMv, again (see notes, ch. viii.
48). Some were listening with eager, be-
wildering excitement. They knew not what
to think. Their nascent faith is rebuked
by the authorities.
Ver. 21. — There was a twofold reply:
one drawn from their own experience.
Others said. These (^^fjiuara; verba, Vulgate)
sayings — "things said" — are not those of
one who is possessed by a deemon. Their
majestic calm, their conscious strength, the
strange thrill they sent through human
hi arts, and which we feel to this hour, dis-
ciiminate them from the scream of the
maniac, with which some of the more
astounding statemenis taken by themselves
might have suggested comparison. They
give another argument drawn from the
' The oSi/ is omitted by Tischendorf (8t'i
edit.), K.T., Tregelles, and Westcott ami
Hort, on the authority of N, B, L, X, thougt
it is supported by A, r, A, A, and versions
and Fathers.
48
THE GOSPEL ACCORDINO TO ST. JOHN, [oh. x. 1—42.
miiaole which had just taken place, which
provea that his friends on this occasion were
very far from the mad wickedness of those
whose moral sense had been so perverted as
to say that "he casts out daemons by the
prince of dsemons " (see Matt. xii. 24, etc.,
and parallel passages). Can a dGemon open
the eyes of the blind t It is not in the nature
of a daemon to heal disease, and pour light
on siglitless eyes. The goodness of the Lord
triumphs over the vile insinuation. We
must have better explanation than this of
his mysterious claims. The contest was
sharp. The conflict for a while silenced
opposition, only to break ont again with
greater malice and fury.
Vers. 22—42.-6. The {mmes$ of Christ
with the Father. The diseowrse at the Feast
of Dedication, with its results.
Vers. 22— 26.— (1) The Feast of Dedica-
tion, and the excitement of the people.
The paragraph is pregnant with meaning,
arising from the place, the time, and the
action of the Jews. It contains the dis-
crimination between the Jew and those
who were in spiritual union with t'^""'plf|
viz. his sheep. Then follow the character-
istic's and privileges of his sheep, which
lead up to the climax in which he risks the
deadly animosity of his hearers, by claiming
identity of savin [> powar with the Father,
tie accounts for this by asserting what is
expressive of positive consubstantiality with
the Father. On any exegesis, this solemn
announcement is a stupendous assumption
of personal dignity, and was regarded by
his hearers <M blasphemous madness.
Ver. 22.— Now,' the Feast of Dedication
(the enkainid)va.B (celebrated) in Jerusalem.
This feast is not elsewhere noticed in the
New Testament. The account of its origin
is found in 1 Maco. iv. 36, etc. ; 2 Mace. x. 1
— 8 ; JosephuB, ' Ant.,' xii. 7. 7. And it was
winter. It was held on the 25th of Chisleu,
which, in a.d. 29, would correspond with the
19th of Ttoitamhi^r^ in commcmoration of the
" renewal," reconsecration, of the temple by
* 'Ey4v€To Si is the reading of K, A, D,
X, and most of the nncials and cursives ;
Vulgate, /acta sunt; but Westcott and Hort
here introduce tijtc in place of ii, on the
authority of B, L, 83, and versions. Ai t(Jtc
are read by several cursives. Neither Tre-
gelles, Alford, nor Tischendorf (8th edit.)
introduce these words into the text. Should
it be the correct reading, it connects the
following discussion with that which pre-
cedes, and so allows of no break till the
dose of oh. zi.
Judas Maccahseus after the gross profanation
of it by Antiochus Epiphanes (1 Mace, i
20—60; iv. 36—57). It occupied eight
days, was distinguished by illumination of
the city and temple and of other places
throughout the land, and hence was called
the "Feast of Lights." Many interesting
peculiarities of this feast are detailed in
Ederslieim's ' Life of Jesus,' voL ii. 228,
etc. One feature was the increase night by
niglit of the number of lights which com-
memorated the restoration of the temple.
AU fasting and public mourning were pro-
hibited (see ' Moed. K.,' iii. 9). The high
enthusiasm of the people made them long
for deliverance from the Boman yoke. The
Jews would probably have eagerly accepted
Jesus as Messiah if lie had been ready to
take up the rdle of a political leader.
Doubtless.he was the Christ of the Hebrew
prophecies, an3 in his own human con-
Bciousness his high position swelled his
loftiest thought ; but he was not the Christ
of their .Jewish expectation.
Ver. 23. — kna J esus walked in the temple
in Solomon's porch. He walked in Solomon's
portico — that part of the temple of Herod
which the apostles afterwards adopted as
the scene of some of their most explicit
assertions of the gospel (Acts iii. 1 1 ; v. 12).
It was associated with the grandest events
in their national history ; for it was reared
on tlie substructions of Solomon's temple,
which even to the present day are intaft
(Bobinson's ' Palestine,' i. 289 ; Palestine
Exploration Society's Eeports ; ' Recovery
of Jerusalem,' frontispiece, pp. 17, 226, 309—
319). The Lord walked there because it
was winter, and wintry weather. This reveals
a little touch of the hand of an eye-witness.
We need not ask for any more transcendental
explanation. The note of time, moreover,
implies that two months had elapsed since
the Feast of Tabernacles. Wieseler calcu-
lates that the Feast of Tabernacles closed
on October 19, and the Feast of Dedication
began on December 20, and, if so, time ii
left for a portion of the Gralilffian ministry
cited in Luke x. — xiii. Ezra x. 9 — 13
shows that the time referred to was after »
period of heavy rain, and may account for
Jesus walking in the shelter of the portico.
Ver. 24. — ^Ihen the Jews came round
about bim. Not necessarily (with Godet)
separating him from his disciples, but in a
threatening and imperative fashion, demand-
ing an immediate answer. It is probable
that he had absented himself for two montha
in the neighbourhood, had even been in
Pereea (cf. Luke ix.), and met the multitudes
coming up to the feasts.- The xciXii' irepay
ruS 'lopSivou of ver. 40, is best understood
by his having been there before. Th«
difficulty of his making retfoipeeiar* re-
aK.z.1— ^] THE GOSPEL AOOORDING TO ST. JOHN.
49
ferenoe to the similitiide and allegory of the
first part of this chapter is removed by the
simple supposition that he saw in this group
of his interrogators many of those who had
hpiard his former discourse. And said unto
him, UsSf InTlj^flnHt thnii Vinirt n-nr a^fi) {ft
suspense 1 — c^peiy rhv ^i/vy^v Tifi&v ; used in
the sense of " lift up the aoui," and so
used in similar connection in the classics
(Eurip., ' Ion,' 928 ; ' Heo.,' 69 ; ^soliylus,
'Sept.,' 198; also Josephus, 'Ant.,' iii. 2.
3) — If then art the Christ (simple sup-
position), teU us plainly. Observe in oh.
xvi. 25 our Lord's own contrast between
speaking iy Trapoiiitats and speaking ■ira^l>7ial(f,
with open, clear utterance. They had heard
his parables, and say, "Let him drop all
reserve, and deliver himself in categoric
form." Archdeacon Watkins has weU re-
called the various utterances which fell on
the more susceptible of the Jerusalemites.
This was the Fftaat of T;ight!^, and has he
not cftilpd himBBlf the T,ig-ht. nf th? lYT^*^?
This was a feast commemorative of freedom"
from the SjxiaaL^ake, and had he not said,
"If the Son «flt ymi froo, ya ahoU >'q faoft
indeed " 7 This was the Feast of the Puri-
fication oftHia Temple ; had not his first act
been a cleansing of the courtg of the temple ?
We cannot wonder at tne summona and
challenge of the people.
Yer. 25. — Tesns answered them. The
reply of Jesus is full of wisdom. If he had
at once given an afSrmative answer, they
would have misunderstood him, because he
was not the (jhrist of thmr expectations.
If he had denied tbat he was the Messiah,
he would have been untrue to his deepest
consciousness of reality. The answer was :
I spake with you — told you what I am — and
ye believe not. To the woman in Samaria,
to the Oapemaites, to the blind man, to
Peter and the other apostles, and in several
emphatic forms, he had admitted his
Messiahship. In oh. viii. he had claimed
the highest honours and announced his
Divine commission, and appealed to his
great Messianic works, but his endeavour to
rectify their Messianic ideal had, through
their obtuseness, failed of its purpose. So
now once more he referred them to works
done in his Father's name, which hitherto
had failed to convince them: The works
that I do in my Father's name (oh. v. 19,
S6), they bear witness oonoeming me.
Ver. 26. — He gigfis the reason of their in-
sensibility or lack of appreciation and tftlith :
Bufye Delieve noi, oeoause ye are noi ol my
sheep (for similar construction, iirri iic, see
Matt ixvi. 73; oh. vi. 64). The clause
(ica«^r fhoy i/uy >), [as I said unto yon], is
' Tisohendorf (6th edit.), Lachmann, and
T.B., with A, I>, M, X, and other uncials,
JOHN — n.
rejected by powerful arguments, and com-
mentators cease to discuss whether it belongs
to the previous or following clause. In
neither case does it appear entirely relevant,
although the difficulties felt in either appli-
cation may be reduced by supposing either
one saying or the other to have been virtu-
ally embodied in the statements of the
parables of ch. x. 1 — 18.
Vers. 27— 30.— (2) Chrises claim to equa-
lity of power aiid esscTux, and similarity of
gracious operation with the Father.
Vers. 27, 28. — My sheep hear my voioe,
and I know them, and they follow me : and
I give unto them eternal life ; and they shall
never perish, neither shall any one pluck
them out of my hand. Commentators have
differed as to the arrangement of these two
verses — whether the six assertions should
be regarded as two triplets, in the first of
which the sheep of Christ are made promi-
nent, and in the latter of which ihe Shep-
herd; thus —
(1) The them—
"My sheep hear my voice " (their re-
ceptivity).
"And I kiiow them" (the Lord's re-
sponse to their faith).
"And they follow me" (their active
ob^ience).
(2) The Shepherd—
"I give them eternal life" (involving
freedom from peril and death).
" They shall not perish for ever."
* No one (not man or devil, wolf or
hireling) shall pluck them out of
my hand."
This is not so satisfactory as the arrange-
ment which puts this weighty saying into
three couplets instead of two triplets; in
which the sheep are the prominent theme
of each proposition. The three couplets dig-
play the climacteric character of the won-
drous rhythm and interchange of emotion
between the Divine Shepherd and the
sheep —
" My sheep hear my voice, and I ftnow them "
= mutual recognition.
" TJiey'Jolloui me, and I give them eternal
life" = reciprocal activity.
" T^y shall not perish for ever, and no on*
shaU pluck them out of my hartd " = an
authoritative assurance, and its pledge oi
ion.
Ohrisf • knowledge of the sheep corresponds
with their recognition of his supreme
cursives. Torsions, and Fathers, contain
them; but K, B, K, L, Vulgate, Origen,
numerous cursives, Tisohendorf (Sth edit.),
B.T., Tregelles, and Westcott and Btxct omit,
Alford (6th edit.) brackets.
60
THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN.
[oh. X. 1 — ii.
elaims ; their active trust is rewarded by his
greatest gift ; their indefeasible birthright is
guaranteed by his limitless authority and
power to protect them. It would be gross
perversion of the passage to urge thia inde-
feasible birthright on the ground of a few
occasional flashes of conscious assurance and
without any recognition of all the terms of
the relation.
Ver. 29. — The last statement is sustained
by a still loftier assumption. Before trans-
lating, it is necessary to notice the three
readings of the text. (1) That of the T.R.
and the Revisers' Text : ' My Father who gave
^thetn) to me is greater than dU the powers
that can possibly be arrayed against them.
(2) The reading of N, D, With reference to
that which my Father, One greater than all,
gave me, aTtd no one is ahle to pluck from the
hand of the Father. Meyer, howuver, trans-
lates this differently ; he supposes the lieTCov
to refer to the Father "a something greater,
a greater potence." Westoott and Hort
prefer the reading with 3 and ^ne/fov ; and
Westcott translates, TTiat which my Father
has given me is greater than all, and regards it
as a reference to the sheep as a collective
unity. The internal reasons compel Lu-
thardt, Godet, and Lange to fall back on
r.K., and surely the extraordinary strain
jf the meaning justifies them. Our Lord
ivould sustain with even stronger assuiance
the safety of his sheep. The Father's gift
to himself, the Father's own etsmal love
and power, the Divine omnipotence of the
Lord God himself, is pledged to tlieir secu-
rity. " My hand " becomes " my Father's
hand." He seems to say, " If you question
my capacity, you need not question his
power. Sacrilegious violence may appa-
rently nail my hands to the cross; the
sword may awake against Jehovah's Shep-
herd. But none can outwit, surprise, oiu-
cify, conquer, my Father, none can invalidate
his care.
Ver. 30. — Then follows the gublime minor
premise of the syllogium, I and the father
(we) an CHS. as Augustine and Bengel
have said, the first clause is incompatible
with Sabellianism, and the second clause
with Arianism. The Lord is conscious of his
» The reading of the T.E. and K.T., with
the exception of the last word, is, 'O Ilarip
fjLOv, ts SeSuKf fiot, fjtei^toy iravTuv iari' Kal
ovScU Zivarai apirdC^iv ^k ttjs x^'P^s tov ira-
Tp6s fiuou]. Although the B.T. places in the
margin t !>4SaK4 iioi itivrav /itiidv Io-tI, this
ii the reading pieferred by Westcott and
Hort. Tischendorf (8tb edit.) and Tregelles,
on the authority of K, D, L, Coptic, Sahidic,
And Italic, read i S^SuKcy with iifl(iy, and
subsequent modification in A, B, X, Vul-
gate, et&, read is aiul /m?^«i>.
own Personality as distinct from that of the
Father, and yet he asserts a fundamental
unity. But what kind of unity is it? Is
it a unity of wish, emotion, sentiment, only ?
On the contrary, it is a oneness of redemptive
power. The Divine activity of the Father's
eternal love did not come to any arrest or
pause wlien he gave the sheep to the Son,
but with its irresistible might is present in
the " hand " of Jesus (n<f one " can." not no
one "shall"). Therefore the eV, the one
realitv. if it does not c xnress actllttl uiJitv of
esience, involves it. Some I lave endeavoured
to minimize the force of this remarkable
statement by comparing it with ch. xviL
21 — 23, where Jesus said believers are "tc
be in us," and " to be one, even as we are
one," (.0. to have the same kind of relation
with one another (being a collective unity)
as the Father and Son sustain towards each
other, "T in iham^ ^]^nn in mo thai, t.hfly
may be perfected [reach their reAos, by being
blendedj into one ; " i.e. into one Divine per-
sonality by my indwelling. Now, it is no-
where there said tljat believers and the
Father are one, but such a statement is
scrupulously avoided. Numerous attempts
have been made to escape from the stupen-
dous assumption of this unity of power and
essence with the Father. The whole gist of
the assertion reveals the most overwhelming
self-consciousness. The Lord declares that
he can bestow eternal life and blessedness
upon those who stand in close living rela-
tion with hiiijself, and between whom and
himself there is mutual recognition and tbo
interchanges of love and trust. He bases the
claim on the fact that the Father's hands
are behind his, and that the Father's eternal
power and Godhead sustain his mediatorial
functions and, more than all, that the
Father's Personality and his own Personality
aie merged in one essence and entity. If he
merely meant to imply moral and spiritual
union with the Father, or completeness of
revelation of the Divine mind, why should
the utterance have provoked such fierce
resentment ?
Vers. 31— 39.— (3) Resented and chal-
lenged, hut vindicated by word and sign,
Ver. 31. — That the Jews supposed him to
speak of an essential unity is obvious from
what follows. Tho-icnre (titiflf ') toofc np —
should rather be carried or hore in their
hajids— jtones again, huge pieces of marble
lying ai-oiffld iu tUU public works then pro-
oecding. There is an increase of malice over
and above what was involved in simply lift-
ing stones from the pavement (o£ oh. viii.
59), am I the alteration of the word is anothet
hint of the eye-witness. The word " again "
> OZv is omitted by B.T. and Tisobendoit
(8th edit).
OH. X. 1—42.] THfl GOaPBL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
Bl
reminds the reader that this wag a eecond
and more desperate attack upon the life of
Jesus.
Ver. 32. — Jesus answered them, Hany good
(KoA.i) works have I shown you from the(my ')
Father. The works of Christ were lovely
and radiant with Divine beneficence ; they
were revelations of the Father. " I showed
you many of them," says he ; "I gave you
signs thus, of the intimate relation between
the whole of the self-revelation 1 am making
and the Father " (cf. oh. vi. 65 ; vii. 17 ; viii.
42). 7or which work of these (works)
are ye stoning mel t'.«. preparing by your
gesture to carry this into effect. By these
words, uttered with smitiug irony and terrific
though quiet indignation, Je»us antwered
their threat.
Yer. 33. — ^The Jews answered him (say-
ing'), For a good (excellent, obviously, ra-
diantly so) work we do not stone thee ; but
for blasphemy ; and because thou, being man,
makest thyself God. (IIcpl koAoS ^p7au and
itfpX 0\a<riprmias contrast with the causal
Sid roioy of the previous verse. This pre-
position was used for formal indictments of
offence before the tribunals.) The Jews felt
the force of this indignant reproach, and
would not admit that his Divine and goodly
work was without meaning to them. It
was, however, a melancholy reality that his
beneficent work had roused their malice into
fiercer activity, but they credit themselves
with a higher and a doctrinal motive and
with a jealousy for the honour of God. They
charge him with blasphemy, and the charge
is reiterated before Pilate (ch. xix. 7). The
Jews were in one sense right. He had de-
clared his essential unity with the Father ;
he had " made himself, represented himself
(of. ch. viii. 53 ; xix. 7), as equal with God."
In the opinion of his hearers, he conveyed
the idea that he possessed and was wielding
Divine powers. He was making himself to
be God. " Good works " by the score were
no vindication of one who dishonoured the
Xame of God by claiming equality with him.
Ver. 34. — The justification of Jesus which
follows is often supposed to be a retractation
of the claim — a repudiation of the inference
which the Jews drew from the words re-
corded in ver. 30. On the contrary, our Lord
took up one illustration from among many
In Holy Scripture, that the union between
man and God lay at the heart of their (i/ii/ias)
Law. True, he quoted from Ps. Ixsxii. 6
with reference to the high official title given
by the Hoi' Spirit to the false and tyran-
' N,B,D, followed by AlfordjTischendorf;
Westcott and Hort, and B.T., omit /tov.
* The most ancient manuscripts omit \4-
roKTct of T.B., with K, A, B, K, L. M, X.
B.T. omit*.
nical judges of the old covenant. Jesni
answered them, Is it not written in your
Law) The Psalms are here spoken of aa
"the Law," showing that they did form part
of the revelation and law of the Divine
kingdom (ch. vii. 49 ; ziL 34 ; xv. 25).
Jesus does not imply that the Law was their$
and not his. There is not a shadow of dis-
respect oast on the Law by the pronoun, but
such an identification of it with his hearers
that they ought, by its aid, to have been
saved from utterly misconceiving his words.
I said, Ye are gods (elohim, Beat). To
stand in close relation with the theocracy
was to be covered with its glory. He seems
to force upon them thus a host of similar
blendings of the Divine and human in the
agelong preparation for himself, and to
free all these from the suspicion of blas-
phemy. The Hebrew thought was really
calculated to prepare the world for this high
Intercommunion, not to abolish it. Judaism,
rabbinism, had widened the chasm between
God and man. Christ came to fill up the
chasm ; nay more, to show the Divine and
human in living, indissoluble union.
Ver. 35.— If he (the Holy Spirit, or the
Holy Lawgiver, the subject is lefl; indefi-
nite) called them gods (elohim), to whom
the Word of God came — the personal " Word "
need not be excluded here; the "Word
of God " was the Divine agency by which
prophets spoke and psalmists sang — and
the Scripture (ypmlrli is singular, and has
reference, not to all the ypo^at, but to
this one word) cannot be broken; loosed,
destroyed. A fine testimony to the confi-
dence which our Lord exercised in the Holy
Scripture. He was accustomed to educe prin-
ciples of life from its inward structure, from
its concealed framework, from its under-
lying verities. The very method adopted
by Jesus on this occasion revealed the faot
that both he and his biographer were bom
Jews. These tyrannical judges were " to
die like men," yet, since "the Word of God
came to them," there was a sense in which
even they, without blasphemous assump-
tions, might receive the title of elohim.
Ver. 36.— If it be so, Say ye of him whom
the Father sanctified (or, eonseerated), and
sent into the world. The order of these
words requires us to oonoeive of this conse-
cration as occurring previously to the incar-
nation of the eternal Son. Before his birth
into the world he entered into relations with
the Father to undertake a work of inde-
scribable importance. He was destined, oi
designated, or appointed, and then sent to
do this sublime deed of redemption. Unlike
those to whom the eternal Logos came, con-
ferring thereby honorifio titles, and oalling
them to occasional and alas I ill-discharged
duties, he was the eternal Word himael^
u
THE GOSPEL ACOORDINO TO ST. JOHN. [ok. x. 1—42.
and he wm moreover (ai those old jndges
did) "to die like men," to lay dovm that
life in order that he might take it again ;
oonsequeutly, he asks, with sublime self-
eoneciousneiB, " Say ye of him, thug conse-
crated. Thou blasphemest ; because I said, I
am Son of Oodt" It is remarkable that
Christ shonld, instead of repeating the
phrase, "I and the Father are one" — one,
Bs we have seen, in power and purpose and
attribute — ^imply that in that former saying
he had but told them he was " Son of God,"
in a sense to which the old Hebrew kings,
notwithstanding their theocratic symbolism
and mysterious names of honour, could not
aspire. This is clearly a bold utterance of
the Messianio dignity (of. oh. i. 49; v. 19,
20). The fact that he continually treated
the two ideas of Father and Son as correla-
tive (ch. viii. 19 ; cf . ch. ix. 35— 37 ; xi v. 7 —
13, etc.) makes the one afiscrtion an equiva-
lent of the other. This is a much greater
daim than that yielded to the judges of old,
and it is a new revelation of the Father and
of the Son. Moreover, he showed them that
there were many anticipations, foreshadow-
ings of the incarnation of God in their own.
Scripture. We have an argument from the
less to the greater, but one which, while it
technically freed him from the charges of
blasphemy, revealed the agelong prepara-
lation that had been made for the union
between the Infinite and finite, between
the Creator and creature, between the
Father and his child, wliich was effected in
himself. Some may have supposed that in
the levelling up of the theocratic adumbra-
tions of the Incarnation, he was virtually
relinquishing the uniqueness of his own;
but the following words, anri the interpreta-
tion put on them by his i.earers, answer
such a charge.
Ver. 37. — "I and the Father are one,"
and "I am the Son of God." These two
mighty utterances are equivalent to the fol-
lowing : " I do the works of my Father."
My works are his works, his works are
mine. " My Father worketh hitherto, and I
work." The recognition of the Divine is a
nign of the regenerated mind, and a test of
fitness for a place in Christ's flock (cf "I
know my sheep, and my sheep know me ").
The Jews had not recognized the true
reciprocal relation between the Father and
Son. He had come out from God, and
been sent from the Father to produce this
impression, to make known the Father by
his Sonship ; and he had taken steps to
eonvince even unbelieving men of the iden-
tity of his nature and Spirit with that of
the Father. He is content to rest his olaims
upon their belief, on the character of his
works. He is content to leave the question
M to whether he be a blasphemer or one
with the Father, a sinner of sinners or Sob
of God, on the evidence of his works — on the
God-like, Father-like character of his entire
ministry (cf. ver. 32 ; oh. v. 17, 36 ; ix. 3).
If I do not the works of my Father, believe
me not. " If the evidence be insufScient, I
acquit you of blame in not taking me at my
word. My own words and Person and life
miyhl be enough for yon; but if my works
are not in perfect harmony with the best
you know of the Father, believe me not."
Christ's appeal to the reason of his hearers,
to the sufficiency of the evidence he had
given, would justify unbelief in case of a
proved failure.
Ver. 38. — But if I do — if I am performing
the works of my Father, if these acts of
healing and helping, of mighty consolation
and symbolic grace, are obviously such as
you can recognize as the Father's, believe
them ; leam that much, — ^it is for your life —
and if yon make that acquisition, though ye
believe not me — though you do not credit
my assertion on my own authority, though
you do not take me at once on my own
word — believe the works ; yon may then
take the further step, and both know and
understand,' or know broadly, and com-
pletely, and then learn in details, that the
Father i^ in me, and I in the Father.'
Between the assertion of ver. 30, " X and
my Father are one," and that of this verse,
" the works " are introduced — works that are
recognized as Divine, "the Father's," but seen
and known also to be Christ's own works.
Why should they stone him for blasphemy
if they have evidence so resistless as this,
even if it comes short of proof, that he it
absolutely one with the Father ? The
intuitive perception of the Divine in Christ
is the highest and noblest spiritual experi-
ence. His word should be, might be, enough;
but, suppose it should fail, miracles, " works,"
come in to link the Divine Personality of
the Speaker with the supreme Father. The
works may teach them that he is in the
Father, and the Father in him. Not by a
flash of light, but by growing intellectual
• The reading of T.B., ical iricrrc^o^rc,
with ;;, A, r, and many other authorities,
was an endeavour to simplify or explain the
less intelligible yivd><rK7)Te. A double use of
the same verb in the aorist and present was
not understood; but it is adopted by Tisohen-
dorf (8th edit.), Tregelles, Westcott, and
Hort, and R.T., on the authority of B, D, X,
1, 32, and versions.
' 'Ei' Tij) Tlarpl is the reading of Tischen>
dorf (8th edit.), Tregelles, and R.T., on the
authority of K, B, D, L, X, 33, 157, numerous
versions and Fathers. The iv aiiT<f of T.R.
is the reading of A, r, A, A> n, and numerous
cursives.
OIL X. 1—42.] THE GOSPEL ACOORDINa TO ST. JOHN.
IS
eonyiction, they must come to a oonelniioix
whieh the great assertion, " I and the Father
we one," finally confirms.
Ver. 39.— (Therefore') they sought (sgain')
to seize him, and he escaped oat of their'
hands. This appeal roused their animosity,
and, though they dropped their stones, they
were preparing to lay violent hands on him.
The TriMv points back to ch. vii. 30, 32, 44.
His escape was facilitated by the strange
moral power he could exert to render their
assaults upon him yain. They stretched
out hands which dropped harmlessly at
their side — another confirmation of the
solemn statement of Ter. 18. There is no
need to suppose a miracle, still less to justify
the preposterous notioo that the body of
Jesus was, in John's Gospel, docetic merely
(cf. ch. viiL 59; Luke It. 30; Mark xi.
18\
Vers. 40— 42.— (4) Beyond Jordan. The
ttueeptibility of thoee who had heen pre-
pared for hU Word by the early ministry of
John.
Ver. 40. — And he went away ag^ain (see ch.
L 28, note) beyond Jordan, to the plaoe where
John at first baptized ; a place enriched for
him by many solemn associations. There he
submitted to baptism, to fasting, and tempta-
tion. There he had heard the first testimonies
of John. There he had gathered round
him his most susceptible and appreciative
hearers. There Andrew and Simon, James
and John, Philip and Bartholomew, came
under his mighty spell. There the first
intuition of his Messiahship dawned on the
noblest of his followers. The entire sug-
gestion is unquestionably historic. That
special scene of our Lord's ministry was
indelibly impressed on the memory of the
beloved disciple. Tfie place where John at
first baptized; i.e. the place occupied by
John before he came to CEnon, and there-
fore in the district where he delivered his
most solemn testimonies to the people, to
the Sanhedrin, to the first disciples. And
' The authorities are divided about the
ovp, H and B being opposed. Tischendorf
(8th edit.) accepts; B.T.omit; Westcott and
Hort bracket. ndKiv is omitted by Tischen-
dorf, and preserved by B.T. and Tregellei.
there h« abode.* How long, we know not.
The repose was soon broken.
Vers. 41, 42.— "The posthumous fruit of
John's labours" (Bengel). Uany came to
him, and they said, one to another, rather
than to the Lord, John indeed did no sigiL
It was not John's function to work miracles
or startle the world with visible proofs of
his Divine commission, John stood on the
natural sphere, found a place in contem-
poraneous history, and exerted all his influ-
ence by the force of his prophetic word.
But as a remarkable confirmation of the
whole revelation enacted by the life and
deeds of Christ, we read, But all things that
John spake of this Man were true. The
testimonies of John were to the effect that
Jesus was " mightier " than he— that he
was the Son of God, the " Baptizer with the
Holy Ghost and with fire," and "the Lamb
of God, that taketh away the sin of the
world." The absence of the miraculous
nimViui from the record of John's ministry
is one of tue subsidiary evidences we possess
of the supernatural power wielded by our
Lord Jesus Christ. John was a historic
contemporary of Jesus, whose following sur-
vived for some centuries, but not until com-
paratively recent times did credulity or the
mythopoeic tendency clothe him in a super-
natural glory. He was believed to be the
Elijah of the new covenant, but he was
not supposed to have gone to heaven, like
his prototype. A rumour grew up that
Jesus was John raised from the dead, but
nothing came of it. There was all the
material for a splendid myth, but no evolu-
tion of one. i'he reasoning, therefore, is
fair — since Jesus i$ reported by John's dis-
ciples to have wrooyht great signs; these
reports are not to be put down to credulity
or fiction. The evangelist distinctly asserts
that all these testimonies which he had
himself recorded in ch. i, when followed up
by the visible and wonderful presence of the
Son of God himself, were held to be true.
We need not wonder, then, that many believed
on him there.
* Westcott and Hort here read (f/tcvcv) in
the imperfect, on the authority ot B,m,b,e;
all the other authorities read iittiyw.
HOMILETICS.
Vert. 1 — 6. — The aMegory of the shepherd. Our Lord contrasts the leUgious
guidance of the Pharisees, as the shepherds of the Jewish fold, with that afforded by
himself in respect of loyal devotion and obedience.
I. Ths bheepfold. This is the Jewish theocracy. L The L«rd represented himself
to the old prophets as the Shepherd of Israel. (Isa. xL 11 ; Ezek. zxzv.) 2. JBe had
isolated Israd/rom ail the nations of the earth that he nught train her for hinwelf.
S 7!hefiock consists of two dosses, which are distinguished ia K«w Testament
64 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. x. 1-42.
(1) as " Israel after the flesh " and " Israel after the Spirit," (2) and " the Jew out«
wardly '' and " the Jew inwardly."
II. The doob into the sheeffold. There is a divinely instituted method of
entering the sheeplold. It is the Messianic office. Jesus is the Centre of the Old
Testament theocracy.
III. The two classes of shepherds. 1. Th» false guides of the peoph. " He that
entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the lame
is a thief and a robber." The allusion is to the scribes and Pharisees. (1) They had
established an authority oyer the Jews which had no sanction in the Diyine Law. Their
methods were unauthorized. (2) They gained their position of authority by evil
methods : (o) by stratagem, like thieves ; (6) by violence, like robbers. (3) They used
their position, by their mingled hypocrisy and greed, to enhance their own greatness at
the cost of the spiritual welfare of the Jews. 2. The trtie guide of the people. (1) He
appears as one divinely commissioned, and therefore uses the legitimate entrance.
" But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep." (2) The instant
recognition of his office. " To him the porter openeth." It matters little whether the
porter signifies (a) John the Baptist (6) or the Holy Spirit. (3) Mark the gentle and
effective way in which he manages his sheep, (a) He calls them forth by name, as if
to mark the individual interest of Christ in believers, (i) He takes himself the way to
their pasture. " He leadeth them out ; " " He goeth before them " (Ps. xxiii. 1 — 3). He
leads forth his own sheep, in separation from others who follow other guidance. (4)
Mark how the sheep respond to his guiding care, (o) They recognize his voice. " For
they know his voice." It is a voice of love, grace, and mercy. They know it (a) by
its majesty and authority ; (;8) by its tenderness ; (7) by its power in their souls ; (>)
by its consistency with the actual kindness of the shepherd, as contrasted with the
dangerous voice of strangers, which they instinctively reject. (6) They follow him.
This is their true safety as well as their happiness. Thus they find their way into the
green pastures and the still waters of Divine love and grace.
Vers. 7 — 10. — Allegory of the door. The Jews could not understand the previoui
allegory. Our Lord utters another, which carries the truth to a higher point.
I. Christ is the Wat of salvation to the believer. " I am the Door of the
sheep." 1. Ee is the Door of access to the Father. (Eph. iL 18.) 2. He is the Door to
heaven itself. (Ch. xiv. 2.) 3. The Door is ever open. 4. It may le strait, hut those
who enter mil assuredly he saved.
II. Christ warns against all false saviours. " All that ever came before
me are thieves and robbers." 1. He does not refer to the prophets, who only clearly fore-
told his office and work. 2. But to such as assume the office of mediatorship, as made
themselves the door. There is hut one Mediator between God and man (1 Tim. ii. 5).
3. Believers were, by a spiritual instinct, preserved from the wiles of such false teachers.
" And the sheep did not hear them."
III. The safety and the privileges of the sheep. " By me if any man enter
in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." 1. The sheep will have
safely. (1) They are saved from sin through Christ (1 John L 7). (2) They are so
safe in his hands that no man can pluck them out of his grasp (ver. 29). 2. The
sheep will have liberty. " They shall go in and out," either for food or for rest. They
enjoy the liberty of the sons of God. 3. The sheep will have food. " And find
pasture." They find the fullest satisfaction in Christ and in his salvation — words of
faith and good doctrine, the wholesome words of Christ Jesus.
IV. The contrast between Christ and the false oniDES of the Jews. 1.
2%« Pharisees pursued a course thai involved the spiritual ruin of the Jews. " The thief
Cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy." (1) They insidiously obtained
and dexterously upheld a monopoly of influence over the Jewish mind. (2) They
corrupted the hearts of the people so as to bring moral death. (3) They effected their
total perdition. 2. Christ pursued a course that guaranteed life in its abounding
greatness. " I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more
abundantly." (1) Christ gives life to dead souls (Eph. ii. 1— -6). (2) He m«kei
provision for the expansion of this life, in all grace, blessing, joy, gloiy, and haiq^nesi
hereafter.
OH. X. 1—42.] THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINa TO BT. JOHIT. 6S
Vers. 11 — 21. — Allegory of the good Shepherd. Thera is a progress of thought in
each allegory.
I. Thb ohabacteb of the oood Shephebd. "I am the good Shepherd: the
good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." 1. Be is himself" the great Shepherd of th»
sheep " of whom the prophets spoke. (Bzek. xxxiv. 23 ; Gen. xlix. 24 ; Isa. xl. 11.) 2.
His interest in his sheep is manifested in his throwing away his life for their protection.
Like David, he exposes his life freely for the sake of his Father's flock ; he gives his life
in their room ami stead. Our liOrd constantly emphasizes that doctrine of atonement
which the " wisilom of the world " rejects.
II. The ohabaotbr op the hireling. 1. He has no natural concern for the sheep.
" But he that is an hirelia;;, and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth
the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep." Hirelings of this class mind their own things,
not the things of Jesus Christ, seeking only their gain from their quarter. They care
not, therefore, what becomes of the sheep. Our Lord here refers, probably, to the
natural guides of the Jewish people — the priests and the Levites, who had come to
forget or ignore all their religious responsibilities. 2. He allows the wolves to scatter the
flock. " The wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep." The wolf represents the
natural enemy of the sheep. Jesus had said before, " I send you as sheep in the midst
of wolves " (Matt. x. 16). The Pharisees were " wolves " from their rapacity, their
falseness, and their temper of domination.
III. The relation between the good Shepherd and his sheep. "I know my
sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, and as I know the Father."
1. This bespeaks mutual knmvledge. (1) Jesus has an individual knowledge of each
member of his flock, as at once the choice and gift of his Father, and as his own
purchase. The relation between himself and his Father was the source and the pattern
of this intimate relation with his sheep. (2) The sheep know Christ savingly; for
their knowledge is linked with (e») trust, (V) love, (c) admiration. 2. He tacrifices hit
life for the sheep. " And I give my life for the slieep." The sacrifice was yet future,
but clearly foreseen. There was no life for the sheep but through the death of the
Shepherd. 3. He has also purposes of mercy for the Gentiles. " And other sheep I have,
which aie not of this fold : them also must I bring, and they shall hear my voice; and
they shall be one flock, one Shepherd." (1) Jewish unbelief will not defeat the Lord's
purpose to establish a kingdom of believers. (2) Our Lord foresees the hearty belief
of the Gentiles in his Messiahship. (3) He regards them as already his, for they are
so from all eternity (ch. xviii. 37). (4) He regards them as not " of this fold," for they
are as yet " aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of
promise " (Eph. ii. 12). (5) Yet they are to be brought out of the wilderness of the
world to his heavenly kingdom anri glory by their hearing his voice in the gospel.
(6) There will be but one Church-state for Jew and Gentue. " And they shall be
one flock, one Shepherd." (a) Jesus by his death has made both one — " one new
man " — breaking down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile. (V)
There may be many folds, that is, many visible Churches, but there is but one flock, (c)
There is bi.it one Shepherd in this flock. Our Lord foresees the great mission-work of
the Church in coming ages.
IV. Mark the perfect freedom op the Shepherd's death. " Therefore doth
my Father love me, because I give my life, that I may take it again. No one taketh it
from me, but I give it of myself." 1. There is more in the sacrifice of Christ than in
the death of a shepherd, who lets himself be torn in pieces that his flock may escape.
2. Ohrisfs was a death absolutely self-determined, yet in accordance with his Father's
will, and therefore does it specially challenge the Father's love. (1) There was power
to lay down life. This implies the power to keep it. He could have claimed the aid
of twelve legions of angels to snatch him from the grasp of his enemies. He was,
indeed, "crucifled in weakness; " but it was a weakness self-induced. (2) There was
power to take life again in his resurrection, after he had satisfied law and justice by his
obedience and sufferings unto death.
V. Consider the bfpect of odb Lord's teachino. "There was a division
therefore again among the Jews by reason of these words." There is always the same
result : a few accept the teaching, the rest become increasingly hostile and insulting.
The question, " Why hear ye him 7 " implies an xmeasineis at the &vour shown to him
by • portion of the Jewi.
M THE GOSPEL AOCORDINQ TO ST. JOHN. [cm. x. 1—4*
Vera. 22 — 31; — Another vUit to JeruBcUem and another address. Jesus left the city for
two months, and, after ministering in Peraaa, returned for the Fenst of Dedication, which
oommemorated the purification of the temple, in the time of the Maccabees, from the pro-
fanation of Antiochus Epiphanes. It was held in December, and " Jesus was walkii^
ia Solomon's porch," a sheltered arcade for such a season.
L The fbesh appeal of the Jews fob an mrAMBionous deolabation or ths
Mebsiahshif. " How long wilt thou make us to doubt ? If thou be the Christ, teU
us plainly." 1. J^ey encircled him hy dosing in around him, so as to enforce a cate-
gorical answer to their question. 2. They seemed to he weary of answers ambigvoui in
their eyes, because they had not eyes to see their meaning, and demanded an answer
without reserve and without fear. 3, The Maccahean tradition brought so vividly
before their minds by the feast suggested the bare possibility of Jesus being such a tem-
poral Messiah as they looked for, possessing as he undoubtedly did a marvellous power
over nature and man.
II. Cue Lobd'b fibst anbweb to tbeib appeal. " I told you, and you believed
not : the works that I do in my Father's Name, they bear witness of me. But ye
believe not, because ye are not of my sheep." 1. A direct answer would have been
impossible. If he had said, " I am the Messiah," he would have led them to believe
that he was the temporal ^nce of their false conceptions. If he had said, " I am not
the Messiah," he would have uttered falsehood, for he was the Messiah promised by
Ood. 2. He recurs to those significant testimonies by which he had applied to himself
all the Messianic symbols of the old dispensation. 3. He adds the weighty testimony of
his Father — "the works of the Father" — as signifying his oneness with the Father.
4. His words, " Te are not of my sheep," signify that he was not such a Messiah as they
desired.
III. The busbsed PBrnLEGEs attached to the belation between Chbist and
his SHEEP. Our Lord asserts in parallel clauses the acts of the sh'eep and the acts or
gifts of the Shepherd. 1. The acts of the sheep. (1) " My sheep hear my voice."
They hear with both ear and heart. Their faith came by " hearing." (2) " And they
follow me," both in the exercise of grace and in the discharge of duty. (3) " They
shall never perish." Their salvation is sure. 2. 2%e acts or gifts of the Shepherd.
(1) " I know them," with the knowledge of a Divine fellowship. (2) " I give unto
them eternal life." (a) He gives himself, who is that "Eternal Life "(1 John L 1).
(6) He gives the knowledge of himself, which is life eternal (ch. xvii. 2). (c) It Is
a present gift. (<2) It is a pure gift — of grace, not works. (3) " Neither shall any pluck
them out of my hand." (a) The sheep are placed in Christ's hands by the Father;
for they are " the sheep of his hand " (Ps. icv. 7). (6) The power, the wisdom, the
love of Jesus secure the final salvation of his sheep.
IV. The absolctb seoubitt of the sheep and its tbub obottnd. " My Father,
which gave them me, is greater than all ; and none is able to pluck them out of my
Father's hand. I and my Father are one." 1. The safety of the bdiever is guaranteed by
the power of the Father as well as that of the Son. 2. The oneness of Father and Son,
not merelAj in will or power, but in nature, is the supreme guarantee of oil salvation,
which is the common work of Father and Son.
v. The effect of this declabation upon the Jews. " Then the Jews brought
stones again to stone him." 1. This act of sudden rage implied that they undersUmd
our Lord to claim supreme Beity. 2. The stones had been previously carried to the porch,
in the expectation that the sacnfice of Christ could not be much longer delayed.
Vers. 32 — 39. — The charge of Wasphemy. There is now a second address.
L Dim Lobd'b uethod of ELioiTiNa the tbqe motive of Jewish violenoe and
anobb. "Many good works have I showed you from the Father; for which of these
works do ye stone me?" 1. Jesus Iiad wrought many more miracles which are not
recorded in this Oospd. 2. They were not only works done, as visible indications of tfte
Father, hut they were, as the word signifies, " beautiful works." With a moral excellence
that ought to have touched the Jewish heart. 3. Tet they excited the deepest hostility
of the Jews.
II. The beplt of the Jews. " For a good work we stone thee not ; but for
blasphemy ; because that thou, being a man, makest thyself Gh>d." 1. Their inierprt-
OH. X. 1—42.] THE GOSPEL ACOOBDING TO ST. JOHH. 67
tation of hit language was per/eefly Just. Wten he said, " I and my Father are one,"
he asserted his true Deity. The Jews saw in the words more than our modem
Clitics. 2. Our Lord's declaration wot designed to set forth his distinctness from the
Father as against Sabellicmism, and his co-ordination with the Father as against
Arianism,
IIL OuB Lord's vindioation of his Deitt. He appeals to their Law, in which
judges are called gods, and asks, if this be so, " say ye of him, whom the Father hath
sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest ; because I said, I am the Son
of God?" 1. He does not retract the assertion of his Divine nature, nor lower the tense
of the word " Ood," as if he were God in no higher sense than an Israelite judge. But,
arguing upon the principles of their Law, he urges that he does not deserve to be treated
as a blasphemer for having called himself the Son of God. 2. Ee argues, from tie con-
trast between himself and the "gods" of tJieJemsh Law, that the charge cannot apply to
himself. How could blasphemy be charged to him who was not consecrated to a mere
earthly judgeship, but sent into the world to reveal the Father to men ? 3. Our Lord
puts honour on the Scriptures of the Old Testament, when he euserts that they cannot be
broken,
lY. Fbesh stbess laid uton thk evidehob or eib wobes. 1. Jesus returns to the
undeniable evidence of his works. To believe the works is a necessary step to believing
for the works' sake. 2. He emphasizes the truth taught by the works. " That ye may
know, and V>elieve, that the Father is in me, and I in him." (1) Mark the fact of the
comtrnmication of the Divine fulness to the Son. (2) Mark the fact of the Son's entire
self-abnegation ; for he recognizes no life but that of the Father. The whole passage
sets forth the Divine. fellowship of the Father and the Son.
V. The baffIiED anueb of the Jews. " Therefore they sought again to take him :,
but he escaped out of their hand." 1. Hit arguments restrained their violence. For
they did not venture to fling their stones at him, though they had a desire to arrest
him. 2. Jesus used the interval of thtir indecision to escape beyond reach of their violence.
Vers. 40 — 42. — The brief sofoum in Perma. Jesus left Jerusalem for the region
beyond Jordan, where John at first baptized.
L His hinistbt in FEBiEA. " He abode there." 1. His scffoum there would be a
happy release for the time from Jewish hostility. 2. It would be agreeable to return to
the scene of his first ministry. 3. His visit must have been a short time before the last
Passover. And its incidents are fully recorded by the other evangelists.
IL The effects of his ministry. " And many resorted unto him, and said, John
did no miracle : and all things that John said of this Man were true. And many believed
on him there." 1. 7%e mission of the seventy, . and ChrisVs otvn work in Galilee,
account for the number who resortfd to him beyond Jordan. 2. The testimony of John
to iTesus is still vital in the hearts of the people. John did no miracles, but he was a
true witness of Ohiist. 3. The helieftf the people here throwt into dark contrast (Ae
incredulity of the Jews.
HOMILIES BY VAEIOUS AUTHOES.
Yen. 8, 4. — The Shepherd and the sheep. By anticipation the Lord Jesus laid down
in this allegory the relations which should obtain between himself and his people unto
the end of time.
I. The Divine Shepherd's treatment of the flock. 1. He goes before them.
Like an Oriental shepherd, Christ does not drive his flock from him ; he draws them to
him. This he has done in the whole tenor of his human life — in his circumstances,
his character, his toils, his sufierings and death, his glory. 2. He calls them by name.
This implies individual knowledge of all the sheep, whom he not merely marks, but
actually names. Thus he denotes his property in them, liis interest in their welfare.
3. He leads them out into green pastures, and calls them to follow him thither. His
command takes the form of invitation. The attraction of his love induces his sheep to
follow him. He conducts them to the pastures where he feeds them, to the fold where
he protects them.
66 THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINO TO ST. JOHN. [oh. i. 1-42.
11. THK BBSPONSK Olf THK FLOCK TO THB LANOUAQB AND TBBATMKNT OF THE DlVINB
Shepherd. 1. They hear and know his voice. Christ's tones, when he speaks to his
own, are gentle and kind ; his language is compassionate and encouraging. His voice
is, therefore, suited especially to the timid, the feeble, the helpless. To all such it is
sweet, cheering, and comforting. The people of Christ are deiif to other voices, but are
attentive to this. Its charm is felt, its authority is recognized. They have heard it
before ; they know it and love it ; they distinguish it from every other. Gratefully
and gladly do they hear the voice of the Beloved. 2. They obey and follow him. The
voice is enough. The true sheep do not wait for the crook, the staff; they are obedient
to the Shepherd's word of gentle authority. It is enough for them that the way in
which they are led is his way. " He that followeth me," says Christ, " shall not walk
in darkness." There is no questioning, no hesitation, no delay ; the sheep foUow
whither the Shepherd leads. Thus they have rest and peace. They fear no danger and
no foe while their Pastor watches over them and defends them. They need not ask
why such a path is marked out for them, for they Lave perfect confidence in their
Divine Leader. They need not ask whither they are going, for they are satisfied if
they ore in the pasture and the fold of him who is the Shepherd and Bishop of their
•oulf.— T.
Ver. 9. — Christ the Door. A homely and simple metaphor ; yet how full of meaning,
how precious, how suggestive, to every hearer of the gospel ! There may be a door to
a sheepfold, to a house, to a palace, to a fortress. There may be a door to a dungeon,
to a church, to a torture-chamber, to a royal treasury. A door may be of material as
weak as wicker, or as strong as oak, iron, or brass. The door may be opened by a latch
which a child may lift, or it may be secured by bolts and bars that may resist the blow
of a battering-ram. It may stand always open, so that every passer-by may enter by it ;
or it may be locked, so that only such as have the key or the password can gain entrance.
I. Man's spiritual condition is buch as to make a door like this most dksirablb.
A door presumes a "within" and a " without." If those on the outside are exposed to
w»nt, to danger, to misery; and if those within enjoy all the advantages which the
excluded wanderers lack — in such a case, the interest attaching to the door of ingress is
manifest. Now, the spiritual state of sinful men is pitiable and distressing. In God is
all good ; apart from God no true good is accessible to man. The way to God is, then,
to us a matter of vital importance. Christ declares himself to be such a Way. He is
the Door ; by which, translating the language from tl'.at of poetry to that of theology,
we understand he is the " one Mediator between God and man."
II. Christ is the Door by which men may enter in and enjoy the greatest
blessings provided by God. 1. The door of the fold admits the sheep to Divine
pasture ; and they who accept Christ's mediation find at their disposal all the provision
of God's spiritual bounty. That the soul as well as the body needs food, is plain. The
knowledge of God, the favour of God, the gracious help of God, — without such provision
the soul is starved. The way by which these blessings may be attained is that pointed
out in the text. Christ is the Door, by which if any man enter in he shall find pasture.
2. The door of the fold admits the sheep to Divine secui ity ; and they who shelter
themselves in Christ are safe from every harm and every foe. If the flock are left
unprotected, they are exposed to dangers of two kinds ; they are likely to wander among
the precipices of the dark mountains, and they are liable to be attacked by ravening
wolves and other beasts of prey, or to become the spoil of robbers and marauders.
Similarly, it should be impressed upon the minds, especially of the inexperienced, that
this life is full of perils to all the children of men, that temptations and spiritual
enemies abound. There is no security out of Christ. But whilst those without the
door are exposed to death, Christ secures to his flock the blessing of life, and that in
abundance.. 3. The door of the fuld admits the sheep to Divine society ; and through
Christ his people partake the hallowed and happy fellowship of all who are his. With-
out are the enemies ; within are the friends, 'fhe fellowship of the flock is among the
choicest privileges to which Christians are introduced ; but it is Christ himself who
introduces them. Only through the door can this society be reached and enjoyed.
Those who gather within the fold are together partakers of the love and caie of the
Shepherd. Theirs is the congenial companionship of God's blessed home.
<i».x.l— 42.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 69
in. ChBIBT, as a DoOE, has certain QnALITIES VHICH MAT AWAKEN OUB GEATrnTOB.
L He is a strong Door. His strength is used to resist the incursion of any invader or
foe, and thus to protect the members of the fold. Christ is to his people a bulwark
against every evil. 2. He is to those who wish to enter into the enjoyment of spiritual
blessings an open Door. Sometimes a door is used for excluding those without, in a
spirit of churlishness. There is nothing like this in the posture, the bearing, of the
Lord Jesus. This donr is indeed shut to unbelief and hardness of heart, but is ever
open to the lowly, faithful, and contrite. 3. He is the only Door. Those who seek
another entrance are like such as climb over the wall. There is none other Name
whereby we can be saved.
lY. Fob whose admission Chbist, the Doob, ib intended. Two classes are men-
tioned in the context, as contemplated in the benefits of this Door. 1. The under-
shepherds, or those who are engaged in the spiritual tuition and guidance of their fellow-
men. These are bound to enter in by the Door into the sheepfold. Spiritual pastors
must find Christ before they can truly feed the sheep. 2. The sheep themselves enter
by this Door, and by this only, into tiie fold of God. These are they whom the good
Shepherd came to seek and find, when they were lost in the wilderness. These are
they for whom the Shepherd laid down his precious life.
Application. Those who have entered by the Door, and are within the fold, should
rejoice with gratitude. Those who are without shotild seek at once to enter by this
Door.— T.
Ver. 10. — Life and abundance. Sad indeed is the perversion of Divine gifts, which
takes place when those who teach and lead mankind use their influence for moral
harm. Yet so it was, om* Lord Jesus tells us, with many who came before him with
great professions indeed, yet with no help for the spiritually necessitous. Some such
had altogether carnal notions of what deliverance, salvation, means. Others were
animated by selfishness and ambition. The purpose of many who made great claims
was in reality far from benevolent. Jesus does not hesitate to designate them as
thieves, entering God's flock with the intention of stealing, killing, and destroying.
This was a heavy charge ; and our Lord would not have brought it had there not been
good reason and justification for so doing. The aim and the conduct of such pernicious
leaders was contrasted by Jesus with his own. He, fco, came claiming to shepherd the
flock of God. But his one purpose was this, that through his ministry of devotion
and sacrifice the sheep of the fold might have li/e and abundance.
L The blessikqs which the good Shbphbed came to bring to the flock. 1.
Life. Jesus was "the Life; " " in him was life." What he possessed in himself he
came to communicate to his own. (1) This was spiritual life. Not psyche, but zoe.
Of this man only, amongst the living inhabitants of this teeming world, is capable.
(2) This life is salvation from death. Onr Lord himself contrasts it with destruction.
To this terrible fate, to spiritual death, this human race was hastening. But Christ, as
a great Physician, undertook the case of those who were ready to perish. He came to
save. (3) This life is a new and Divine principle. Its origin is in the nature of Gnd ;
its seed-germ is implanted by the Divine Spirit ; its spring-tide and growth are the
result of heavenly influences. (4) This life is distinguished by progress, and is not, like
terrestrial and bodily life, subject to decay and dissolution. (5) This life is itself
immortality. " He that liveth," says Christ, " and believeth on me shall never die."
2. AbuTidance. If we translate the word as in the margin of the Revised Version, we
understand not the enrichment and perfection of life (abundantly), but the provision
made for the life preserved, quickened, perpetuated. The good Shepherd, having saved
the flock from destruction, and conferred upon each member of the flock a new and
spiritual life, secures for those whom he has saved and divinely quickened a suitable
and sufficient provision for all their wants. The fold, the pasture, the living waters,
the Shepherd's guardianship and care, may be all included in this word. The wants
of those who receive an many and various, but the bounty and benevolence of the great
Giver are adequate for iheir full satisfaction.
IL Thb agency and method bt which these blessings ABE bestowed. 1.
Christ, the living Person, himself confers them. There are many who look rather to
the under-s^epherds than to the chief Shepherd. But all who serve the flock arc
M THE OOSPBL ACOORDDIG TO ST. JOBS. {ma. s. i— *a
merely the minigters and messengers of the eternal Lord. Kot only did he, bjr Ut own
personal ministry and sacrifice, save the flock from destruction ; he, by his perpetual
presence and spiritual care, supplies in abundance the ever-recurring wants of his sheep.
2. Christ secured these blessings by his coming to this world. The method by which
he sought and saved mankind was mediatorial ; it involved his incarnation and advent.
This wiis his conscious aim. " I am come," said he, implying that his was a mission,
yet one voluntarily undertaken and cheerfully fulfilled. 3. Even this Divine Person,
in executing a purpose so gracious, found it necessary to submit to sufiering, to ofier
himseir a sacrifice, to consent to death. He gave up his life (not zoe, hut psyche) that
we might live spiritually and immortally. 4. And the redemption was completed by
our Lord's resurrection and victorious reign. It is observable that in this conversation
our Lord Jesus no sooner foretells his death than he declares his intention of rising
again. And in fact he resumed life, not only in vindication and assertion of his proper
dignity, but in order to exercise from the vantage-ground of his risen life and reign the
power he delights in, because it contributes to the abundance of his people's privilege*
and joys. — ^T.
Yer. 14. — Mutual knowledge. If the Lord Jesus came to earth to seek and to save
the lost sheep of the flock, it is not wonderful that he should know those in whom he
has displayed an interest so compassionate and deep. If the members of the flock owe
to the great and good Shepherd their safety, their pasture, their all, it is not wonderful
that they should k/ww him to whom they are so immeasurably indebted. Hence the
natural simplicity of the language in which Christ says, " I know mine own, and mine
own know me."
I. Chbist, the good Shbphebd, knows his sheep. 1. This fact Is an incidental
proof of our Lord's Deity. Not only did Jesus know every one of his disciples dtiring
his earthly ministry ; his knowledge extends to all who are his. No one of them is
lost and overlooked in the crowd; each one is individually known and named. Through-
out the long generations of human history, in all the lands where the Christian faith ha;
been planted, the omniscient Shepherd and Bishop of souls has recognized and cared foi
every sheep of the flock. 2. This fact is a proof of our Lord's special and aflectionate
interest in the several members of his Church. To know, in this as in many other
pass^es, means to regard with favour and attachment. The Saviour's knowledge of
his people is something more and better than mere recognition ; it is the knowledge ol
friendship and affection. His capacious heart has a place for every one whom he has
purchased with his blood, whom he has sealed with his Spirit. 3. This faot is a proof
that there is a special character in the sheep of Christ's flock which the Shepherd
recognizes with pleasure. "The Lordknoweth them that are his;" for they possess
certain spiritual marke which indicate his property in them.
II. The sheep op Chbibt'b flook know the oood Shepherd, who owns ani> cases
roB THEU. 1. Their knowledge of their Saviour is based upon his knowledge of them.
2. It is a knowledge which is associated with gratitude and afiection. 3. It is a know-
ledge which leads to cheerful obedience. The sheep who know the form and the voice
of the Shepherd follow him whithersoever he goeth ; and the law of the Christian's life
is obedience to the Master. 4. It is a knowledge which prompts to witness. Those
who know the qualities of the Shepherd, his power to save and bless, will not fail to
make him known to those who need his love and care. — T.
Ver. 15. — 2%« great offering. Our Lord Jesus is the chief Shepherd, under whom all
other spiritual pastors are called to labour for the welfare of the flock, to whom they
owe their authority, and by whose example they are bidden to be guided. He is the
great Shepherd, who has proved his power to deliver and to save. And he is the good
hepherd, who shrinks from no effort find from no self-denial, in order to secure the
welfare of his own. What more could he do than he did, when he laid down his life
for the sheep ?
I. This ofeebino was delibebatelt fdrpobbd. Nothing can be more absurd tiian
the notion of some modem critics, who contend that the Lord Jesus never contemplated
•uch a close to his ministry until within a short period of his betrayal, and that ha
accepted the martyrdom as ineTitaUa, and in order to save his credit with his follower^
oa.x.1-42.] THE GOSPEL AOOOBDING TO ST. JOHN. «1
The Gospel record makes it manifest that from tlie early days of his ministry Jeioi
knew how that ministry would end. In his conversations with his disciples he gare
them to understand that his life of service was to be crowned by a death of sacriSce.
IL This OFFEBma was volttntabily rendered. There had been times when the
life of Jesus seemed to be in danger, and on such occasions he had escaped out of his
Mtemies' hands, for his hour was not yet come. And to the last he possessed cower
either to crush or to evade his foes. But when the time came for him to be offered up,
he made no resistance. He set his face towards Jerusalem. He acted in a manner
certain to bring on the crisis. His miracles, his teaching, and especially his denuncia-
tions of the Pharisees, were of a nature to ensure the open opposition of his bitter foes.
He withheld his supernatural power when he might have saved himself. In short, he
laid down his life as something precious, which nevertheless he was content and ready
to part with.
III. This offering was yicarioub m its moral import. 1. Christ died on behalf
of his sheep, and in defence of them. This, which was obscurely seen by the high
priest, was very present to our Lord's own mind. He had no personal end to serve by
consenting to a death of pain and ignominy. It was for the sake of his flock that the
Shepherd sacrificed himself. 2. Christ died in the stead of his sheep. As a shepherd
may fight with a wild beast that attaol<s the flock, may receive wounds of which he
himself may die, and yet may slay the beast and deliver the sheep of his charge ; so our
Saviour, by his death, delivered his spiritual flock " from the bitter pains of eternal
death." Not by way of a bargain, as if suffering were something that could be trans-
ferred from one to another, as though Jesus endured an equivalent for the punishment
m«n deserved ; but by way of substitution and moral mediation.
IV. This offebino was bbdemptivb in its purpose. " Ye were redeemed," writes
Peter, " with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish." The bondage
of sinful men was exchanged for liberty, their malady for health, their death for life.
V. This offerinq was accepted by the Father. Of this our Lord was confident
beforehand. " Therefore doth the Father love me," he himself says in the anticipation
of his sacrifice (ver. 17). It was necessary that this should be the case, that the Father
should approve the offering. This language may easily be misunderstood and mis-
represented, as if there were something arbitrary in the pleasure or displeasure of the
Eternal. But the fact is that the Father delights in that which is in accordance with
unchanging reason and righteousness. What Christ did and suffered, and the aim he
set before him, was what commended itself to the mind of the God of wisdom and
justice. And, indeed, it was by the Father's will that Christ's work was undertaken,
and his acceptance of it was the ratification of his own counsels.
VI. This opferino was effective and successfol in its results for men. In
this supreme instance, benevolence was not in vain. If the Shepherd died, the flock
was ransomed. And Christ " sees of the travail of his soul, and is satisfied." — T.
Ver. 16. — The sheep of the other fold. The purposes which animated our Saviour's
heart, in undertaking labours so severe, and in enduring sufferings so keen, were no doubt
always clearly before his own mental vision. But, to judge by the records, it was only
occasionally that an intimation of some of these purposes was afforded by his language.
St. John records some sayings of our Lord, mostly uttered towards the close of his
ministry, from which we learn that he contemplated results as certain to flow from his
work on earth, far beyond what even his nearest and most sympathetic friends were at
that period able to anticipate. In this discourse Jesus appears to have been conscious of
the growing hostility of his powerful enemies at Jerusalem. Did he seek a consolation
for the pain thus inflicted upon him by prominent representatives of his own nation,
in cherishing expectations of the vast and far-reaching results which he, as the spiritual
Shepherd of humanity, should in future ages attain, by his affection for his sheep, and
by his self-aacrificing devotion to their welfare ?
L The glorious and inspiring view which Jesus took of his own office ahb
W0B8 amongst men. He was regarded in Palestine, both by friends and foes, as a
Jewish Rabbi. But this was not the view he was accustomed to take of himself. H«
did his daily work for those amongst whom he lived ; but he was aware that there
was a vaster sphere of service which was truly his. He was the Shepherd, not of
62 THE GOSPEL ACCORDINO TO ST. JOHN, [oh. x. 1—42.
Israel only, but of mankind. The majestf of his position and office did not break in
upon him either gradually or suddenly. He brought with him to earth the consciousneM
of a Divine election and commission. And in such passages as this we have a revela-
tion of his mind ; and we feel that no mere human teacher or leader could have assumed
such a relation towards the vast multitudes here contemplated, but distant in space,
remote in time, and seemingly estranged in sympathies.
II. The liberal and comprehensive representation which Jesus oavk of
HUMANITY AS HIS FLOCK. The fold of Israel was very select and very exclusive. The
Hebrews were wont to regard the less favoured nations with indifference and even con-
tempt. Narrowness was almost the " note " of the Jewish temper. Yet the Old
Testament contained no justification for such bigotry. In the Psalms and in the
prophets we meet with representations of the purposes of God towards humanity at
large, which are startling in their magnificent liberality and comprehensiveness. God's
salvation, we are told, shall extend to the ends of the earth ; all nations shall sing the
praises of the Lord. Accordingly, when we read our Saviour's language in this passage,
and find him claiming as his own other sheep not of the Hebrew fold, we feel that
such language is a verification of his claim to fulfil the Jewish prophecies, to supersede
the Jewish prophets, to realize the substance of the Jewish types and shadows. The
Samaritans had long ago come to the conclusion that Jesus was the Saviour of the
world! Jesus now openly declared that the Gentiles were, in the counseb of God,
members of his spiritual flock and household. And he was about to assert the
mystei-ious power of his cross, by assuring the Jews that he should thence draw all men
unto himself.
III. The sublime forecast which Jesus communicated concbrninq the future
OF the world. Observe the several steps. 1. Gentiles are the possession of the
Div ine Shepherd, and the purchase of his redeeming love and sncrifice. Far away there
are sheep which he has, for which he lays down his life, equally with those nearest to
him the objects of his Interest, love, and care. 2. The time shall come when the
Gentiles shall realize their privileges, shaU be led by him, and shall hear his voice.
Then the Eedeemer shall see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied. 3. The
ultimate purpose of Divine grace shall be fulfilled, when the unity of the ransomed
shall be complete, when there shall be " one flock," and when the Saviour shall be
acknowledged as the Sovereign, when there shall be " one Shepherd." — T.
Ver. 16. — The unity of the flock. To bring about unity in thought is the aim of the
thinker ; to bring about unity in life and action is the aim of the practical man, who is
called to be the leader and ruler of his fellow-men. Christ, as the good Shepherd, who
has shrunk from no effort, from no sacrifice, to secure the welfare of his sheep, con-
templates and designs, in the exercise of his spiritual authority, the consolidation of
the grandest unity of which mankind is capable.
I. The subjects of this unity. They are the spiritual sheep, the members of the
true flock. All like sheep have gone astray, all have been sought and recovered by the
Shepherd and Bishop of souls, all rejoice in and abide under the tendance and care of
the Divine Saviour.
II. The diveesitieb blended in this unity. The Lord Christ was the Son of
man, and in the aim of his comiassion and redemption transcendeil the distinctions
which separate man from man. More especially he designed to bring the Gentiles into
the fold; these may have been the "other sheep" whose inclusion be graciously pur-
posed. The wall of partition was very high and very strong ; only he could break it
down. But no nationality, no education, no p^-evious religious associations, were to be
allowed to stand in the way of the unity which he came from God in order that he
might effect in this distracted race.
HI. The ground of this unity. Men endeavour to base oneness of action upon
community of association or of interest, etc. But in the Christian scheme the batis of
the new fellowship and brotherhood is Divine. The one Shepherd alone can account
for the one flock. His Divine nature, his priceless redemption, his spiritual authority,
these lie at the foundation of the Church's unity, and for such an edifice no narrower
foundation could suffice.
rV. Tnc vatubk of thib uinrr. This has bean more miBimdentood than almon
OH. X. 1—42.] THE GOSPEL AOOORDINa TO BT. JOHN. 61
any part of Christianity. The trans1ator8 of the Authorized Yeraion went out of their
way to render •' one fold," for which there ia no justification. The unity Christ desires
is not a unity of form, but of spirit; not a matter of mechanism, but of vitality.
One Church and another may claim the " note " of universality, but the existence of
such Churches side by side is a disproof of the claim. And even within separate
Churches there are parties, or schools, distinguished by peculiarities more or less
important. But in the spiritual, what is called the "invisible" Church, there is a
unity of faith in Christ and a subjection to Christ. The temple is harmonious ; it has
its several parts, yet it is one. The body is symmetrical, and each member has its
function ; yet it is one. " One Lord, one faith, one baptism."
V. The hindrances to the manifestation of this unity. So far as the people
of Christ fail to exhibit the one spirit, it is owing mainly to these two causes : (1) the
lack of devotion to the Lord ; and (2) intolerance one towards another. The closer the
flock draw around the Shepherd, the less is there of misunderstanding, and the more
of fellowship. Watchfulness and prayer alone can check the spirit of dissension, and
hasten the prevalence of peace.
VL Thk perfection op this xrsiir. That this is assured we gather from the
emphatic words of Christ, " They shall become one flock." Deferred this glorious
realization of the purposes of the Redeemer may be ; yet it is certain. The predicted
unity shall be accomplished in the brilliant and lioped-for future, of wliich we know
but dimly the time, the scene, the circumstances. The wandering sheep shall be
restored, the divided sheep shall be united. And the one flock shall then witness to
the faithfulness and the love of the one Shepherd, whose voice all at last shall recog-
nize, and beneath whose sheltering care all shall at last " lie down in green pastures,"
and be led " beside the still waters." — T.
Vers. 19 — 21. — Calumny confuted. Every faithful teacher, coming into a morally
mixed society, meets with a twofold experience : he evokes the hostility of those who
hate truth and righteousness, and he rallies to him those who are candid, just, and
pure. Such was eminently the result of our Lord's ministry among the Jews. It
was foretold that, as a consequence of Christ's coming, "thoughts out of many hearts
should be revealed." Never was this more manifestly the case than during those
discussions which arose between Jesus and the Jews towards the close of his miaistry.
L The calumny advanced against Christ. 1. The real and lasting ground of
calumny. It was the truthfulness and purity of Christ's character; it was the justice
and severity of his denunciations of formalism and hypocrisy, that incensed the Jewish
leaders against the holy, outspoken, and fearless Prophet of Nazareth. 2. The imme-
diate and special ground of calumny. It is noticeable that, on the several occasions
upon which the slander mentioned in the context was uttered, Jesus had just been
making some high claim to communion with his Divine Father, and to a consequent
authority altogether above any wielded by created beings. 3. The real motive of the
calumnies of the Jews was, therefore, their moral indisposition to tolerate the highest
excellence. They loved darkness rather than light. 4. The nature of the calumny.
It was said to Jesus, and of him, that he was possessed by a demon, and was insane.
How it could be supposed that such gross slanders could meet with any credit, we are
at a loss to say. It is certainly an instance of the malignity of sinners that such a
calumny could be invented, and of the credulity of fools that it could be Believed. 6.
The purpose of the calumny. This was to discredit Jesus, to weaken his influence
with the people, and so to aid the Jews in their malevolent aim, which was, no doubt,
to bring his ministry to a shameful and violent close.
II. The confutation of the calumny. 1. It is observable that this did not
proceed from Jesus himself, or from his immediate friends and professed disciples. Its
effect must have been all the greater from its origin in the minds of impartial
spectators and auditors. 2. The sayings of Christ are declared incompatible with the
supposition that Jesus was possessed by a demon. Their sobriety and reasonableneas
was a refutation of the charge of madness ; whilst their justice, their purity, their
opposition to falsehood, error, and deceit, were conclusive against the foolish accusatioa
that they were inspired by the prince of darkness. 3. The works of Christ were, if
poMible, even more exclusive of such an imagination, such an invention as that raferrad
M THE GOSPEL AOOOBDDrO TO 6T. JOHN. [«ni. x. 1— 4&
to. Jesus had opened the eyes of a blind man, he had wrought other miracles of a
nature most beneficent, he had relieved men from privations and sufferings, and
restored them to health, to sanitj, to happiness. It was incredible that such deeds of
mercy as these could ba Inspired by the emissary of the foe of man. — T.
Yers. 24 — 26. — Th« txphnatum of vmbelief. Jesus knew well what mutt be tb*
end of such discussions as that here recorded. Irritation and hostility were increased.
A growing number of the Jews committed themselves to the cause of Christ's adver-
saries. And the selfish reasons for their opposition were multiplied. Yet the Lord
continued the controversies, knowing that the issue to which they needs must lead
was one which was foreseen in the Divine counsels, and one wliich would be the means
of bringing to pass his own benevolent designs. There was little attempt on his part
•t conciliation ; he knew that any such attempt would be in vain.
L Unbelief is not to bb justified on the obounb of defioibnot of evidbnce
FOB faith. Jesus refers the Jews to two amply suflBcient grounds for believing in
him. 1. His own assertion, " I told you." The value of such an assertion depends
upon the character of him who makesit. There are those whose statements concerning
themselves are worthless ; but, on the other hand, there are those whose statements carry
immediate conviction to those who know them. Jesus always spoke the truth, and he
could not be mistaken upon a point such as this, his own nature and mission. 2. His
own works, done in his Father's Kame. It was not questioned by the Lord's con-
temporaries that he wrought miracles. If they cavilled at them, they attributed them
to the power of darkness — an absurdity which was its own refutation. These signs
and wonders, wrought by Jesus, have lost nothing of their significance by the lapse of
time ; whatever evidential value they had, when Jesus first appealed to them, they
possess to-day. Their very character renders them an everlasting and ever-valid
witness to him who wrought them. They can neither be denied nor misinterpreted.
II. The explanation op unbelief lies in the deficienot of spiritual sym-
pathy. That there are honest and sincere unbelievers, is not questioned. But for
the most part there is in those who reject Christ's claims a lack of that sympathy
which assists in a just appreciation of the holy and benevolent Saviour. Jesus spoke
of the questioners and cavillers as " not of his sheep." They had not those disposi-
tions of teachableness and humility which are conducive to Christian discipleship.
Such a disposition as our Lord here attributes to his adversaries is most unfavourable
to a fair judgment upon the claims and evidences which are found sufficient by many of
the wisest and the most virtuous of men. Only Christ's own " sheep " know his voice,
and distinguish it as the Divine voice from the voice of strangers. These only
" follow" him, and accordingly have every opportunity of acquainting themselves with
hiS~ character and the manifestations of his purposes.
III. It is this uNSYMPATHizma unbelief that leads men to calumniate and
TO OPPOSE Chbist. This chapter shows us how this principle acted in our Lord's
days. We have but to observe what is passing around us, in order to explain upon
the same principle the blasphemies and the violent opposition with which our Lord
Christ is still assailed. — ^T.
Vers. 7 — ^9. — Christ a$ the Door, Notice^
I. Thk POSITION OF Christ in relation to spiritual blessings. "I am the
Door." 1. ffe is the Medium of admission to these blessing§. (1) He efieoted an
entrance to them, "He is the Way." When man sinned, the door of heaven was
closed to him ; and when he looked up thither, there was no opened door there. But
Christ opened it and established communication between heaven and earth ; and as man
gazed up, he saw a door opened in heaven. When Christ left heaven for earth he left the
door ajar, and opened a new and a living way for man to enter. (2) He is t?ie absolute
Provider and Proprietor of these blessings. By sin, man contracted new wants ; by
■uffering, Jesus provided for them, and purchased for man all the spiritual blessings he
requires. Thus he is their absolute Provider and Proprietor. (3) As such he b
naturally the Guardian of these blessings. He has an absolute right and power to
admit or reject. He is the Door. He has made a fold for the sheep, his visible Church,
and fenced it round with his commandments and direction!, where his faithful
OB. X. 1—^.] TBE OOSPEL ACCOBDINO TO ST. i(mS. <6
followera enjoy fellowship with each other and with him during their pilgrimage her*.
He is the Door of this visible fold, as well as that of the invisible ana vaster realm of
all spiritual blessings. He is the Door, not arbitrarily but naturally, in virtue of what
he is in himself, the Son of God ; and in virtue of what he is to the sheep, their
Purchaser, Provider, and sole Proprietor. 2. He is the only Mediimt of admission to
spiritual blessings. (1) There is but one medium of admission. This is Christ, and
he is one. There is but " one Lord, one faith," etc. There is but one Door, " one
Mediator between Gtod and man, Christ Jesus." (2) Others may assume the position.
And, as a fact, this was the case, and our Lord refers to it. Some had come before
him, professing to be Messiahs, assuming his titles, prerogatives, and position as the
doors and shepherds of the sheep. As before Christ, so after him, many assume hit
position as the mediums of admission to God and the blessings of his love and mercy.
(3) Their assumption of his position at once fixed their character in the spiritual world.
They are thieves and robbers, lacking the right to and adaptation for the position they
assume. In our world there is evil as well as-^good, the false as well as the true, the
counterfeit as well as the genuine coin. There is spiritual wickedness in high places,
and one of its most cunning and villanous forma is to assume the position of Christ aa
the door of spiritual privileges, as they stand between sinners and the Saviour, between
the world and the light, and is pronounced by our Lord as the most daring usurpation,
and the vilest spiritual theft and robbery. (4) Thsir claims to this position were
resisted hy the true amd faithful. "But the sheep did not hear their voice." Christ
has had sheep in every age, and they instinctively distinguish between the true and
the false. The instincts of truth are against falsehood, and those of right are against
wrong. Those who have truth will be on its side.' Spiritual thieves and robbers are
Ijetrayed by their voice, their principles, doctrines, and practices, and the ear of truth
and faith will not listen to them ; their voice is repelling, and not attractive. So that
the position of Christ as the Door is defended not only by his absolute right and fitness,
but by the sheep.
IL The condition on which these BLEssmas are to be enjoyed. "By me if
any man enter in." This involves : 1. Full recognition of Christ s authority aa the
medium of admission. He is the Door, and must be acknowledged as such. 2. Genuine
faith in his fitness and resources as the spiritual Provider of the soul. 3. Implicit
submission and obedience to his vnll and commands. Entrance must be made, and that
by him. 4. There is but one condition for aU. " By me if any man enter," let him
be rich or poor, Jew or Gentile. There is but one door. There is not one door for the
rich and another for the poor, etc. ; but only one. And as there is only one door, there
is but one condition of enjoyment, viz. entrance by it.
III. The pbeoious BLBSsrsas enjoyed on this condition. Some of them are
pointed out here. "By me if any man enter," etc. 1. Perfect safety. (1) Safety
from inward dangers. We are in great danger from our inward foes, the oorrnption of
our nature, our evil passions, our inordinate appetites, our secret and besetting sins,
the treachery and deceptiveness of our hearts. And often we are in greater danger
from treachery within than from open hostility without (Gordon at Khartoum). But
in the fold of Christ we are safe from all this. (2) Safety from outward dangers.
Believers have a host of outward and open foes, headed by the arch-enemy of the soul,
the devil, who is as a " roaring Hon," etc. But in the custody of Christ they shall be
safe from these. 2. Perfect freedom. The Christian while in this world cannot be
0.1 ways in the holy of holies of devotion ; he must go out into his daily occupation. It
is a Divine and general law that " man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour
until the evening." (1) This freedom is perfect. It is the freedom of the highest
law, the proper law of the soul, the law of filial obedience, reverence, and love. The
safety of the soul in Christ is not that of bondage, but of perfect freedom — ^freedom
which is compatible with and productive of the most perfect erder, harmony, and
happiness. " He shall go in and out." He goes out, but comes in a^ain. (2) There
is freedom of movement. " Shall go in and out," at home or abroad. The beUeyer is free
to go to any part of this world ; it is his Father's house and his own inheritance. (3)
Ihere is freedom of action. Within the law of his new hfe, the Christian may do whai^
erer h« likes, and be engaged in any trade or business wkioh is legitimate, &«m wielding
a shovel to wielding a sceptre. He is the very man ix thfai ( ht suctifiM wet/ lakMir
*
M THE GOSPEL ACCOBDmO TO ST. JOHN. [oh. x. 1—42.
and service. (4) There ii/reedom of thought. The only real Free thinker in the world
is he who hai been made free by the truth. He who thinks without Divine guidance
is a iilave and a libertine ; but the custody of Christ is safe freedom and free safety.
3. Intimate fellowship with Christ, How intimate we are with the doors of our
houses! We can neither come in nor go out but by the door — a faint symbol of
believers' intimate fellowship with Christ. He is the Door. 4. Ample provisiont.
" And find pasture." (1) It is sought. Finding implies seeking. The sheep go in and
out in searsh of pasture. The soul, by faith in ull its movements, seeks £<piritual food
and support. It is to be found in connectioD with intense desire, eficrt, and search.
(2) By seeking it is certainly found, "And shall find pasture." In Christ there are
spiritual provisions for the soul, in abundance, suitability, and variety; they are as
various and abundant as the soul's wants. Supporting grace. Divine forgiveness
and peace, etc. (3) It is found without, in the occupations of life. If the Christian is
an agriculturist, in the garden the flowers will naturally remind him of the " Rose
of Sharon," etc. When following the flock, naturally will he think ol the " Lamb of
God." The beautiful landscape around will bring to faith visions of a more beautiful
land — the fair land of promise ; and even the failure ol his crops will often give him a
rich feast of joy in the Lord. If he is a mariner, tlie storms of the voyage will make
him strive and sigh for the desired haven, where every storm will be for ever hushed.
If he is a merchant, this will bring liis mind in closer contact with treasures more to be
desired than gold, and more precious than rubies. If he is a man of science, he can
hear the heavens declare the glory of God, and see the works of his fingers everywhere;
and should the Chiistian happen to wander into the land of doubt and sin, he wUl find
there the bitter herb of godly sorrow, which will act as a tonic to his soul. And even
the valley of the shadow of death, to him will not be barren, for even there he will find
the comfort of his Shepherd's stafi' and rod ; yea, the Shepherd himselt (4) It is found
within. In God's Word ; in private devotion ; in quiet meditations ; in Christ's fold ; in
the fellowship of saints; in the services of the sanctuary, which is the house of God
and the very gate of heaven ; and often in thought and faith he steals away to the happy
land, and revels in tlie green pastures beside the still waters. He spends many a •
happy moment beyond the stars, among the redeemed throng, gazing upon the throne,
and on him who sits upon it. Whether in or out, in Christ he shall find pasture,
until at last, by Divine invitatinn, he shall enter into the joy of his Lord, to go out no
more for ever.
Lessons. 1. The revelation of Christ as the Door of spiritual blessings was now very
natural and timely. He saw the multitudes like sheep without a shepherd. Judaism
had become barren and persecuting, and incapable ot supplying the spiritual wants of
the people. Souls were hungry for food, and longing for shelter. The healed blind
man was among the first to knock for admittance, and, as Christ was the Door, it
was now time for him to say so openly. 2. Christ as the Boor is a hifitting introduction
to the blessings within. You can form a fair opinion by the door of what to expoct
inside. Sometimes we are not inclined to go further than the door. But Christ, as the
Door to God and all spiritual blessings, is most attiaotive and worthy, and when you
enter there is no disappointment in it. 3. The great thing in order to enjoy the riches
of Divine grace is to find the door. Christ as the Door is most conspicuous and con-
venient. Where the gospel is fully known, the difficulty almost is not to find it. It
publishes itself. " I am the Door." 4. 'J'here are thousands in seardifor the door and
cannot find it. And, alas! theie are thousands in gospel lands dying at the door, and
will not enter. There is only a door between them and life eternal. — B. T.
Ver. 10. — The two missions. Notice —
I. The mission op human selfishness. We are taught by Christ that there is
such a mission in the world. It is as old as the temptation of our first parents by that
evil and selfish spirit, the devil. It was active in the world before and at the time of
Christ, and to a greater extent afterwards. Every false teacher, every one that assumes
Christ's position, or leads souls from Christ and God either intentionally or uninten-
tionally, is pronounced by Christ a thief, and his mission is that of selfishness. 1. Its
spirit and aim are selfish, (1) It 5s inspired by self-advantage. The thief comes to
Steal. What is the inspiration of the thief? It is self-advantage and •ggrandisement.
BH. X. 1—42.] THE GOSPEL ACX.0BDINO TO BT. JOHN. 61
Tlus ii the Inspiration of the mission of selfishnesB in every age. Its aim is self-
advantage, power, authority, glory, fame, the praise of men, numerical strength, and
predominant influence. (2) It is inspired hy tdf-advamtagt at the expense 4)f others.
The thief in henefiting himself rohs bis fellow-man. The principles of honesty and
justice are recklessly violated. The selfish teacher is a thief, living on mental and
spiritual plunder; gratifying himself at the expense of man and Ood, and at the
expense of honesty and rectitude ; robbing man of his spiritual birthright, liberty, and
manhood, and standing between him and the light of heaven ; robbing Christ of his
office and position as the only Medium of spiritual blessings, and robbing God of the
homage and glory due to his Name, and of his throne in the hnman heart. (3) It
seeks self-advantage hy eunningness and stealth. The thief attains his ends utider the
cover of darkness in the night, when his victims are asleep and off their guard. Before
the public he studies to appear as an honest man, but behind their backs he studies to
rob them. The counterpart of this has been and is in full play in the religious world.
The selfish teacher attains his ends by stealth. He makes use of Christ to rob him,
and wears the garb of holiness to defraud it of its reality. In the degree he deceives
he succeeds, and deceives by the most consummate craftiness, and his true character
is fully known only on the other side. 2. Its spirit and aim are murderous. " And
to km." (1) It kills the life of the hody. If the thief cannot carry his booty by
stealth, he will not scruple to take away the life of him who may oppose him. What
killed the prophets, crucified our Lord, martyred his apostles, -persecuted, imprisoned,
and burnt hosts of his followers through the ages ? It was this mission of selfishness
in its varied forms. Is not its spirit the same to-day, and are not scores of precious
lives taken away by this mission in the Name of Christ ? (2) It kills the life of the
soul. By keeping it in ignorance, by standing between it and its true life and elements
of support, by lowering its aspirations and centering its affections on things below and
not on things above, on its luwer self and not on God, on the present and not on the
future, on this world and not on the other, by supplying its wants with false and
unsuitable nutriment, and materializing its affections, thus it is lost and stealthily
killed. 3. Its spirit and aim are destructive. " And to destroy." If the thief cannot
steal and kill, he wiU destroy valuable property. The mission of selfishness in the
time of our Lord had not only killed the very life of the nation, but also had destroyed
the spiritual food of the sheep with an admixture of human tradition and the devilish
spirit of selfishness and murder. Thus in every age this mission poisons the living
water and the bread of life, and adulterates the milk of the Word ; and if it cannot
kill the sheep, it will as far as possible destroy their pasture and spiritual supplies.
4. Its spirit and aim are entirely self-seeking, cruel, and destructive. "The thief
cometh not, but," etc. The genius and history of the mission of selfishness are spiritual
robbery, murder, and destruction.
II. The mission of Divine lovx. In contrast with the mission of selfishness, we
have the mission of Divine love in Christ. " I came," etc. 1. It is a mission of Divine
authority. The mission of selfishness was unlawful, and existed by stealth, robbery,
and unrighteousness. The mission of Christ was legal and Divine. He came not as
a thief, but as a Divine messenger, openly, according to the Divine plan, to fulfil the
Divine promise and purpose. He came in the volume of the book written of him. He
came in the fulness of time, in the open day. His appearance was heralded, and he carried
with him all the credentials of Divine power and authority. 2. It is a mission of
Divine benevolence. (1) Christ came to give. " That they may have," etc. If we have,
Christ must give. The mission of selfishness is to steal, to take away fi-om men what
they have, and deprive them of what they may have. But Christ came that men may
have ; he came to give, to benefit the human family. He came not for his own sake,
but for the sake of others. He became poor to make the world rich. (2) He came to
confer on men the greatest blessing. " That they may have life." The Divine life, the
spiritual and highest life of the soul, the life it had lost by sin and kept from by a sinful
and a selfish mission. This life was men's greatest need ; for this they panted, and
nothing but this could save them from spiritual death and make them happy. Man's
greatest blessing is that which will satisfy his greatest want. Spiritual life is this, and
to bring it within his reach Christ came to the world. (3) To confer this blessing on
men was the sole olject </ hie coming. He had no other message. Every other r
68 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BT. JOHN. [oh. x. 1—42.
sideration would cause him to remain in his native happiness and glory, and keep him
for ever from the adverse circumstances of his human life, and from the repulsive scenes
and treatment of this world. But as nothing but his appearance in human nature could
bring life to a dying world, he came, and this was the sole burden of his mission.
(4) His coming actually brought the blessings of a Divine life within, the reach of aU.
" That they may have life." He is the Fountain, the Author, and Support of all life ;
and when he came, life came with him ; and whatever insurmountable obstacle there
was in the way of fallen men to obtain it, he removed ; and whatever strength and
inspiration they required, he furnished by his self-sacrificing life and death. So that
all who will may have it. There is many a mission benevolent in aim but defective in
execution ; but the mission of Christ, in inspiration, aims, and results, is most divinely
tjenevolent and practically efScient. 3. It is a mission of Divine abundance. It is not
merely benevolent, but most abundantly and overflowingly benevolent. "Have it
abundantly." (1) This life is abundant in t<ie2^. It contains the elements of spiritual
life in all their quickening energies, perfection, and fulness. For Christ is the life ; he
lived in our world, and laid down his life, and by his Spirit infuses it into the soul, and
the soul by faith may appropriate it as its example, model, and inspiration. Christ is
our life ; as such, it is the highest life possible, and will satisfy the soul's deepest wants
and divinest aspirations. (2) It is abundant m the means of its support. Christ, the
Author and Model of spiritual life in the soul, becomes also its Sustainer. He is not only
the life, but also the Bread of life. From the fulness of his life, and by the ever active
.agency of his Spirit, the believing soul continually receives fresh energy and strength.
It cannot lack for anything. The means of support are infinitely full and various and
accessible, and are as abundant as the life itself. (3) It is abundant in the advantage*
and certainty of its perfect development. This world is most advantageous as the place
of its birth, the cradle of Its infancy, the nursery of its youth, and the arena of its dawn-
ing manhood. It finds advantages of development here which cannot be found else-
where. The adverse circumstances of life, its trials and temptations, are specially
adapted for its first exercises, growth, and confirmation. Its spiritual nature renden
it safe from material weapons, and its union with Christ from the hurt of spiritual foes ;
and even death, which seems to put an end to all here, is made to serve its highest
interests — introduces it to its native land, to the very presence of its Source, where all
is life, where it enjoys the most congenial scenes, society, and employment, and where it
^ reaches fxill development, and perfect safety and happiness. (4) It is abundant in th«
scope of its enjoi/ment. When this life outgrows the material conditions under which
it exists here, it is born into the spiritual world, the final and natural home of all
spiritual life, and time being too short for its full enjoyment, eternity is laid before it
to enjoy God, the delights of his presence, the service of his love, and the society of his
family for ever.
Lessoks. 1. We are surrounded in this world with religious thievet. These charac-
ters are not confined to the material and social worlds alone, but to a greater extent
they are found in the religious world. Some things more valuable than silver and gold
are stolen. There are thieves of souls, consciences, wills, and life. 2. We are greatly.
indebted to Christ for the revelation of the fact. In the light of him who is the Light
of the world, the powers and works of darkness are revealed, and the mission of human
selfishness is manifested in its self-seeking aims, its cunning and cruel character and
destructive results. Thus we are put on our guard, and furnished with the means of
defence. 3. The mission of human selfishness serves as an effective background to the
mission of Divine love in Christ. At the back we see the dark shadows of the arch-
thief of souls with his deluded emissaries, and their spoliations of cunning and cruelty.
In the front, surrounded with a halo of glory, stands Jesus, offering eternal life to a
perishing world. By contrast how beautiful and welcome his appearance, and how
calculated to inspire gratitude and a hearty acceptance of his life I — B. T.
Vera. 17, 18. — The death of Chriit. 1. It iirvoLvits the eBSATBBT baobihob. 1. It
was a seurifiee «f life. " I lay down my life." It was his own life, and not that ol
another. Thousands of lives are saciificed during war by the existing government ; but
theie are the lives of others, and not their own. But the death of Christ involved the
of Ub tmm Me. It was penooaL 2. H was a saerijict qf the most fredmu
est X. 1—42.] THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINO TO ST. JOHN. 6«
U/e. Every life is very precious — that of the flower or that of the animal ; but human
Me is more precious still. Personally considered, every human life is equally precious ;
but relatively, some lives are more precious than others. The life of the general is
thus more precious than that of the common soldier. But of all the lives that have
graced this world, the life of Christ was the most precious and valuable. (1) It was so
tn itself. What makes man's life more precious than that of the anipial, but its being
the vehicle of a liigher intelligence, and immortal and responsible spirit which makes
him at once to belong to a higher order of being? The life of Christ was really human,
but, it was perfect and sinless. This, together with its mysterious union with'the Divine
nature, made him to stand alone — a new and a higher order of being. He was Divine
and yet human, human and yet Divine, which made his life infinitely valuable in itself.
(2) It wa,s 80 in relation to this world. To tliis world how useful was such a Ufe I What
blessings of intelligence, revelation, holy example, spiritual communicatiims, and of
Divine benevolence it was calculated to bestow! The short time he was permitted to
live proves this. (3) It was so to the whole universe. The value of such a life was not
confined to this world, but extended to the utmost regions of the Divine empire.
Heaven was in close and constant communication with him during his earthly life, and
he with it. How dear was he to the Father and all his holy family 1 How precious was
his lifel What a tax upon Divine affections was his death 1 Nature's gloom on the
occasion was but a faint shadow of heaven's mourning. What a sacrifice ! 3. It was
a sacrifice involving the greatest sufferings. (1) Think of the sinlessness of his nature.
Sinfulness of natuie habituates that nature to suffering. But Christ's character was not
only spotless, but his nature was sinless. Thus the very idea of death must be to him
extremely repulsive, and its actual pangs beyond description painful. (2) Think of the
greatness of his nature. Little natures are capable of but very little pleasure or pain,
but large natures are largely capable of both. The capacity of Christ for suffering is
outside our experience and far beyond our comprehension. (3) Think of the crudty of
his death. He suffered the death of crucifixion, with all its attendant shame, ignominy,
pains, and agonies. All that infernal hatred could devise he hail to suffer.
IL HiB DEATH WAS PURELY SBLF-SAORiFiciNO. To prove and illustrate this, con-
sider the following things. 1. Bis life was absolutely his own. " My life." No other
man can absolutely call his life his own. With the exception of Christ's, every man's
life is borrowed ; he is a tenant at will, and not from year to year, but from breath to
breath. But Christ's life was absolutely his own. 2. He had an absolute control over
it. Not merely it was his own, but he could dispose of it as he wished. " No. one
taketh it from me." (1) This was true with regard to all men. There was no power
in Jerusalem, nor in Eome, nor in the whole world combined, that could take it from
him. (2) This was true with regard to the devil. It is said that the devil had the
power of death, and in a sense this was true. But it was not trife with regard to
Jesus ; he was sinless, and he was almighty. He could say, " The prince of this world
Cometh," etc. He had neither a right to nor the power over the life of Christ. (3) This
was true with regard to the Father. In a true sense he is the absolute Proprietor of life ;
but this Jesus, as the Eternal Son, shared with him, and his incarnate life did not deprive
him of this Divine prerogative. Even in that state it was given him to have life in
himself. Thus the Father could not nor would not take it from him. 3. His death
was purely voluntary. (1) It was his own personal act. His life was absolutely his
own, and he laid it down. (2) It was the act of his free will and choice. There was no
circumstantial and personal necessity, there was no coercion. Who on earth or in hell
could coerce him? and who in heaven would? The self-sacrificing idea was purely
voluntary and self-inspiring, and to carry it out cost him infinite condescension. He
had to become a man Ijefore he could have the power to lay down his life. He could not
die in heaven ; no one can die there, much less he who is the Life itself. But in human
nature death to him was possible and right. It would be a small thing for a Being of
infinite power and goodness to boast of his power and right to live j the great thing
for him was to have the power to die. With becoming pride Jesus boasts of this. " I
have power to lay it down." But all this was from his free and independent choics,
"I lay it down of myself." In this, and in this alone with regard to the Father, he claim!
absolute independency of action, involving his perfect voluntariness — the sweetest
odour of the sacrifice. (3) It was purelji velwitary to the but. H« could evade the
70 THE GOSPEL ACCOKDING TO ST. JOHN. [oa. x. 1—48.
cross, could come down from it, could live on it, and In spite of it and its agonies. " Ha
bowed his head, gave up the ghost," etc. 4. His death was purely vicarious. Eveiy
maa must die for himself. It is the debt of nature. But Ohrist had no debt of hii
own to pay. He came under the law of death to pay the debts of others, and redeem
them from the curse.
III. His dbath called fobth the bpeoial comugndatioh of the Fatheb.
" Therefore doth," etc. For this : 1. As it was for the noblest purposes, " That I
might take it again." These purposes were : (1) The perfection of his own life. His
mediatorial life was made perfect through sufferings. He attained a perfect life through
death. (2) The perfection of the lives of all bdievers in him. The lives of all believers
are potentially perfect in his perfected and glorified life; for he died and triumphed, not
for himself, but for others. "Because I live, ye shall live also." His life was more
valuable when taken again than when laid down. (3) These purposes were worthy of
the sacrifice. There is adequate compensation. Even the precious life of Jesus was
thus put out on good interest ; there was no loss nor waste, but infinite gain. The gain
of salvation to the world, the gain of unspeakable glory to the Divine throne. The
purposes were well worthy of the Son and the Father. 2. As it was the fvlfilment of
Divine love. (1) The salvation of the human race is a Divine idea, impulse, and plan.
(2) An infinite sacrifice was. essential to carry this out. It was essential to satisfy the
claims of Divine justice, law, and holiness, and also to satisfy human wants, and to
remove sin and guilt and enmity. " Without the shedding of blood," etc., is a Divine
sentiment, and it was ever echoed by the human conscience. (3) The death of Ohrist
fully met this requirement. In the sacrifice of Jesus, Divine love is satisfied and ful-
filled. It finds a platform upon which to act, a channel through which to flow, and a
suitable instrument by which to effect its grand purposes of mercy and salvation. 3.
As it was a special act of obedience to the Divine tviU. (1) His death was in obedience
to a special expression of the Divine w&l. " This commandment have I," 6tc. This
command was not arbitrary, but the eternal law of love. The principle of obedience
in Christ is as old as the law of love in the Divine nature. But this self-sacrificing act
was a special expression of it. And Jesus obeyed. (2) It was in loving obedience to the
Divine wUl. It was the obedience of love. There is no coercion in the command,
there is no servility in the obedience. The command is the natural suggestion of love ;
the obedience is the natural response of love, the expression of loving sympathy — sym-
pathy of nature and purpose. The command was the expression of -the Divine heart,
and the law of obedience was in the heart of Jesus. It was the obedience of pure love.
(3) It was a practical and public mcmifestation of obedience to the Divine will. The
Father needed no proof of the Son's loving obedience. But the world, and perhaps the
whole universe, needed this, and to them it was most important and beneficial. Christ
gave a special proof and manifestation of this in his self-sacrificing death, which called
forth a special expression of the Father's commendation. 4. Jesus throughout was ever
conscious of his Father's approbation. This was felt : (1) In his conscious power to lay
down his life. (2) In his consdotis power to take it again. There is an inseparable
connection between the two. He could not take it again without laying it down, and
could not lay it down l)ut in the cerlainty of taking it again. All have the power of
laying down their lives, but not to take them again. Jesus had both the power of
death and life, and the latter was the reward of his self-sacrificing and loving obedience.
(3) In his conscious knowledge that the Father accepted and was pleased with his sacri-
fice. What can give us such pleasure and strength as to know that what we do is most
gratifying to the chief object of our affection ? Jesus felt that his sacrifice was accepted
by his Father with infinite delight and gratitude. This was like a Divine sunbeam on
his soul throughout the intense gloom of his humiliation and suffering.
Lessons. We have here : 1. The highest example of pastoral fidelity and devotion.
2. The highest example of a noble and self-sacrificing life. 3. The highest example oj
filial obedience. 4. The royal road to God's special approbation. Follow the footsteps
of Christ, in his self-sacrificing life, in his loving obedience ; and this will result in our
Father's special commendAtion and love. — ^B. T.
Ven. 27— 30.— IZ%« Shepherd and the sheep. Notice—
I. Belovebs m BKLATiON TO Chbut. 1. Thev are his prtpwfa/. (1) By ■ ihMi
CH. X. 1—42.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 71
ereation. The old and the new. He made them first men, and then Ohriitiang — new
creatures in himself. They are liis workmanship. (2) By a Divine gift. " The
Patlier, which gave them me." They are the gifts of his Father's love, given to him
in trust for the purpose of salvation. (3) By purchase. He laid down his life for them ;
redeemed them fi:om the curse of the Law and from sin. (4) By support. They are
not merely his workmanship, but the sheep of his pasture. They are his. 2. They
are his special prowertv. Special: (1) As they were purchased. His domiuiou ii
vast and wide; it ruleth over all. The universe is his estate, his property is infinite.
But believers are his only " purchased possession." (2) As they are very valuable.
Their value can be to some extent estimated from the infinite price given for them — ^the
precious blood of Christ. He knew their value when he made the purchase. As such
they are his special treasures, his jewels. (3) As they are very useful. The sheep is
one of the most useful animals of the fields. Its flesh is food, and its fine wool is gar-
ment. Believers are useful, and valuable because useful. Sheep in the East were the
most useful property. What would be the richest pasture without sheep to graze it ?
What would the world be without man — what its scenes without an eye, and its music
without an ear? What would man be without faith in Christ and without godliness?
The spiritual in man would be a power for evil. The soul would be barren, and the
earth morally would be a desert, and would, as in the time of Noah, be utterly
destroyed. Immanuel's land would be useless without the sheep.
IL Some of thbib ohabaoteristics in belation to Christ. 1. " ThesLhea/r his
uaice." This implies : (1) Recognition of his voice. In the religious world there are
many voices — that of the stranger, the thief, and the hireling. It is a Babel of sounds,
and Christ's voice is imitated. But believers recognize the voice of Jesus amidst all, and
they recognize it as the voice of the Son of God and their Saviour. (2) Special atten-
tion to his voice. They not merely distinguish and know it as his, but attend and
hear; and to them it is particularly sweet and charming — ^like the sound of pardon to
the condemned, the sound of health to the sick, or the sound of the trump of jubilee
to the captives in the land of Israel of old. Even all the golden harps of heaven could
not produce such a sweet music, and they listen with attention and rapturous delight.
(3) Willing (tcceptation hy faith of his teaching. His voice does not die away in music
and end in mere rapturous feelings. But its teaching sinks deep in the mind, produces
genuine faith in the heart, and full and hearty acceptation and assent in the whole souL
2. " They fnJlffK J>im " The hearing results in following. This implies: (1) An acknow-
ledgment qf his leadership. " They follow me." This is a practical acknowledgment
of his right and fitness in every respect to lead. They have every confidence in him,
and they fully trust and believe and obey. And they ought ; for he is a Leader and Com-
mander of the people — the greatest Leader of all ages, the only Leader and Shepherd
of souls. (2) A practical proof of his influence over them and their adherence to him.
" They follow." Why ? Because he attracts them. It is the attraction of his Person,
character, doctrine, life, love — ^the attraction of food to the hungry ; they are not driven,
but drawn; they are filled, and they follow; they are impelled and attracted. (3)
An acknowledgment of their relative position. Christ leads and they follow. The
Master first, then the disciples. This is the natural and Divine order. Peter once
wished to reverse it. He impulsively wanted to lead, but he was peremptorily ordered
to the rear. " Get thee behind me." The shepherd is to be in front, the sheep behind.
They generally do, and ought to, observe the proper order. (4) Constant progression
towards his life. " They follow me." He writes a copy, and they imitate. He com-
mands, and they obey. He goes before, and they follow. They are never at a stand-
still, but follow him whithersoever he goeth. The Christian life is not rest here, but a
continual movement after and towards Christ. He is the mark, and his disciples press
on towards it, and thej' get nearer every day.
III. The blessings they enjoy in relation to Cheist. 1. Bis recognition of
them. "X.knowthem." (1) His recognition of them is perfect. He knows them
better than they know themselves, and before they know him. " Before Philip called
thee," etc. He knows their outward circumstances and difficulties, their inward and
real character, temptations and dangers. He knows them personally and individually.
Not only he knows the flock generally, but he knows every sheep individually, and can
call each one by name. (2) His recognition of them is practical. He is not ashamed
72 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. x. 1—42.
to own them as his. The relationship he puhlicly confesMB. " tSj sheep." They are
admitted to the circle of his immediate friendship, his sympathy, love, and help. (3)
His recognition to them is the highest honour. To he recognized by the great and rich
of this world is considered a high honour. How much higher honour it is to be recog-
nized by him who is Lord of all I This is the highest honour and distinction. 2. The
enjoyment of the highest life. " I give," etc. (1) This is tJie spiritual life of the soul.
The life of God and of Christ within. Christ not only gave his life for the sheep, but
also gave it to them, as a principle, an example, and inspiration of a new life in tiiem.
This is their greatest need. (2) This life is the gift of Christ. " I give them." He
alone could give it. It is the gift of his infinite love and free grace. It is most suit-
able to the recipients, and worthy of the princely Giver. No sum of money could pur-
chase it, no amount of human merit could deserve it; but the Divine author graciously
gives it to all his faithful adherents. (3) It is the gift of Christ now. " I give them."
It is not a mere promise, but a present gift. (4) It is to he fully enjoyed in the future.
" Eternal life." It is a life which has in it the elements of eternal continuance of hap-
piness and fruition, and eternity is at its disposal. 3. Perfect safety. (1) Safety from
inward danger. "They shall never perish." Shall never fall victims to their Inward
corruption. The principle of life is between them and spiritual death. (2) Safety from
outward foes. " No one shall pluck them," etc. Believers are exposed to outward foes.
The arch-thief and his emissaries are ever on the watch for an opportimity to steal and
kill. But they are safe. " No one," etc. (3) The safety of Divine care. " They are in
his hand." They are so precious. Cost so much. So prone to wander. Their spiritual
foes so anxious to have them aa their prey, that they are not trusted anywhere but in
Jesus' hand. They can never be taken by stealth. " They are in his hand." (4) The
safety of Almighty protection, " They are in his hand." His hand is in immediate con-
nection with his arm, and his arm is almighty. No one can take them by force. " They
are in his hand." The hand of his tender love, of his watchful care and almighty power.
IV. The special quabantbes of these BLESsiNas. 1. The absolute supremacy of
ihe Father. " The Father, which gave them me, is greater than all." (1) Greater than
all things, (2) Greater than all wicked men and spirits. Greater than their indi-
vidual force, and all their forces combined. (3) Greater than even the Son himself. In
his humiliation, nfficial capacity, and by Divine courtesy, Jesus, as Son, naturally ascribes
supremacy to the Father. " My Father is greater than all." 2. The union of the Son
with the Father. " I and the Father are one." (1) One in nature and essence. (2)
One in power and authority, (3) One in purpose and wiU, 3. The consequent union
of hdievers vrith hoth. If they are in Christ s hand, they are in that of the Father ; for
they are one. They are thus in the impregnable fortresses of iDflnite power and love.
Their life is divinely given and infinitely safe — hid with Christ in God. No one shall,
and no one is able to, pluck them hence.
Lessons. 1. True helievtrs have special characteristics. They are known of Christ, and
may be known of men. The sheep of Christ are marked ; the marks are^they hear and
follow him. Thus he knows them, and thus they may kuow themselves. To those
who do not hear and follow, he says, " Ye are not of my sheep." 2. The enjoyment of
the hlessings of Christ depends upon compliance with the conditions. " They hear . . .
and follow . . . and I give them, etc. This proves them to be his sheep, and ensures to
them the care and defence of the good Shepherd, as well as all the blessings of the fold.
3. In the degree the conditions are complied with the blessings are enjoyed. " They follow
me, and I give unto them," etc. I give as they follow. Where there is no following at
all, there is no life ; where the following is slack, the life is weak ; but when dose, life
is strong and vigorous. The nearer to Jesus the greater the life. The impartation of
eternal life is gradual, for the participation is gradual. As we follow he gives. We
could not hold it all at once. Let us follow him more closely if we want more life. 4.
TJm ultimate security of any one depends upon thefoUowing. The perseverance of the
saints in grace to the end is a practical question. It is decided on the part of God.
The Divine hand is safe. But is it decided on our part? Are we in it? " They shall
never perish." Not in his hand. No one is able to pluck them out of it. Let us mak«
■we that we are in it, and that we slip not out ourselves from it by not hearii^
•nd foUowing Jesus. Then the question of oui ultimate skfety will be practicallv
•.tUei-B.!.
OH. X. 1—42.] THE GOSPEL AOOOBDINO TO ST. JOHN. 78
Yer. 9. — The Portal of lafetif and promise. " I am the Door : by me if any man enter
in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." During long ages Israel
vas God's flock ; her system ol life and worship, feoced round with laws and ordinances,
was his fold ; her prophets and righteous rulers were his shepherds. It was in many
lespects a strange and unique spectacle. " A people that dwelt alone, and was not
reckoned among the nations." What was the key to this historic problem ? One key
to it at least was the liope of a Messiah. To see and in some measure grasp this hope
was essential to every true Israelite. Whether such a one was a shepherd or a sheep
of the flock, his faith in a present Otoi embraced at the same time the promise of a
Redeemer to come. Hence our Lord says (vers. 7, 8), " I am the Door of the sheep.
AU that ever came before me [irrespective of me] were thieves aud robbers: but
the sheep did not hear them." But now that the Messiah had come, his mission was
not to destroy, but to fulfil ; not to disappoint, but to expand, to exceed the hopes of
God's ancient people. And so, lifting up his eyes, Jesus sees before him a wider
horizon, a richer pasture, and room for a larger flock than aay Israelite had thought of.
He even drops the image of a fold for the moment, or rather widens it out indefinitely,
and speaks of himself as the Door — the one way of entrance into the blessings of his
own kingdom. "I am the Door," etc. Thus, by means of a simple image, Ohrist
places himself between the whole human race and true blessedness. This is one of his
world-wide, universal claims which at once distinguish him from all other prophets and
teachers whom God has ever sent. They could point out to their fellows more or less
clearly the path of life ; Christ alone said, " I am the Way." In moments of rapture
they could sing themselves, or teach others to sing, " Open to me the gates of righteous-
ness, and I will enter into them." Christ said, " I am the Door : let every man enter
in by me." He said this calmly at the first, amid the captious Pharisees who sur-
rounded him ; and wherever his gospel is preached or his flame made known, he says it
still. To the 'happy and to the miserable, to the virtuous and to the vicious, to young
and old, to the great ones of the earth and to men of low estate, to every class of
character and to each isolated individual, he says, " If you would know what true life is,
if you would escape from imminent peril into a land of peace, ' I am the Door.' " The
text divides itself. In tlie first part of it —
L Christ claims to be the Portal of safety, the Doob of deliverance fbom
SPIRITUAL DEATH. " By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved." And he says
this with perfect insight into our condition here. He knows what is in man ; if some
of us under a calm exterior ue carrying about with us a bad conscience, or if, reckless
and gay to outward appearance, we are afraid to be alone with ourselves or with God.
He knows what is aroimdmdn — the evil examples, the strong temptations that enslave
BO many wills, the false lights and the delusive hopes that blind so many understandings.
And he knows what is be/ore man ; for the veil that hides the future from our view is
perfectly transparent to his eyes ; and he spoke more solemnly of human destiny than
any of the ancient prophets or of his own apostles ever spoke. So that no man, how-
ever profoundly dissatisfied with himself, remorseful for the past, despondent or anxious
about the future, can complain that this word of Christ is not for him. He knows
you, brother, better than you know yourself — ^as thoroughly as if there was no other
wanderer in this wide wilderness but you» He has followed you step by step; has
witnessed your most secret sins, however little you thought of his piercing eye ; has seen
through every excuse you have made for yourself, and beneath every mask you have
worn so bravely before the world ; and now that you are weary in the greatness of your
way, instead of despising you, or upbraiding you with your folly, he gives you a per-
sonal invitation, definite and distinct, to a blessedness that you have never known ;
and instead of tantalizing you with vague or impracticable counsels, such as bidding
you first save yourselves and then look up for his blessing, first undo the bitter past
and then consult him about the future, he bids you come to him just as you are, with
your burden on your back. " I am the Door," etc. Ah I many a prodigal has trembled
to enter the door of bis old home ; but surely when Christ, the sinner's Friend, con-
descends to call himself the Door of his Father's house, none need fear to approach
through him. Yet to many Christ's claim to be the Portal of safety seems superfluona
■o far as they themselves are concerned. They admit that his glowing offers of life
and salvation are well suited to outcasts and prodigals, or to poor despondent creatures
74 THE GOSPEL ACCOEDINQ TO ST. JOHN. [oh. x. i— 42.
who are afraid to repent ; but only to such. In their own case they surely possess the
germs at least of a good and worthy character, and while they are willing that these
germs should be nourished and fostered by the teaching of Jesus Christ, they can ask
from him nothing more, nothing at least that can be called salvation. But how did
our Lord himself speak to men in such a state of mind as this? Early in his ministry
one of them came to him by night, calling him a Teacher sent from God, and asking
for instruciion. To this man, this master in Israel, Jesus replied, "Ye must be born
again." You need a change of mind and heart which I came down from heaven to
give. Yes, and to all who are like Nicodemus he gives the same counsel still. He says,
"You need more than some general helps to moral improvement, more than the quicken-
ing of your consciences, or the strengthening of your better motives and impulses.
Supernatural help, even Divine forgiveness and Divine strength, are essential to you' —
nay, they are waiting for you; and in order to realize them and make them your own,
there is one direction in all the wide horizon to which you must look, one definite
step you must take. ' I am the Door.' "
II. In the second part of the text Christ claims to be the Postal or pbomisb to
AI.L WHO OBEY HIM. Each one of these, he says, "shall go in and out, and find pasture."
For here, as we have said, the image of a fold widens out into that of a kingdom — a
land of promise better than that which Moses saw from the top of Pisgah ; a goodly
country where there is room for all the flock of God to dwell, and where its wants shall
be satisfied. This good land is, in one word, the Christian calling. It is the life to
which Christ admits his disciples. Realizing that life and making it their own, they
shall lie down and rise up in the Divine favour, and " the Lord shall preserve thiir
going out and their coming in, from henceforth even for ever." But what is the pasture
they shall find there? What is the nourishment provided for them? In answer to
this we have only to think what are the great wants of our being, essential to us aa
creatures made in the image of God, for assuredly it is these that fall within the scope
of Christ's promises. 1. First of all there is truth. I mean the assured knowledge of
God and of his will ^practical certainty with regard to our position here, and the great
realities which surround us. Well has this been called the first necessity of man's
moral uature. The understanding craves for it. The renewed heart would sicken and
faint without it. But this priceless nourishment is Christ's to bestow. At the great
crisis of his life, when he stood before Pilate's judgment-seat, he claimed to be both the
Witness and the King of truth. " To this end," he said, " was I bom, and for this
cause came I into the world." And though his claims were set at nought by the world,
they were gloriously vindicated by his rising from the dead, and by the mission of the
Holy Ghost, by the outward and the inward seal of the Eternal. Heaven and earth
shall pass away, but his words concerning God and man, and the broad way and the
narrow way, and the cross of true discipleship and the beatitudes of the kingdom, shall
not pass away. Evermore they shall feed and strengthen the souls of his faithful
followers. And as in a very deep sense it is the Spirit of Christ that breathes through-
out the Scriptures from beginning to end both in those of the ancient prophets and of
the holy men who came after, so the flock of the good Shepherd shall ever find green
pastures and still waters as they meditate upon them. Even now, as in the beginning
of the gospel, Christ opens their understanding that they may understand the Sorip-
tnres. 2. Au'ither great need of our souls is sympathy, and we may surely say that
abundant food has been provided for this craving in the new life of Christ's disciples,
which is our gospel land of promise. There is such a thing as the communion of saints.
Precious is the fellowship which they have with one another as they sing God's praises
together, and as they bow before the same mercy-seat, and as in their assemblies the
same thoughts of things which are unseen and eternal fill all their minds. It is well
for them when they speak heart to heart of the things which concern their peace, and
encourage one another in the good way. But the life and soul of this fellowship is the
secret communion which each of them enjoys with God in Christ. To him they can
lay open all their hearts. From him they receive help of which they cannot well speak
to others. " He is touched with a feeling of their infirmities." Some sorrow may ba
too deep, some difficulty too delicate, for the ears of their fellow-men ; but before him
they need have no reserve, and assuredly his Divine sympathy is like nothing else in
human experiance. " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hare entered into the
aB.x.1— 42.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDENG TO ST. JOHN. 75
heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." They
"taste and see that God is good" when they enter into the secret of his presence
through the open door of Christ's mediatorship, and thus our Lord's great promise is
fulfilled, " He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall
never thirst." Such are Christ's claims, such his offers in the words before us. He
does not speak to his disciples of raptures and ecstasies, or promise to transport them to
gome dreamland where they shall enjoy a charmed or enchanted life. But he says they
shall he saved, and shall go in and out and fiud pasture. Their earthly lot may not be
such as they would choose for themselves. The outward aspect of Providence may
sometimes be stern, circumstances trying and hostile; hut he who presides over all the
events of life, and sees the end from the beginning, has promised to keep them in the
hollow of his hand. He is their Shepherd, and they shall not want. Throughout
the years of their pilgrimage here he will feed them with the bread of life, and refresh
them with the water of life, and with these experiences and with his own promises he
will inspire their minds with nothing less than the hope of glory. " Blessed are the
people that are in such a case " as this ! — G. B.
Vers. 14, 15. — " The same yesterday, and to-day, and/or ever," " I am the good Shepherd;
and I know mine own, and mine own know me, even as the Father knoweth me, and I
know the Father " (Revised Version). Our Lord Jesus Christ, as he has on his head many
crowns, so throughout the Scriptures he is invoked and celebrated by many a name.
These names unveil his being, they describe his relations to us, and they serve for his
memorials throughout all generations. Indeed, you can scarcely have a right or fitting
thought concerning him but you find it already expressed by one or another of his
Scripture titles. Here he calls himself " the good Shepherd," using an image which
needs no explanation. Every child knows the allegory at the beginning of this chapter,
and has learned from books of travel how the shepherds in the lands of the Bible know
their sheep one by one, and go before them, and run risks for them ; and, on the other
hand, how the sheep follow their leader, and will not f^o after a stranger. There is
abundant evidence how dear this conception of Christ was to the heart of the early
Church. Among the pictures so strangely preserved on the walls of the Roman
;atacombs, where, as far back as the days of pagan persecution, the Christians were
wont to bury their dead, the good Shepherd is one of the emblems oftenest portrayed.
Fit and cheering emblem for the cloudy and dark day 1 (Stanley's ' Christ. Inst.,' c. xiii.).
But to understand the significance of this image in our Saviour's lips, think of its
hallowed associaticns in the Old Testament, and of its deep prophetic meaning there.
From time immemorial Jehovah himself had been loved and trusted as the Shepherd
of Israel, and the greatest earthly guides whom he gave to his people were described as
under-shepherds who fulfilled his will. " Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the
hand of Moses and Aaron (Ps. Ixvii. 20) ; " He chose also David his servant," etc.
(Ps. Ixxviii. 70, 71). But more, when the great days of Jewish prophecy came round,
how wondrously was the advent of a Divine Shepherd foretold who should never cease
to feed the flock of God 1 Isaiah cried, " The Lord God . . . shall feed his flock like
a shepherd." Bzekiel echoed and prolonged the cry (xxxiv. 12). Thus prophetic
visions were reaUzed and prophetic voices were fulfilled when Christ said, " I am," etc.
On jnany grounds Christ could claim this title, but his own words in the text give
prominence to a special and .mutual tie between the good Shejierd and his flock.
" I know my own, and my own know me," etc.
I. These words weeb fulfilled in the days or our Lord's flesh. Bveu
then it was with a sure and Divine intuition that he looked into the hearts of men.
This was more than the strange gift of discernment which men of genius have some-
times shown in choosing followers. " He knew from the beginning who they were that
believed not, and who should betray him ; " and, on the other hand, he recognized those
whom the Father had given him, and whose souls were prepared or preparing to receive
the good seed of the kingdom. Do any say, " How was this ? " seeing he had emptied
himself even of his onmiscience, and was found in fashion as a man ? Enough to reply
that the Spirit that was given to him without measure was " a spirit of wisdom and
understanding," so that " he did not judge after the sight of his eyes, nor reprove after
the hearing of his ears." And hence he never was mistaken in his estimate of human
T« THE GOSPEL ACOOBDINO TO BT. JOHN. [<«. x. 1—42.
character — ^nerer met with a refusal when he said autJioritatively to one and anothei^
" Follow me ! " When he saw Natbanael coming to him he said, " Behold an Israelite
indeed, in whom is no guile." When he heheld Simon the son of Jonas, he gave him
a new name, which Peter in the long run justified. And when he found Matthew
sitting at the receipt of custom he counted on that publican's obedience, and made him
a disciple with a word. And so be gathered about him a flock — it was in those days
but a little flock — which continued faithful to him to the end ; and though there was
a wolf among them in sheep's clothing, it was Judas himself, and not his Master, who
was deceived. And he adds, " My own know me, even as I know the Father." Not,
indeed, with an absolutely pure and unclouded knowledge Buch as his was, unimpaired
by occasional error or mistake, but with a knowledge which was real and true and
spiritual. According to the measure of their faith Christ's own disciples knew him, even
as he knew the Father. As they heard his words and saw his mighty works and
marked his steps, there flashed on their minds, shining through the veil of his flesh, a
light that carried its own evidence along with it, at once awe-inspiring and attractive.
In the language of John, " They heheld his glory " (ch. i. 14). Hence they regarded
him as One immeasurably above themselves, never questioning his authority, or doubt-
ing his faithfulness, or presuming to weigh in their petty balances his mighty claims.
And when he said to them on one occasion, " Will ye also go away ? " Peter, making
himself the spokesman of the rest, replied, " Lord, to whom shall we go ? thou hast
the words of eternal life." Thus the flock knew its Shepherd.
IL These words have a pbbmanent application, fob ra theib TuiiirBSS of
MXANUra THEY BGLOKO TO 0T7B LORD IN HIS OLOBIFIED STATE. It WaS aS the great
Shepherd of the sheep that he was brought again from the dead, and when he ascended
into heaven he only left beliind him the limitations of his earthly life. Already be had
promised to be with his disciples alway, even to the end of the world. He was to be
their Shepherd still. Hence in the subsequent Scriptures we never read of any of his
flock deploring his departure as a loss, or saying, like the sisters of Bethany, " Lord, if
thou hadst been here," etc. ; on the contrary, we flnd them rejoicing more in his spiritual
presence than they had ever done in his bodily presence. 1. In how many senses may
it be said that he knows his own ! Their number is within the ken of bis omniscience,
and there are hidden ones among them unperceived by man, but precious in his sight,
because he sees the mark of God in their foreheads. He has a smUe of recognition for
their " works, and charity, and service, and faith, and patience," well pleased that they
have not received the grace of God in vain. And when their spirit is overwhelmed
within them, and their path is lonely and their burden such as friends cannot lift,
perhaps cannot understand — for who can sound all the depths of a brother's heart? —
then he knoweth their way, and his perfect knowledge takes the form of tender sympathy
and help from above. Verily the Lord knoweth them that are his ! 2. On the other
hand, it is still a faithful saying that his own know him. Not indeed after the flesh, as
was the privilege, if we should not rather say the perplexing ordeal, of his first disciples,
bnt in spirit and in truth. They have had experience of his guidance, sometimes very
wonderful, always very real ; how he has done for them what no man or angel can do,
and more than they can well describe, " leading them by the right way," giving them
his Spirit — " the mind of Christ." They know his many-toned voice in the Scriptures,
sometimes " still and small," as Elijah heard it at Horeb, at other times " like- the
sound of many waters," as John heard it at Patmos ; so that they have no need to say,
" Who shall ascend into heaven, to bring Christ down from above? " etc. (Rom. x. 6, 7),
no need to cross land and sea to explore the places where he dwelt, or to travel back
in thought these eighteen hundred years to realize the diiys of his flesh. " When his
Word is nigh them, in their mouth and in their heart," then is their Saviour nigh to
them also. And besides all this, they can in some measure trace his footsteps through-
out the ages ; for what is the history of the Church — I mean her sacred and internal
history^-but a long series of testimonies to our Shepherd's power and grace, to his
patience and long-suffering ? So that these words are as true now as they were on the
day they were uttered. Christ has a widespread flock here below. It is for him, not
for us, to define its limits. No lines that man can draw vrill ever avail to do this.
Haa he not said that " many that are first shall be last, and the last first " ? But he
knows hi* own, and his own know him. The fruits of their fellowship are indaed
tm. X. 1—42.] TBH GOSPEL AOOOBDmQ TO ST. JOHN. 77
visible and tangible, and may be counterfeited, but not its roots. The strong ties
that bind the Shepherd to his flock are among the things that are unseen and eternaL
The world cannot break them, nor even understand them. Time does not impair them,
death will not destroy them. "He gives to his sheep eternal life," etc. (ver. 28).
Blessed are those who can set to their seal that these words are true— who can say,
" Yes, Lord ! thou knowest my weakness, and I know thy strength ; thou knowest my
fdUy, and I know thy wisdom; thou knowest my poverty, and I know thine unsearch-
able riches. Lord, thou knowest all things ; thou knowest that I love thee ; and can
I doubt this, that thou first lovedst me ?"
Learn from this subject: 1. That the faith of the gospel is a personal matter. Its
object is not a principle, or an abstraction, or an unknown and unknowable first cause,
or " a stream of tendency ; " but Ood reveaded in Christ, whose presence can be sought
and realized, who stoops and humbles himself to admit us into bis friendship. The
text breathes the very language of communion and fellowship. " The God of the Bible
is heart to heart " (Bunsen). 2. The deep repose of the Christian life. There is peace
in believing. Faith can rest in the thought of an Almighty Shepherd who takes an
interest in each of his flock. It is true that Christ " gives to every man his work," and
summons his disciples to war the good warfare, and put on the whole armour of God.
But at the same time it is written, " We that have believed do enter into rest " (Heb. iv.
3). Deeper than aU the conflicts of the life of faith, there may be the peace of God
which passeth understanding. Underneath the manifold endeavours of our active
nature there is room for quiet trust in an imseen Helper. Nay, the vmfailing springs of
courage and of patience have their source within the veiL Try'to realize this. Surely
the words of the text fuUy imply it. Look up to him who said, as never man said,
« Fear not ; " " Peace be unto you." Go to him, listen to him, follow him, and the old
psalm will bo like a new song in yoiir mouth, " The Lord is my Shepherd," etc.
3. Beware of mwrmuring at your ShephercFs guidance, or rebelling against it. The
path which you know is his path may be rough and steep for a time, perhaps monotonous
and weary. False guides, pretended "leaders of thought," may point to alluring
prospects on the right hand or on the left, and try to persuade you to turn your back
on Christ ; but they will only conduct you to some mirage of the desert. Rebels dwelt
in a d/ry land. Is this your experience ? Has tlie spirit of the world beguiled you
away from "the simplicity that is in Christ," and has your love grown cold, and has
your hope of glory died away ? Take with you words and say, " I wiU return to my
first Shepherd, for then was it better with me than it is now." Believe in his infinite
grace and goodness. He will restore your soul, and lead you in the paths of righteous-
ness, even for his own Name's sake. — G. B.
Vers. 27, 28. — Quis teparMt t " My sheep hear my ▼oice, and I know them," ete.
This is Christ's last word concerning himself and his sheep; his last application
of the allegory set forth in the beginning of the chapter. We may well wonder at
its tone. The Speaker knew where he stood and what awaited him. The ancieiit
fold, of which he had spoken, was invaded by hireling scribes and robber Sadducees.
The true sheep were feeble and apparently helpless. In a few brief months they
should be scattered, and he himself, their good Shepherd, smitten to death. Tet oui
Lord dings to his similitude, and seems to us to rejoice in spirit, as he speaks of the
everlasting bonds between himself uid his flock. For his horizon was not bounded
by the cross and the sepulchre, but by the joy that was set before him ; and he foresaw
that in the ages to come the sound of his voice should go out into all lands, and an
ever-increasing multitude should follow him and receive from him eternal liie. We
must, therefore, look on these words as Christ's perpetual and living testimony, and
without forgetting that they were first spoken in an earthly temple, in Solomon's Porch,
let us listen to them as coming to us from a heavenly temple, and from i> throne of
glory. They deecribe —
I. Thk conscious tb between Chbibt's bisoiples and himself. Since they were
uttered, the gospel has been carried far and wide over vast continents and to the distant
islands (rf the sea, and it would take long to t«ll of the outward revolution it has
effected, or of the inddental blessings which kave foUowad in its train ; how it has
added to the sum of human haj^ness and diminished the sum of human misery ;
78 TEE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. x. 1—42.
bow it has deepened men's thoughts and widened their horizon. But wherever it has
taken root, individual souls have consciously owned its power and yielded them-
selves up to its guidance. No census can count up their numhers. No test that man
can apply will infallibly distinguish them from all others. It is only Chritt himself
who can say, "I know them." But there is one great outstanding fact conoernino
them which he here gives prominence to : " They hear his voice, and follow him."
Among the many voices, some truer, some falser, which reach their ears in this world,
there is one voice that is all-powerful. Among the various influences, better or worse,
which press upon them on every side, there is one influence paramount and irresistible.
And this is a matter of consciousness on their part. It may be more or less vividly so
at different times or in certain circumstances, but it is essentially a fact of experience
which they would not part with if they could, and which all ihe world cannot rob them
of. They hear his voice, now quickening their consciences and bidding them awake
from sleep ; or again saying to them, " Peace be unto you ; " " Pear not ; " or yet again,
" Continue ye in my love." But there is always grace as well as power in his voice, and
this makes it welcome to his true disciples. When he warns them, they take good
heed. When he encourages them, they are of good cheer. Even when he rebukes
them, they know that faithful are the wounds of such a Friend, and can only reply,
" Speak, Lord ; thy servants hear." And the result is that they follow him j for there
is a path which he is ever tracing for them by his precepts and his example, illumined
as these are by his Spirit— a path which may be trodden in solitude and in society,
in health and in sickness, in the busy world and in the family circle, in the secret
chamber, by young and old, by learned and unlearned. Of every disciple it may be
said that the deepest desire of his heart is to be found in that good way, and, should
he wander, to be brought back to it. Sometimes, indeed, it leads him through green
pastures and by the still waters, at other times through some dark valley of the
shadow of death ; but he knows well that to forsake it wilfully is to draw back unto
perdition, and the very dread of this in his hours of temptation is a salutary thing.
Since the day, more than eighteen centuries ago, when the disciples were called
Christians in the city of Antioch, that name, first perhaps given contemptuously, has
been claimed by multitudes without number. In our own day and our own country it
must needs be generally accorded to all who do not care to renounce it. But oh 1 listen
to Christ's own description of those whom he owns as members of his flock : "They
hear his voice, and they follow him." The root and reality of the matter is there. Try
yourselves fairly by tijis test. Many bear the Christian name, they scarcely know why.
But none can listen to Christ and obey him, in any true sense of the word, without
earnestness and purpose of heart.
II. Christ's great gift to his flock — kternai. urB. If life be a great word,
eternal life is one of the greatest words that can be spoken by human lips. Who can
utter it aright without awe, seeing that its full meaning rises so high above us and
stretches so far beyond us ? You know that in Scripture it sometimes denotes that
state of blessedness which is reserved for God's children in the future ; as our Lord says,
" In the world to come life everlasting." But sometimes also it points to a blessing
realized in some measure here and now. " This is life eternal, that they should know
thee the only true God," etc. (ch. xvii. 3). Both applications of the word are needed
to fill up its meaning. Eternal life embraces both the preseat and the future. It has
its beginning, and it has its consummation. The same Sun of Righteousness enlightens
both worlds. The river that gladdens the city of God here below, reappears in the
paradise above. And both aspects of the wondrous blessing are brought together in
these words of Christ, for he speaks in the same breath of its present reality and of its
gi-^ous perpetuity. " I give unto them eternal life [not merely, • I shall give it'], and
they sh^l never perish," etc, 1. What, then, are the present aspects of this life which
Christ bestows upon his true disciples? What does he do for them? What does
he give them? As they hear his voice and follow him, imperfectly, no doubt, but
unfeignedly, lo I the mists of earthly things dissolve and disappear, the veil is lifted
from the holy of holies, and he admits them to communion and fellowship with the
eternal God. Ah, this is a blessing which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it.
There is mercy in it, there is peace in it, there is joy in it, but, above all, there is life in
It} for "<i«d is not the God of the dead, but oi the living." Think how this Diviui
OH. X. 1—42.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 79
friendahip Ib described in that benediction, which from the beginning has been pro-
nounced over the assemblies of Christ's disciples at the close of their worship. It is
called " the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ," because it is bestowed on the unworthy
through the humiliation of the God-Man. It is called " the love of God," because it it
the unveiling and outpouring of the Father's heart. And it is called " the communion
of the Holy Ghost," because it unites God's children with himself aud with each other
by one and the same Spirit. We must admit, indeed, that custom has made us so
familiar with these words, that too often they seem only a becoming formula expected
at a certain moment ;• but the glorious things they speak of can never pall upon the
renewed heart. If there is a freshness about each sunrise, as the traveller sees the
morning .spread upon the mountains, so there is a spiritual freshness about each glimpse
of the glory of God. What child ever wearied of his father's smile? What Christian
of the light of his heavenly Father's countenance? "With thee is the fountain of
life : in thy light shall we see light." Such are the springs of the life of God in the
soul of man ; but what are its characters, its pulses, so to speak, or its breathings, by
which it may be known in our own experience ?
" 'Tie life of which our souls are scant ;
Oh, life I not death, for which we pant;
More life and fuller that we want! "
In the text it is contrasted with perishing, and something may bo learned by tha
contrast ; for though none in this place of hope know what it is to perish, yet many
may know what it is to be ready to perish. It is to have no object worthy of the soul's '
capacities to cling to or lean upon. It is to be involved in uncertainty as to where we
are or whither we are going. To have the sphere of expected good growing narrower,
the circle of expected evil growing wider. To have a heart becoming more selfish,
more dead, or more cold 1 And if this is to be ready to perish, then to have eternal life
is the opposite of all this. It is to have the gracious presence of God in Ciirist; to have
the assured and ever-brightening prospect of better things to come; to breathe that love
which is the reflection of the Divine image, because God is love ; and which cannot be
separated from happiness, for God is ever blessed. Such are the beginnings of eternal
life, and he who gives it can sustain it in the hearts of his disciples. For he is mightier
than all the enemies they can meet with here below ; and as to time itself, which buries
80 much in the waters of oblivion, and tests, and wastes, and »veakens so many earthly
ties, even time cannot impair this friendship; " for Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
and to-day, and for ever." 2. But w^hat are thejuiure aspects of eternal life; for, as its
name imports, it passes beycmd the frontiers of time, and transcends all the experiences of
the present ? A change indeed awaits eyen the disciples of Christ, mysterious, unknown,
inconceivable, when this world shall vanish from their sight, and the voices of their
friends shall cease to sound in their ears, and when the powers of speech and even of
will and thought shall fail them. Passive and helpless they shall leave this stage of
existence ; passive and helpless they shall ei ter on the next. But see in the words
before us how Christ makes himself responsible, not only for the dread transition, but
for all the experiences that lie beyond it. " They shall never perish," etc. He does
not speak of his great gift as becoming the independent possession of his disciples, which
they themselves are to guard in the solemn hereafter. No, even there it will be the
result of the happy and enduring relation between the great Shepherd and his flock.
And this is the very thought which the Apo.-tle Paul expands and makes his own in
the climax of the eighth chapter of Komans : " I am persuaded, that neither death, nor
life, nor angels, . . . shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord." However far, then, we look forward to the future, we may say this
much — that eternal life, in all its stages, will be the continuation and unfolding of what
is begun here. The life of grace will pass into the life of glory, but its thread will not
be CLii, nor its purposes broken off, nor its centre changed. Here its frail tent is a body
of humiliation; there its dwelling-place shall be a house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens; but in its root and essence it is ever the same life, ttpheld by the same
Spirit, watched over by the same Redeemer. " All his saints are in his hand," and
none shall pluck them thence. What the ultimate glory of eternal life will be, was
more than the beloved disciple himself could well conceive. He says in his First
80 THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. x. 1—42.
Epistle, " It doth not yet appear what we shall be : but we know that, when he sltall
appear, we sliall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." And is not this enough?
(Jaa your thoughts and desires rise higher ? We are taught, indeed, that when the
mystery of God has been finished, the children of the resurrection shall open their eyes
on a new heaven and a new earth, where nothing that defileth shall ever enter. They
shall have congenial society there; the companionship of the loyal and the true.
Activity without weariness shall be their everlasting rest. But tlie crown of their
blessedness shall be this, that they shall bear the image of their heavenly Lord. Once
in the days of his flesh he prayed as never man prayed : " Father, I will that they also,
whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am ; that they may behold my glory,"
The acswer to that prayer shall be eternal life. — G. B.
Ver. 4. — The familiar voioe. Here we have an illustration of the advantage in some
respects of ear over eye, of sound over light. By the shepherd's voice the sheep know
him even when they cannot see him. They never make any mistake. A stranger
might come and bellow liimself hoarse, and they would just stop where ihey were.
This statement, of course, we have to take on trust. It would be much more forcible
to us if we had stood by the common fold and seen the sheep ru.shing toward the
shepherd upon the hearing of his voice. But we may make little parables out of our
own observation. Other brute beasts beside sheep recognize those on whom they are
dependent.
L ThB OBEAT promise connected with the knowledge or THE VOICE OF Je8U8.
See vers. 27 and 28, " My sheep hear my vuice, and I know them, and they follow me :
and I give unto them eternal life ; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man
pluck them out of my hand." As there are gifts for sheep corresponding to their nature
and needs, so there are gifts for men. As the shepherd gives to the sheep sustenance
for its natural life, making it his business and responsibility to find out the green pas-
tures and still waters, so Jesus is the Shepherd who gives to his sheep eternal life,
introducing them to a scene of growth and occupation and blessedness to which be
alone has the key. Thus also Jesus stands between his flock and periL There is that
goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. There is that would
drive every Christian into unbelief and backsliding and love of "this present evil world,
and so into ultimate destruction. But Jesus stands as the good Shepherd, armed at
every point against every foe.
II. All is useless unless the sheep know the voioe. Ample provision is nothing
unless the sheep come to make use of it. The bravery and vigilance of the Shepherd are
all in vain if the sheep wander oat of earshot. Even a sheep must do something to
contribute to its own nourishment and security, and how much more a human being?
If we would attain the very height of life and be invulnerable at every point, we must
know the voice of Jesus. And yet though the sheep, silly, stupid thing as it is often
reckoned, knons its shepherd's voice, the children of men, those for whom Jesus has
stored up such abundance of the bread of life, and to whose salvation he has devoted
himself, know not his voice. Oftentimes, too, the knowledge of that voice baa to come
very gradually.
III. OoB OWN nbedt and DANGEROUS POSITION uusT BK FEBOEiVED. We must Com-
prehend why the voice of Jesus speaks to us at all. That voice sounds out because of
need and danger. The sheep and shepherd, as it were, make up one whole. Unless
we led our need to know the voice of Jusus, we never can know that need. Mere
reading of his words is not knowing his voice. The voice of Jesus must beconie
lamiliar just as every other voice does. There must be a beginning. There must be
attentiveuess. We may hear that voice continually if we choose to hear it, and take
the right way to hear it. Nothing is easier than to stop our ears. The din of the
world's babble will easily drown the voice that speaks to us of support and salvation.
All hangs on our willingness to listen. We carry our needs about with ns, wrapt in
the complications and anxieties of our lives, and we must carry our Shepherd about with
us too. If we are as much alive to our needs and dangers as Jesus is, then all will be
right; (at his voice is ever sounding in the midst of need and danger. — Y.
\m, Vk—TIU/uinei* of J^* Ai JenM. Jesua la the Shepherd, oontruted flnt ^ all
OB. X. 1—42.] THE GOSPEL AOCOBDINO TO ST. JOHH. 81
with the thief, and then with the hireling. In this yvnia the contrast ii with the thief
The thief comes to iteal, taking away the sheep from its proper owner. The thief
comes to hill, taking away from the sheep all further use and enjoyment of its own life.
The thief comes to destroy, ravaging through the fold in pure malice and wantonness,
killing the sheep, not for food, but just through devilish delight in inflicting injury.
The shepherd comes to nourish and protect the sheep. He leads it by the green
pastures and still waters. It shall have the very best, and then it must make the very
best of it. So Jesus comes to give and maintain life ; and what he proposes he actually
performs. Wherever else there may be injury, death, destruction, decay, from Jesus
there comes life, and nothing but life. Thus we must look at our deficiencies in respeci
to life. We do not live as Jesus lives ; we know not the consecration, the devotion,
the purity, the self-abnegition, that belonged to him. The sheep need a shepherd
because they have not in themselves the resources whereby to provide for themselves
and protect themselves. The life-giving fulness of Jesus must, therefore, be considered
in contrast with the natural deficiencies of men. Listen to other voices, which try to say
in their measure that they have come that we might have life,
L Listen to the food-oivino eabth. Bather to those innumerable products of the
earth which Gk)d has given for the maintenance of human life. Every field of grain,
every orchard, every plot of earth where anything grows that is good for support of
man, all may join in one great chorus of proffered service. "We have come that thou
mayest have life." But then they speak equally to the lower creation. The fowls of
the air sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns ; while in the sweat of his
face man has to eat bread. Then the supply is limited. When every wilderness has
been turned into a fruitful field, and every fruitful field has its powers developed to
the utmost, the supply will still be limited. Then above every other consideration is
that of the difference between man and beast. Man wants a higher life than any visible
thing can nourish. When nature can do least, grace can do most. When the visible
comes back in impotence, the invisible comes forward in the fulness of its strength.
Jesus will give heights and depths of joy that no combination of natural ministries can
ever afford. Men who really want to enjoy life and drink its pleasures to the last drop,
know not what they lose in neglecting Christ.
II. Listen to the aib we bueathe. It says, " I am come that ye might have life."
To be just a few minutes without it means death. The air of heaven is nearer to an
unconditional gift than anything we know. Tet when that air puts out its full force it
ii the destroying tempest. Kotice also how it gets subtly mixed with all manner of cor-
ruptions and poi^nous elements. Wherever we go we must breathe such air as we find.
We cannot take about with us a special stock of pure air for our own use. But those
who are willing to take the gift of Jesus in all its purity and energy may have it so.
IIL Listen to the parental belation. An infant left utterly untended would be
dead in twenty-four hours. And when we see the love, the constant watchfulness and
forethought of parents and guardians, when we consider the necessity of all this and
the good results of it, we should be led to have similar grateful thoughts with respect
to the ministry of Jesus, in sustaining spiritual life. Spiritual infancy, as much as
natural, means weakness, dependence, need of constant love and care. How plun it
ought to be that God will provide for the days of helplessness In his own spiritual
children I— Y.
Ver. 11. — The good Shepherd. L The infobhatior given to us. We may ourselves
be very ignorant of sheep and shepherding ; and what shoul'l we know of Eastern
customs ? Hence it is well to study the information given in the first five verses of
this chapter. We are to imagine a large fold where a great number of sheep are gathered
together. At the door of the fold a man is stationed to keep guard, chiefly, as one may
suppose, to prevent the entrance of unauthorized persons. For the sheejk within do not
constitute one flock. They are not the property of one person. The fold has been
made for the common advantage. Each shepherd could not afford to make a fold for
himself and employ a doorkeeper of his own. Imagine, then, some shepherd having a
hundred sheep. He has been out with them all day, watohing them and leading them
from pastur* to pasture. Then at night he brings them to the common fold and leavai
Uiem wi^ ttie doorkeeper. Next morning h« return* to take them out for the 6»ji
JOV»— S. •
82 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. x. 1— 4a
and how must he find his own amid the mixed crowd? By the simple plan of calling
each sheep hy name. And so the shepherd takes them out and goes la front of them
till the pasture is reached. His voice is quite enough to keep thera right. They will
not follow a stranger, for they know not the voice of strangers.
II. Je3us can sat more fob the sheep tuan fob the shepherds. He can say this
of a sheep, that if a shepherd gives it a name, and then calls it by that uame, it will
make its way to the familiar voice, even though it he amid a large crowd of other
sheep. But take a lad and entrust him with a flock of sheep. Explain to him their
ways, their wants, and their perils. Still you cannot tell beforehand what sort of a
shepherd he will turn out. He must he tried hy actual experience, and the name good
or had given to him according to the way in which he behaves.
III. Jesus the good Shepherd. What power there is in the word " I " when Jesus
uses it! We like Jesus all the better wheu he talks about himself. We do not call
him egotist. Think in how many respects men are like sheep, and need a good shep-
herd. In many things we can look alter ourselves, but in the most important things
we need to be looked after. The true shepherd will not submit to have his property
scattered and lost without a determined attempt to save it. He has a special and
supreme interest in the sheep because they are his sheep. Every human being has
something of the sheep-nature in him. Jesus looks on every company of human beings
as a fold wherein sheep of different flocks are fiathered together, and he has to get his
own flock out of tliem. We cannot do without some shepherd, and happy is it for us
if we have the good shepherd. He laid down his life for the sheep, seemed to be
destroyed by the wolf, but really he was engaged in its effectual destruction. He has
gained for his sheep broad, even measureless lands of green pastures and still waters,
where the sheep may feed at leisure without a foe and without a fear. In all those
lands no ravenous beast has his haunt. Nothing shall hurt or destroy in all the holy
mountain of the Lord. — Y.
Vers. 17, 18. — The dedicated life. That the Father loved him Jesus was constantly
asserting, and here we have the reason for that love.
I. Notice the general element op devotion. Upon all self-sacrificing devotion
the Father must look with a complacent eye. Because, if the spirit of devotion be in a
man at all, the extent and the character of the devotion will depend upon the necessity
and the claim. A few have become famous in history, not that they were more devoted
than the many unnamed, but their devotion was shown on more memorable scenes.
And when God looks upon hU own childr. n, from him who was peculiarly the Son of
God downwards, this spirit of devotion in them is needful to give'Lim pleasure. For
behind this love of God toward his true children, there is love to the dying world, a love
that can only be satisfied in proportion as that world receives eternal life. And if that
world is to receive eternal life, it must be through the self-denying devution of those
who have received it already. Self-denying devotion is of the very essence of the new
cieature. And since Jesus stands at the very head of the new creation, we expect to
find in him the noblest and most inspiring instance of this devotinn.
II. Notice the elements peculiar to the devotion op Jesus. The peculiar
nature and mission of Jesus have to be considered. Jesus could do by his devotion
what no ordinary human being could do. He laid down his life that he might take it
again. His devotion would have been useless but for this ability to -take up again
what had been laid down. If he had simply laid his life down, and that had been the
end of it, he would have done no more than thousands had done already and thousands
have done since. Natural lives have been freely gitien up that other natural lives
might be jireserved. Oftener still perhaps they have been risked. But when Jesus laid
down his life, the peculiarity lay here, that he did not preserve any other natural life
by doing so. Nay more, he who laid down his life made it necessary for others to
lay down their lives in turn. Jesus laid down his life to make manifest the reality of
eternal life. 1. It had to be made ]ilain that Jesus did really lay down his life. We
may talk of laying down our lives, but that is in spiiit rather than reality, for our lives
■re not ours to lay down. Man's natural life may be taken from him at any time. But
Jesus evidently had a control over his life which we have not. Most important is that
declaration, "No man taketh it from mej" and most important, too, is that other
OH. u. 1—67.1 THE GOSPEL AOCORDINa TO ST. JOHW. 8«
declaration, " I h»Te power [or, ' authority *] to lay it down." We need ever to recollect
all that was voluntary, deliberate, foreseen, and iatentional in the death of Jesus. On
one side that death is the most concentrated illustratioa of human wickedness and cor-
Kuption the world has ever seen. On the other side it is not so much an illustration as
a development. Jesus shows us in himself a human possihility turned into reality. It had
to be made very clear to him that he might lay his life down. And it has to be made
very clear to us that there was nothing suicidal or despairing about this dedication.
It was the free action of the wise Jesus, taking the path of duty and love. And let it
not be said there was nothing difficult in this. As a matter of history, we know there
was difficulty ; let Gethsemane testify to that. We should need to have the nature of
Jesus ourselves to comprehend whence all his difficulties and agonies arose. — ^Y.
Ver. 29. — The Father's perfect protection. This verse explains, sustains, and com-
pletes the previous one. The previous verse indicates the double duty of the shepherd.
He has to feed the flock, and he has to protect it. Jesus has to give eternal life, and
secure it when given. But inevitably the thought arises in one's mind that oftentimes
the shepherd is slain and the sheep are scattered. This was to be illustrated to a
certain extent very soon after Jesus had spoken. It was not that the sheep were
plucked away and the Shepherd remained ; the Shepherd was plucked away, and the
sheep seemed as if they were to fall back into the world. But, in truth, the plucking
of the Shepherd away was only the lifting of a veil which hid the real wall of defence.
If we look only to Jesus, and fail to see some one beyond, we shall never estimate
either the greatness of the danger or the perfection of the safety.
I. Look at the greatness of the danqeb. The perils of a stupid, helpless, defence-
less sheep are really but a feeble illustration of the perils besetting the Christian. We
never do properly comprehend those perils. Even as it is the shepherd and not the
sheep that really knows the perils of the sheep, so it is Jesus and the Father of Jesus
who really know the perils of the Christian. Well is it that we know not all our perils.
A perfect knowledge of them might only increase our misery without diminishing our
peril- in the least. We are to learn the greatness of our peril in an indirect way. We
have to learn it by the provisions that have been evidently made. Jesus provides
against perils that we appreciate very imperfectly ; and perils we make a great deal of,
he treats as passing inconveniences. The full power of Heaven is engaged for our
safety ; that alone should show us the greatness of our danger.
II. Look at the pledge or safety. It is not a pledge of devotion and attention
merely; it is a pledge of absolute safety. It lifts shepherd and sheep alike into a region
where no wolf ever wanders, where no thief breaks through nor steals. It is the
defence that comes from being in a totally different sphere of life. Those on board a
ship in mid-ocean are perfectly safe from the fierce and mighty sharks that swim all
around ; safe so long as the ship is safe ; safe so long as they keep on board ; but let
any of them come into the water, and the sharks snap them up at once. But if these
same people are on land, they can go wherever they like and have no fear of the shark;
they are utterly removed from his element. Each element has its own peril and its
own safety. But those who have put themselves into the hand of the great Shepherd,
the only Shepherd truly good, as uniting faithfulness with ability, are in an element
where all the essentials of life are safe. The intent of our heavenly Father is, not that
we should be delivered from dangers when they actually come upon us, but that we
should rise into a sphere where dangers will not really come. Observe exactly how
Jesus puts it both with reference to his protection and his Father's protection. He
does not say that he or the Father will pluck his sheep from the clutches of any foe
that may seize them. He goes further than that : the foe is not to pluck the sheep out
of the F<.ther'B hand.— T.
OHAPTBR XL
Ver», 1 — 57. — 7. Ghriit the Antagonht of
dtath — a victory of love and power. The
EXPOSITION.
narrative of this chapter li a further advanos
in the proof that the unbelief of the Jews
was aggravated by the greatness of tha
revelation. The issue of his gublinM ttaA
u
THE GOSPEL ACCOKDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xi. 1—67.
enlminatiag act of power, of his supreme
and self-reTealing work of transcendent
tenderness and beauty, was a deeper and
wilder passion of hatred. The evangelist
completes his series of seven great miracles
with one, that in true and believing minds,
evokes a new sense of the glory of God.
This great last sign correspond* with the
first (ch. ii.) by being enacted amid the
domestic and family life of a small and
insignificant town, and also by express refer-
ence to the veritable manifestation involved
in it of the S6^a eeoS, on which we have
frequently commented. Baur treated the
narrative as an ideal composition, illus-
trating the great metaphysical utterance,
"I am the Besurrection and the Life."
Eeim endeavoured to reduce the whole
narrative to a fiction, not so well contrived
as some of the evangelist's toon deforce.
This is almost as arbitrary and ofiensive as
M. Benan's endeavour (which held its place
in numerous editions of his ' Vie de Jesus ')
to represent the miracle as a got-up scene,
into which Cbiist, by a kind of Divine
memonge, allowed himself to be drawn.
Subsiequently, Benan baa suggested that
Mary and Martha told Jesus their persuasion
that such a miracle would convince his
enemies, and that he replied that his bitter
foes would not believe him even if Lazarus
were to rise from the grave ; and that this
speech was expanded by tradition into an
actual event. This corresponds with what
Weisse had suggested, that the stcry is an
expansionpf the Lord's conversation with the
sisters at Bethany. Gfrorer (' Heiligthum
und Wahrheit,' p. RU, Meyer) thought that
it is the story of Nain over again in a de-
veloped form, and that Nain is equivalent
to Bethany ; and Schenkel hai fancied that
the parable of Luke xvi. has been expanded
into a narrative of genuine resurrection.
Thoma has, in like manner, regarded it as
the poetic expansion of the idea of the
Christ as the Prince of life and Conqueror
of death, and as baeed on the synoptio
account of two resurrections, and on the
parable of Lazarus and the rich man. These
hypotheses are all incompatible with the
simplicity of the account and with the
apostolicity of the Gospel. Many attempts
have been made to account for the silence
of th« synoptiiits coneeming this narrativ*.
Some writers, with Epiphanins, have said
they feared, when their narratives were made
public, to call luoh marked attention to the
family of Bethany, lest they might have
endangered their lives ; but this ii exceed-
ingly improbable. Others have argued that
this crowning miracle would not take such
a conspicuous place in their less-oarefully
arranged records. It was only one of "many
signs" wrought by our Lord with which they
were familiar. Matthew (ix. 18) and Mark
(v. 22) had already described the raising of
Jairus's daughter from the bed of death,
from what was believed by the onlookers to
have been veritable dissolution ; and Luke
(vii. 11) had shown the Lord at the gates of
Kain to have royally withstood the power
of death, even when the corpse of a young
man was being carried out to the burial.
The narrative before us is not different in
kind from these, though the prelude and the
accompaniments of the miracle and its con-
sequences are all wrought out with muoh
dramatic force, while numerous touches, by-
scenes, and references are introduced which
give consummate interest to the whole.
Another suggestion of moment is that it
was not the purpose of the synoptists to
detail the incidents of our Lord's ministry
in Jerusalem. Let it not be forgotten that
each of the evangelists records incident and
discourse to which neither of the others had
access. The peculiarities of Matthew and
Luke are nearly as numerous as those of
the Fourth Gospel. Why should not John
bring forth facts from his memory which
they had left untouched? (see Introduc-
tion, p. xcvi.).
Vers. 1— 16.— (1) The mystery and might
of eaerifieial hve teen in the prelude of the
tntraele.
Ver. 1. — Kow a certain (man) was sick,
(named) lazanu, of Bethany, of the village
of Mary and her sister Uartha. The certain
man who was sick, Lazarus (or Eleazar) by
name,' was from Bethany, the village of
Marjr and her sister Martha. The two pre-
positions &7rb and iK generally denote pro-
cession from, but the latter implies closer
and more intimate original association ; they
here are put in sppoaition, though there
are passages where tk*y h« discriminated
' Two etymologies of the name ■iiy-(»S,"»o
help;" but better -itrS contracted fh>H
■Bj'JK, " God is help " '(j&Mhelf).
«. M. 1—67.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHIT.
8tl
(Luke ii. 4 ; Aeti xxiiL 34 ; B.T. of Bev. ix.
18). The contention of OresBwell that airh
leferred to present residence, and ^k to
natiTity, and that the xdifni was to be found
in Grahlee, is not sound (see ch. xii. 21 ;
xix. 38). Bethany is mentioned to dis-
tinguish it from " Bethiiny beyond Jordan,"
referred to in ch. i. 28 (see note). The town
is now known as El Azirieh, and is about a
mileand ahalf from Jerusalem, on the eastern
slope of the Mount of Olives. Simonis in-
terpreted thu name to mean "house of rlepros-
sion," "valley-town" n>:j»-n'3 (Lightfoot);
Beland derives its name from 'ri^rn'S, "house
of dates " (see Matt. xxi. 17). It seems that
palm branches could be then torn from the
trees in the neighbourhood. Arnold (Her-
Bog., ' Eno.') derives its name from OTJJ^n'a
' (Aramaic), "house of the afflicted." The
village has become well known in the circle
of evangelic narrative from St. Luke's refer-
ence to Mary and Martha (x. 38, etc.).
Mary's name is probably mentioned first
from the further lecord of her ecstiitic love,
which the other Gospels were diffusing
through the world, and to which John makes
an anticipatory reference. Her name had
not been given before. In Matt. xxvi. 13
and Mark xiv. 3 she was " a certain woman."
John throws light on the ground of her
gratitude. The efforts made by Bunyan, in
his ' Jerusalem Sinner Saved,' and by Heng-
stenberg, to defend the pre-Beformation
identification of "Mary" with the "Mag-
dalene," and the Magdalene with the woman
that was a sinner (of. Luke vii. 37 with
Luke viii. 2), rest on insufficient grounds.
The Identification of the two anointings
with each other is without justification.
All the ciroumstanoos are different — the
time, the place, the obvious reason, the
motive assigned by our Lord, the conversa-
tions wliich followed. If a woman who was
a sinner bad taken such a step, and this
expression of her gratitude had been ac-
cepted by Jesus, Mary of Bethany found
more ample reason for following her example
(see Dr. Schaff** admirable and extended
reply to Hengstenberg). B. Weiss acutely
observes that this reference shows that in
the circle for which the evangelist wrote
Bethany was known as the home of the
sisters, and Mary as the heroine of the
anointing incident. Kumerous other identi-
fication!, I'.e. of Simon the Leper with Simon
the Pharisee, Martha vrith Simon's wife,
•re precarious. Dean Plumptre's identifi-
cation ' of Lazarns with the " rich yonng
man " who is supposed to have giren his
all awaj to the poor, and who possessed
' Bee notes te hi« poem on ' Eleszar ; '
•ko artiole in Smiik'i 'Dictionarj.'
nothing but a solitary garment; and hi*
subsequent identification with the young
man who fled away naked on the night of
Christ's arrest, are specimens of ingenuity, but
carry no conviction. The contrast between
the ideas involved in the parable of Luke xvi.
and this narrative is so profound that we dis-
miss the hypothesis of the identity of the
two Lazaruses. Strauss, Keim, and others
deal with it as an expansion of the parable
of the rich man and Lazarus, who is sup-
posed actually to have been sent unto the
people from the dead, but, in agreement with
our Lord's prediction, winning no obedience.
Vehement efforts are made in this and other
ways to undo the commanding significance
of the miracle. Bishop Wordswortli and
Archdeacon Watkins are disposed to identify
the Lazarus of the parable and the Lazarus
of Bethany ; the latter supposes the parable
to have been delivered at the very time
mentioned in Perssa. Our Lord's statement,
that the brothers of the rich man would not
believe though one rose from the dead, was
in some sense paralleled by the desire of the
Jews to put Lazarus to death; but the
reason given is that by reason of Lazarus
" many of the Jews went away from them,
and believed on Jesus" (ch. xii. 11 ; cf. also
oh. xi. 45, " Many of the Jews, when they
beheld what he did, believed on him ").
Ver. 2. — Now it was that Mary who
anointed the Lord with perfome, and wiped
his feet with her hair, whose brother
Lazarus was sick. Theword/tiipovis'usedof
any aromatic balsam which is distilled from
trees and herbs by itself. In classical Greek
fiipov was used of costly ointments nsed by
women. 'E\atov was the common oil used
by men for purposes of health, which might
be perfumed. Our Lord clearly draws a
distinction between the i\alov and nipov in
Luke vii. 46. 'A\(l<pa) has been said to be
used for the more superfluous anointings,
and xpi" for the sanitary anointing with oil.
No trace of such distinction is found in the
New Testament (cf. Mark vi. 13 with Jas. T.
14). One great distinction in biblical Greek
is that xP^fiy is nsed of religious anoint-
ings, from its association with XpiarSs, but
&.\ft<l>eiv in the LXX. is only twice used in
this sense, while xp^^" io "s^d times without
number (Archbishop Trench, 'New Test.
Syn.,' § xxxviii.). The use of the term
Kipiov, "Lord," shows that the story waa
widely known, and that when the Goapel
was written it had passed into a oomaon-
place of Christian experience and illustra-
tion. The anointing has not yet beea
referred to by John, but he ia loolmig hack
upon the events and antieipates ku ewM
■nbseqnent record.
Ver. 3. — ^Therefore the diteis Mst «ate
Um, laying, Lord, Iwhold, Iw whom tha«
M
THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINO TO ST. JOHN. [oh. XL 1— «7.
lovestis Siok (tv ^ttx^u nominative to i(r$evei).
the Bisters knew veil what peril Jesus and
his disciples would euoouuter by coming to
Bethany, and they must have known that
he oonld have healed him by a word; so
they simply state the case. (On the diiference
between ^iXcik and AydTav, see notes on ch.
v. 20 ; xxi. 15, 17. Trench, ' New Test.
Syn.,' § xil. The former word is that of
personal affection and fondness, though
oocasionaUy having grander associations and
equivalent to amo, while iryiimiStu is equivalent
to diligo, and mi ans the love of choice, of
sentiment, of confidence and esteem.) There
is delicate tact and beauty in the use of the
two words, one by the sisters, the other by
the evangelist. The stateiiient of needs,
the simple voice of our weakness, the infant's
cry, goes up to heaven. The bleat of the
lost lamb is enough for the good Shepherd.
Ver. 4. — When Jesus heard (it), he said,
This sickness is not unto death, but for the
glory of Ood, that the Son of 6od may be
glorified thereby. What message Jesus gave
to those who brought him these tidings we
know not; the evangelist records what he
■aid to the bystanders. Our Lord did not
mean to say that the sickness would not
terminate in what men ordinaiily call
"death," nor that it was not a deadly
disease, but that it was not irphs Bdi/arov.
" He shall not fall a prey to death " (Meyer).
The sickness is so timed that it shall con-
duce to the (5o'|a 0eoE) glory of God, i.e. to
the majestic appreciation of the sublime
perfections of (iod, and that by or in it the
Son of God may be glorified. 'Tirip else-
where in the Gospel means " sacrifice on
behalf of; " so here the very suffering of
Lazarus and of the sisters, and the tears of
Jesus over the grave, are part of the sacri-
ficial ministry by which the glory of God
or of the Son of (jod may be advanced.
Ver. 5. — Wow Jesus loved (iiydwa) Martha,
and her -sister, and Lazarus. " Felix fami-
lia 1 " (Bengel). Martha is here mentioned
first, because in all probability the head of
the household. The love of selection, friend-
ship, or esteem is the result of long acquaint-
ance, and reveals " the fragmentariness of
the evangelic records " (Westoott) ; see note
on vei. 3.
Vers. 6, 7. — The rire /tiv of ver. 6 implies
an understood Si in ver. 7, and the whole
passage will be as follows : Now Jesua loved
deeply Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus ;
when therefore he heard that he (Lazarus)
was sick, he remained, it is true, t^te itfv
two days in the plaoe where he was, but then
fireiTa (Se) after this (and because he loved)
he saith to his disciples, Let us go again into
Judsea. He did not remain because he
loved, but, tiiough he remained, and becauit
U loved, he sud, "Ift »■-" etc So that
we do not see here any intention on his part,
by remaining, to test their love (Olshausen),
nor to exaggerate the effect of the miracle
by raising a dead man from his grave rather
than from his death-bed or his bier. It is
not difficult to gather from the gequel that
when the message reached Jesus Lazarus
was dead and buried. We find that when
our Lord returned to Bethany four days
had elapsed since the death of Lazarus, and
the four days must be calculated thus : First
one long day's journey from Perssa to Bethany,
a distance of eight or nine leagues. If the
messenger of the sisters had taken equal
time to reach Jesus in Persea, or even a
longer period, as time might easily be con-
sumed in the effort to find our Lord in the
mountains of Moab; then the two days of
his waiting after receiving the message
would, with those occupied by the double
journey, make up the four that had passed
when Jesus reached the grave. Liicke,
Neander, Godet, and Westcott think that
our Lord remained in Persea because there
was work in which he was engaged and
could not relinquish. Meyer, Moulton, and
Weiss, that he waittd for some especial
communication from his Father, for some
revelation of moral necessity and heavenly
inspiration, like those which dictated all his
other movements. B. Weiss : " It was a
sacrifice to hia calling, of his heart's most
ardent desires, that he remained quietly two
days in the same place." " We see," say*
Edersheim, " Christ once more asleep while
the disciples are despairing, swamped in the
storm I Christ never in haste, because
always sure." The silences of Scripture and
the waitings of God are often without ex-
planation. The event proves that deep
purpose presided over them. The "let us
go," etc., implies a lofty courage, a sense of
coming crisis. Love conquers fear emd peril
for himself and his followers. "Judaea"
is mentioned rather than Bethany for the
same reason. The " again " points forcibly
back to the last visit, when he told both
friends and foes that the good Shepherd
would snatch his sheep from the jaws of
death, even though he lay down his own life
in the doing of it.
Ver. 8. — The Aramaic word " Kabbi " is
frequently used by John, as the term of
respect applied to Doth the Baptist and our
Lord. The extraordinary dignity which
the Jews accorded to their rabMt may throw
some light upon the honorific title when
yielded or conceded to Christ. The disciples
say unto him, Bahbi, the Jews were but now
seeking to stone thee ; and goest thou thither
again t The vvv iQl\Tovv imply the con-
tinuous process of their antagonism only
just now arrested by a timely flight. Her*
in Fertea Jesus found appreciative Ustenwh
OH. II. 1—57.] THE GOSPEL AOeORDlNa TO ST. JOHN.
87
The disciples aie more in fear for their
Master than for themselves. The residence
beyond Jordan had been brief, and they are
amazed that the Lord will so soon put him-
self in the power of that seething ami hostile
crowd. How different this language from
that of his own brothirs (oh. vii. 3 — .5)1
Ver. 9. — Jesus answered, Are there not
twelve hours in the day I If a man walk in
the day, he etumbleth not, because he .seeth
the light of this world. The answer of Jesus
is a further deliverance conceruing the
human law and season (Kaip6s) of work — a
parable drawn frnm earthly and human
analogies, which will unquestionably have
a direct beuring on the conditions of Divine
service at all time, and is therefore applicable
to the disi'iples with himself. It receives
iilso spjcialsigniiioauce from some aspects of
Christ's own ministry, and from the step he
had just now declared that he intended to
take. ( )f course, the parable is based upon
the conditions of human work; one of these
conditions is light, another of them is time.
liight is neces.-^ary for all the wise efforts of
men— the light of day, the light of this world
or the sun; we must see whither we are
going, in order to avoid the occasions of
stumbling. We muat submit to this com-
prehensive condition, or we fail (of. here
ch. ix. 4, " I miist work the works of him
that sent me while it is day; the night
Cometh, when no man can work "). There
are two kinds of night of which he speaks.
One is the night which airests all labour,
the night of death ; and the other is the night
of ignorance and unbelief, when the light
that is in a man becomes darkness, when, if
a man does attempt to work or walk, he will
stumble. Meyer and some others, from the
reference to another condition, viz. that of
time, persist in limiting the notion of the
day to that of the period of service, about
which the Lord says also some very solemn
things ; and Meyer objects to Luthiirdt and
others, who give to the sun, to the light of
this world, any moral or spiritual meaning.
We need not limit the application. Light
may mean knowledge of duty supplied by
God's providence and the revelation of his
will, and so far as " day " is made by light,
it is important to notice it here. But time
is an equally important condition, and
whereas in oh. ix. 4, 5 the Lord laid
emphasis upon the limited amount of oppor-
tunity during which the light lasts and the
work can be done; so here there is an
appointed period during which stumbling is
'innecessary : "twelve hours in the day."
This (I take to be Christ's meaning) is one
of these hours, and before the night comes
"I must work." Godet suggests that the
disciples, by this question, recommended him
not to shorten his career b/ courting danger,
and so to create for himself "athirteenthhour"
to the day, in which he would secure no
blessing ; that the Lord condemned the pro-
posal, knowing that he was immortal till hii
hour had come ; and that if we shrink from
a call of duty, and thus save ourselves, adding
an unhallowed increment to our day of use-
less work, we incur the like condemnation,
we shall stumble. Let it be observed that
the reason for working in the night is not
because we have twelve hours f(jr duty and
. no more, but because, though we have a time
of service and an opportunity, we have let
both slip past us, and then the work is diflS-
cult and perilous if we do attempt it. Some
have said that Judas, Peter, Thomas, etc.,
wal ked in the night, and that they stumbled
and fell.
Yer. 10. — But if a man walk in the night,
he stumbleth, because there is no light in
him. He shuts himself off from the light of
God-given opportunity, and carries no lamp
in his soul. There is no necessity to sup-
pose, in oh. ix. 4, that the day was drawing
to a close, or that in this place a natural day
was dawning; but there is some probability
from this phraseology that John adopted
the Babylonian rather than the Soman
method of computing the hours of the day.
This has decided bearing on several im-
portant questions (notes, cb. i. 39 ; iv. 6, 52 ;
xix. 14). The " twelve hours " shows, at all
events, that the Jews at this time generally
reckoned from suniise to sunset. It must be
remembered that the day differed consider-
ably in length at different parts of the year,
from fourteen hours to nine; but perhaps
the emphatic use of the expression derives
special interest from the fact that the equinox
was approaching.
Ver. H. — These things spake he, and pro-
bably many more words expository of the
vast principle of service which he here pro-
pounded ; and after this (for nerd toOto
implies a break, during which the disciples
pondered his words) he saith, Ooi friend
lazarus; implying that Lazarus was well
known to the disciples, and that the Lord
classes himself here, iu wondrous condescen-
sion, with them. He elsewhere speaks of the
twelve as his "friends" (ch. xv. 14, 15,
where he made it a higher designation than
SovAoi; see also Luke xii. 4).' John the
Baptist also calls himself " the Bridegroom's
friend" (ch. iii. 29): Though Lazarus had
passed into the region of the unknown and un-
seen, he was still " our friend." Hath fallen
asleep. Meyer says that Jesus knew this
by "spiritual far-seeing;" and Godet thinks
that he knew it by supernatural process, and
had known it all along. It does not require
much beyond what we know to have occurred
in thousands of instanees, for our Lord to
have perceived that hisfriend had died — had,
88
THE GOSPEL AOCORDDTO TO BT. JOHN. [oh. xl 1—67.
aa he mid, "fallen asleep," in that new
sense in whioh Jeint was teaching men to
look on death. But I go, that I may awake
him ont of Bleep {iimrvlffo) ia a late Greek
word ; cf. Acti xvi. 27). WiinBohe Bays the
Talmud often apeaks of a rabbi's death under
the form of " sleep " (' Meed. K.,' fol. 28, a ;
cf. Matt.ix. 24; 1 These, iv. 14). Homer
spoke of death and sleep as " twin sisters,"
Christ's power and consciouaness of power
to awake Lazarus from sleep gives, however,
to his use of the image a new meaning. It
is not the eternal sleep of the Greek and
iioman poets.
Yer. 12. — The disoiples ' therefore say
onto him, Iiord, if he have fallen asleep, he
will recover. Wiinsche quotes ' Berach,' fol.
57, b, " Sleep is a good sign for the sick."
Tlie language of the disciples is somewhat
remarkable ; at least their misunderstanding
is puzzling (Beuss and Strauss think it is
a sign of the nnbistorical) ; but it probably
arose out of the statement, made two days
before, that "the sickness was not unto
death," and from their eager and affection-
ate desire to prevent their Lord's returning
to Judeea. 1/ he have fatten asleep, he will
recover (be taved). The whole narrative is
throbbing with deeper meanings than lie on
the surface of it. The theory of the aani-
tary effecta of aleep in fever are well known,
and the rousing from such sleep might aeem
hazardous ; but the disciples were catching
at straws to save their Master.
Ver. 13. — Now Jesus had spoken of his
death: but they thought that he spake of
taking rest in sleep. Aeyci, though in the
present tense, represents a time anterior to
the time of ISo^au. Kot/iTiais ia found in
Eoclua. xlvi. 19. This is an explanation of
the miauuderstanding, occasioned, perhaps,
by the statement of ver. 4, and further eluci-
dated by what follows. A difference prevails
between Koiiiri<ris and Siryos, as both words
are used for aleep ; but the former haa rather
the idea of the lepoae accompanying aleep,
the latter the phenomenon itself. With one
, or two exceptions, KOifiaadai is always used
in the New Testament of the sleep of death,
uTTfSs never.
Ver. 14. — Then Jesus therefore said to
them plainly. Jesus spake at length (ira^-
^■qirla) without metaphor (of. ver. 11, note).
Lazarus died ; died, i.e. when he told them
two days ago that this sickness would not
have death as its end — died in the sense in
' T.B. reads auraf after ol iiaSriral, with
0*, L, r. A, other uncials and cursives,
Syriao and Gothio Versions; but it is
omitted by M, D, K, H, by Tischendorf (8th
edit.), B.T.; and Alford omits ol naSriTal.
Here B, 0, X, followed by Weatoott and
Hbrt, read al ftafigrof a&r^.
which they ordinarily uaed the word. When
Jesns described the condition of Lazarus in
figurative language, he made use of a meta-
phor which would have peculiar application
in his case. The grace of Christ will torn
the death of his beloved thronghont all
time into restful sleep. Lazarus was part
of the method by which this transformation
would be effected. The Christian idea soon
fouud far richer expression than classical
poetry or rabbinism could supply (Acts vii.
60 ; Matt, xxvii. 52; 1 Cor. xv. 6; 1 Thess.
iv. 13 ; Eev. xiv. 13).
Ver. 15. — And I rejoice that I was not
there. Death could not have occurred in his
presence ; at least, as Ben gel says, we never
read of any one dying in the presence of
the Prince of life. Whenever he came into
contact with death, he conquered the great
enemy. Still, this was not the absolute
reason for his gladness. The gladness was
oouditionated by the need of the disciples,
not merely for the comfort of the sisters, or
for his own greater glory, but for yonr
sakea, to the end that ye might believe.
The word witrrda ia often used absolutely
(eh. L 7, 50 ; iv. 41, 42 ; v. '44; vi. 36 ; and
many other places). The disciples had be-
lieved something of Christ's power before
(see ch. ii. 11, etc.) ; but every act of f»ith
prepares the way for another. Every fresh
exercise of faith makes all previous efforts
in the same direction appear elementary (ct
1 John V. 13, T.B.). The joy of Jesus in
the augmenting faith of his disciples is one
of the most pathetic and instructive features
of this Gospel (see ch. xvi. 31, and notes).
The kingdom of God among men was, so
far as we can see, dependent on the amount
of faith that the apostles could be induced
to cherish in the fact of the Incarnation
during the brief period of this ministry.
The Church has not yet come to a full un-
derstanding of all that he was. But if the
disciples had not known his power over
death, they would have been destitute of
the alphabet of this new language, of the
foundations of the spidtual city they had to
build. Jesus rejoiced when disciples be-
lieved. So he does still. Nevertheless, let
US go to him — to Lazarus, who still lives
with God (cf. Matt. xxii. 82, and parallel
passages). This is very remarkable. Even
the dead body is in this case atill " he," aa
Lazarus is " our friend " still (cf. ch. xiv. 31).
Ver. 16. — Thomas, in Aramaic, is equiva-
lent in meaning to the Greek name Didymus,
or "twin." This apostle is mentioned ia
the synoptic Gospels with Matthew, and in
Acts (i. 13) with Philip. He is classed
with the fishermen (ch. xxi. 2), and may
therefore have been a Galilisan. Ecclesi-
astical tradition has associated him with
Judas (not Isoariot) (Ensebius, * Hist. Eecl.,'
ra. XL 1— £7.] THE GOSPEL ACGOBDINQ TO ST. JOHN.
i. 13), and with Jqdas the brother of Jesns.
He ia reputed to have preached ultimately
in Parthia and India, there to have suffered
martyrdom. The yarioua references to him
in this Gospel give, by a few vivid touches,
a biography and characterization of singular
congruity. He said to his fellow-disoiplei
(the word <rv/i.ua6i;T^s is only used in this
place, and shows that the body of the dis-
ciples were being more and more blended
into a nuity), Let ns go, that we may die
with him. Here he manifests a fervent love
to his Master, tinged with a sorrowful, melan-
choly temperament. He saw the danger
to his Lord, but at once, with the spirit of
self-surrender, was ready to share his fate.
Moulton says these words reveal love, but
they are " ttie language of despair and va-
nished hope. This is the end of all — death,
not Hessianio kingdom." Surely Thomas
may have pondered much the Liord's words
about his approaching death, and may have
felt ready, along the same line, willingly to
yield up his own life for his Master's or
with his Master. Too much has been made
of Thomas's scepticism and criticism. He
was one who wanted visible, tangible evi-
dence ; but he was prepared to act impul-
sively, and to give poweiful expression to
his faith, whenever the evidence was granted.
In ch. xiv. S he was still in the dark, but
it was not an evil darkness. How could he
know, with the clearness which bis mind
naturally desiderated, whither our Lord was
going? No brainless or heartless unbelief
led him to ask, " How can we know the
way ? " At last (ch. ix. 24, etc.), when he
wanted ocular, personal, tangible evidence
of the resurrection of Jesus, and absented
himself in deep melancholy from the com-
pany of the eleven, it is clear that his soul
was ready for the full manifestation. Before
he could have put his finger into the print
of the nails, he exclaimed, with adoring
gratitude, " My Lord, and my God 1" Hia
hesitation and his conviction, with his su-
perlative ecstatic cry, form the culminating
point of the Gospel,
Vers. 17 — 32. — (2) Human affection draw-
ing from Christ the anstrtion and pro-
mise, "I AU THE BeSUBBECTION AND TBE
LiFB."
Ver. 17. — So; or, (hereupon; for o?v not
onfrequently indicates the relation between
two narratives, as well as between two state-
ments or arguments. When Jesus came
into the nei^bourhood of the village (see
ver. 80), he fonud, on inquiry, that he
(Lazarus) already' dming four days had
* The IjSii, absent from A and D, is re-
jected by Tischendorf (8th edit.), but is pre-
served in B.T., and by Westcott and Hort
and Tregelle*.
been ■ in the grave ; or literally, had had four
day*. These fear days are differently counted.
Alford, Luthardt, Hengstenberg, Lange,
Godet, Westcott, and Moulton beliere that
this mention proves that Lazarus died and
was -buried on the day on which the message
was sent, which, if it took one day to de-
liver, and if one day had been consumed in
the return of Jesus, would leave the other
two days as those of the delay in Persea.
Meyer and Ewald, with Bengel and Wat-
kins, think that he died at the conclusion
of the delay, that Jetus became aware of it,
and told his disciples of it, and spent the
two days, or parts of them, in the journey ;
that on the fourth day he reached Bethany.
The former and usual view ia the more ob-
vious one, although it must turn ultimately
on the position of Bethany beyond Jordan.
If the recent speculations of the Palestine
Exploration Society and Caspari be correct,
tlie distance between the two Bethanys may
have required at least two days for the
journey, and therefore favours the latter in-
terpretation. If Bethany (Bethabara) be
near Jericho, the distance between them
would be muoli less, and the former and
usual reckoning must prevail.
Vers. 18, 19. — Now Bethany was nigh unto
Jemialem. This geographical observation
is introduced to explain the following verse.
Meyer and AlforJ think that the use of the
past tense, ^v, may be perfectly justified in
making reference to past events ; yet, since
John is the only >f ew Testament writer who
uses it, the usage may have been adopted
by him because, at the time when he wrote
hia Gospel, Bethany had been for the time
destroyed with Jerusalem itself. The con-
struction is peculiar : iis hrh (compare a simi-
lar use of irfb, ch. xii. 1 ; xxi. 8 ; Bev. xiv,
20 ; see Winer, p. ti97, Bng. trans.). Many
think that it is to be understood — about
fifteen stadia from it — a kind of trajection
of the preposition ; but Winer thinks that
it paints to the spot where the fifteen stadia
might be supposed to terminate, t.e. " lying
off at the end of the fifteen stadia," and so
giving an adverbial force to the preposition ;
and he adds a long list of similar construc-
tions in later Greek writers. The stadium
was 606} feet — less than the eighth of an
English mile ; the distance was therefore be-
tween a mile and a half and a mile and
three quarters. And many of the Jews had
come to Uartha and Mary. " The Jews " ia
a phrase generally, not uuiformly, used by
John to denote those permanently hostile
to our Lord, and often of the upper and
ruling classes. These, therefore, had. one
' For this use of tx"' see oh. T. 5, 6 ; rlii
57 ; and the idiom of modem languages-
French and German.
80
THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xi. 1— 6T,
more trial of faith, one further opportunity
of recognizing his glory. Many of them
eame • to Martha and Mary. Thoy came to
oomfort them, according to ordinary usage
among the Jews after bereavement. This
ceremony often lasted seven days. Concern-
ing (their ^) brother. We cling to earthly
love. The gush of strong affection that
mourners lavish on the dead deepens their
love to one anotlier, and the praises of the
departed often gild and almost pierce the
veil itself. The fact that many Jews should
have taken the trouble to journey nearly two
miles to comfort the bereaved sisters shows
that the family at Bethany was one of some
wealth, position, and importance (cf. Matt.
xxvi. 6 — 13). If so, it is exceedingly un-
likely that the narrative stands in any re-
lation to the parable of the rich man and
the beggar.
Ver. 20. — The odv points back probably
to ver. 1. The type of character so beauti-
fully contrasted in the previous reference to
the family at Bethany appears again, and
confirms the historical character of Luke x.
38, etc., as well as of the narrative before
us. Thoma says that this picture is " simply
painted with synoptic colour." Martha ig
the mistress of the house. Martha therefore,
when she heard that Jesus was Doming, went
and met him : bat Mary sat still in the
house. Martha was a woman of impulse,
energy, praotloid duty ; like Peter, she was
ready even to give advice to her Lord, and
eager to put everybody in his rightful place.
On the first opportunity she hastened at
once to " meet" Jesus, even without at first
warning her sister of his approach. Mary,
contemplative, pensive, undemonstrative
under ordinary circumstances, but with a
great fund of love, was sitting in the house
receiving the condolences of the Jews
(cf. ver. 19). Weiss suggests that Jesua
was well aware, from the station of the
family, and from the fact that hitherto his
own friendship for the sisters had not sub-
mitted them to the ban, that " many Jews "
would have congregated in the house of
■ mourning. Ooiiseqiiently, Jesus does not
come straight to the house, but allows it to
be known that he is there.
' Lachmann, Tregelles, Alford (6th edit.),
Westoott and Hort, and B.T., read wphs t))</,
with X, B, C, 1/, X ; but Meyer, Tisohen-
dorf (8th edit.), and MoLellan read irphs tAs
irtpU " came to the women that were about "
Martha and Mary, with A, C, r, A, and
other uncials and several ancient versions.
This reading might refer to the ancient
minstrels.
' S, B, D, Ij, omit alirSv, followed by Tl-
Bohendorf (8th edit.), B.T.,and Westcott and
Mott
Ver. 21. — Martha therefore (liavlng met
her Lord) said unto Jesus, Lot d, if thon
hadst been here— the el ^s SSe expresses no
complaint : " If thou hadst been here," a
simple condition of what is now an impos-
sible event — ^my brother had not died. Meyer
says, " If thou wert making thy residence in
Bethany rather than in Persea." This is
somewhat unnatural, and would have been
a complaint. Her faith had at least ground
enough for this assurance, but she mounts
above it. The two sioters, with their con-
trasteil natures, had grasped the life-giving,
joy-diffusing, heaven-revealing powers of
Jesus. They had believed in hiin, with a
gracious abandonment of all prejudice and
in the sweeping force of a great illuminating
love. They had said often this same thing
to one another, and now Martha pours her
high persuasion into the ears of her Lord ;
but she proceeds further.
Ver. 22. — And even now I know, that
whatsoever thing thou shalt ask of Sod, God
will give it thee. Nvv olSa may be con-
trasted with ver. 27. In his presence she
knows intuitivi ly that nothing is impossible.
The aW-fia-ri is a word of more human quality
than that which our Lord customarily used
for his own appeals to God. He spoke of
iptarav, to seek as an equal ; TrapaKaXciv, to
intercede for another ; irpoir^ixeiTBcu, to pray ;
SeiaSat, to supplicate. It was appropriate
enough thiit Martha should use the verb
oiT^jirT). Her word was a burst of excited
feeling, and does not dictate to the Master
what he should do. Her twofold mention
of the name of God with " thou " and
" thee," shows that she had not risen to
highest light on the Lord's mysterious re-
lation to the Father. She speaks of him
and to him as of a strangely gifted human
Friend. But she had doubtlesa heard of the
widow of Nain, and of Jairus's daughter,
and she made no irrational suggestion. The
fiira covers much. Jesus loved Lazarus. He
was Friend to the whole group, and known
to them all.
Ver. 23. — Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother
shall rise again. Hengstenberg thiuks that
the reply of Jeans is a grand dogmatic asser-
tion of the resurrection of the dead, in special
application to Lazarus, and it covers the kind
of imffraai! which takes place at death, as
well as the resurrection at the last day. If so,
surely our Lord would have said, " Lazarus
is risen again." The Lord does elsewhere
speak of the dead as risen, and of their"
angelic state, and of all the dead living unto
God ; but he is here speaking of the imme-
diate resurrection of Lazarus from what il
called death to that wliioh is called life, and
which would be a pledge and type of the
final resurrection of all
Ver. 24. — Martha laith to him, I know
OH. xi 1—57.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
91
that he will rise again at the resurreotion
in the last day. Some disappointment ia
revealed in this speech, such as we have all
felt with the promise of an ultimate lesui-
reotion, when the grave has closed over some
dear friend. We find small relief in the
assurance. The old ties are snapped, the
old ways are at an end. We shall go to
the dead : he will not return to ua. The last
day is too far off to comfort ua concerning
our brother. Bat tlie answer of Martha ia
important as revealing belief in the resur-
rection at the last day ; of which, however,
it must be remembered those who had heard
our Lord's own assertions about it could no
longer have doubted (ch. vi. 39, 40, 44, 54 ;
xii. 48). The teachings of Jesus in this
Gospel with reference to eternal li fe made the
promise of resurrection, the transfiguration
of the physical life of man, a necessity, not
a contradiction. The reply of Martlia sliowa
that she does not as yet grasp tlie whole
truth. " Tlie List day " may be far nearer
in her thought than we now know it to have
been, orthun it ia to us; still, however near,
it would imply a complete transformation of
all these sweet human relationsbijis. She
longed to have the home as it was before
Lazarus died. It ia, however, of very great
interest that we have, on the part of a Jkw,
this profound expectation of resurrection
and immortality. Jews, or at least Fiiari-
seea, had derived from Old Testament
thought — from Genesis, and from Job, and
from the Psalter, from the Books of Daniel
and Ezekie), and from the progress of human
thought as evinced in ' Wisdom of Solomon '
— B great belief in both. Martha reveals
incidentally the new light which hud been
cast on the mystery of the grave by the
words and acts of Jesua.
Vers. 25, 26. — Jesus said to her, I am the
Resurrection. Not merely that God will
give me what I ask, but that I am in some
sense already his gift to man of resurrection,
inasmuch as I am that of Life. (So Lu-
thardt and Godet, but not Meyer, who makes
fm^ the positive result of i.v&aTactis.') By
taking humanity into his Person, Christ
reveals the permanence of human individu-
ality, that ia, of such individuality as is
in union with himself. He associates (ch.
xiv. 6) " the Life " which ho gives with " the
Way" and " the Truth," i.e. with the whole
sum of human experience and of human
meditation and speculation, i.e. with all
the conduct of the will and the mind. He
that beliereth on me, though he die, yet
shall he live. In these words he identifies
the " life " with the transfiguration of the
bodily life. The grand method of this
blessed life is faith. The life which is the
condition and ground of resurrection is the
natural oonsequenoe of a faith which accepts
Christ, and identifleg itself with him. But
" there are aome who have believed, and
have what you call died " — though, (hey die,
they shall live. In such cases, so-called
"death" is veritable "Ufe." The life of
faith will survive the shock of death, and
whoBoeTer Uveth, and believeth on me,
shall never die — shall never taate of death
(cf. ch, vi. 51, viii. 51). This is no new teach-
ing for the more thoughtful of his hearers.
There are multitudes now believing (and
therefore living) in him. They shall never
die in the sense in which death has been
hitherto regarded ; they shall by no means die
for ever. Faith is eternal Ufe: death is
only a momentary shadow upon a life whioli
is far better. Whether the corruption of
the grave passes over the believer or not,
he lives an eternal life, which has no ele-
ment of death nor proclivity to death in it.
So far the Lord is lifting Martha to a higher
experience of life and a comparative in-
difference to death. Before he offers any
further consolation, he probes to the quick
her faith in him and in the eternal life.
Believest thou this? ToBro; "Is this thy
belief?" not TowTqo; "Dost thou believe in
my statement?" "Believest thoi^, that the
ResuiTEotion which I am and which / give
can thus transform for thee the whole mean-
ing of death }" The fulness of life after death
is assured in virtue of the resurrection which
Chiist could effect at any moment, and will
eventually effect for all. This life of which
Christ speaks may be the life which is the
cousequeuce of the resurrection (afda-Tturis)
of man effected in the Incarnation, or it may
be the condition of " resurrection "and suffi-
cient proof that, if a man receive it by faith,
he is free from all the curse of physical
death, and assured of a perfect victory over
it. So also the op /i)^ . . . els Thv aiwva may
either mean " not for ever," and thus the
words may be taken to refer to the resur-
rection. " He will not for ever die," t,e.
death may supervene, but will be con-
quered ; or ou /iii may mean " never," " in
no wise,'' and the " never die " may refer to
spiritual death, overlooking physical death
altogether. The whole narrative is a great
parable of life through death.
Ver. 97.^-8he saith unto him, Tea, lord.
The reply admits the rovro; Many seem to
think that Martha falls back on theocratio
technicality after a high flight of faith, and
leaves the solution of her deepest anxieties
to the Lord. I have believed, not now for
the first time, that thou art the Christ of all
our highest hopes and of our prophetic Scrip-
tures— the Son of God in the sense in which
Nathanael, and the healed blind man, and
the heroic Peter, and John the Baptist have
regarded thee, not now dawning on the
world as an unexpected apparition, but long
82
THE GOSPEL ACCOEDINO TO 8T. JOHN. [oh. xi. 1—67.
■ince awaited — even he that oometh into the
world, the Hope of all, in fact, the Resur-
rection and the Life because the Christ, and
the Christ becanse the Son of God. In her
great faith these deeper truths, just an-
nounced, are implicitly inrolved,
Yer. 28. — When she had said this,' she
departed, and called Mary her sister secretly.
Observe the important emendation of text
from toSto to rovro. When she had made
tliis great utterance, lier heart is big witli
hope. The grim shadow of death is now
transparent to a heavenly light. She must
■hare her hope with lier sister. Jesus gave
the commissiun to fetch Mnry, as is obvious
from the words of Martha which follow.
The term "secretly" (\depa), when elsewhere
used, precedes the verb with which it is
associated, and therefore here it is joined
with eiVoSffo, whispering to htr, lest tlie
hostile Jews should hear and intercept the
interview. The Master (the Teacher) —
used absolutely (cf. oh. liii. 13)— is here,
and oalleth for thee. Sacred summons!
Martha expected (as Euthymius suggested)
that some blessing might come from his
words.
Ver. 29. — Ani she, as soon as she heard,
arose (aorist) quickly, and went forth to
(meet) Mm (imperfect); or, ieo»' on the way
to come to him — a vivid touch conveyed by
the change of tense which has been intro-
duced into the text by the Revisers. The
summons is met by prompt obedience, and
we see it in immediate resolution and activity.
Ver, 30. — Now Jesus was not yet come
into the village, but was still* in that
place where Uartha met him. At no great
distance from the grave or from the village.
The Lord probably sought to comfort the
sisters apart from the crowd. Thus say
most commentators. This is not in the text.
If it were his purpose, it was frustrated.
Hengstenberg thinks our Lord did not
object to the crowds witnessing the miracle,
but if so, it would be without any arrange-
ment on his part.
Ver. 31. — ^The Jews therefore who were
with her in the house, and were comforting
her. If the " Jews " (see note, ver. 19) were
• ToBto is the reading of N, B, 0, L, X,
and several versions, and adopted by Ti-
Bchendorf (8th edit. ),Alford,Tregelle8,E.T.,
and Westcott and Hort, against Lachiiiann,
T.R., e^o., who read raSra, with A and D.
' 'HpxcTo is the reading of N, B, C*, and
versions and cursives; is adoptetl by Tre-
gelles, by B.T. and Westcott and Hort, but
not by Tischendorf (8th edit.).
• 'Eti is the reading of N, B, C, X, 1, S3,
etc., and ii adopted by B.T., Westcott and
Hort, and Tregellei, but not bj Tisobendorf
(8th edit.).
comforting Mary, and (ver. 37) recognized
his love in its Divine depths, and u (see
ver. 45) (iroKKol) "many believed on him,"
and only (rivh) some of them (ver. 46) made
the stupetidoua miracle a new occasion for
expressing their inveterate malignity, there
is no reason to import the element of hostility
into the word isivres. When they observed
Mary, that she suddenly rose and (silently)
went out (of the house), followed her, sup-
posing that she goeth ' to the grave to wul
there. This cuatom was followed widely in
the East,' and is still observed in Roman
Catholic communities. The word K\ala is to
be carefully distinguished from Saxpiia of
ver. 35 ; it denotes the loud expressive wailing
and manifestation of grief of which so many
instances occur (Matt. ii. 18; Mark v. 38;
Luke vii. 13 ; viii. 52 ; Acts ix. 89), while
the latter word means the shedding of tears.
" Wailing " is often the re<<ulated expression
of professional grief; "weeping" the irre-
sistible burst of personal sorrow. The fiist
may be violent and obtrusive, the other
silent and pathetic.
Ver. 32. — ^Mary therefore, when she oame
where Jesus was, and when she saw him,
fell at his feet, and in other ways showed
more intensity of feeling than did the
energetic sister, who in many ways is the
feminine type of what Peter was as a man.
She is not altogether silent, but sobbed forth
the very words which her sister had uttered
before. Thus had they ofteu said one to
another while Lazarus was yet alive, " Oli
that the Lord Jesus were here I " Lord, said
she, if thou hadst been here, my brother had
not died. The position of nov, which in
some manuscripts was placed before aireBa-
yev, is here emphatic, as though Mary had
in bome way especially claimed Lazarus as
her brother more than Martha's. She does
not add a word bf remonstrance or sugges-
tion. She moans forth the same coufideut
expression of her sense of the love and power
of Jesus.
Vers. 33 — 44.— (3) The ttruggU with death.
Ver. 33 — ^When Jesns therefore saw her
wailing, and the Jews wailing who came
with her, he was moved with indignation in
the spirit, and troubled himself. The sight of
' AiiavTfs is the reading of H, B, G*, D, L,
X, and is adopted by Tischendorf (Sth edit),
Tregelles, E.T., and Westcott and Hort.
The curious reading of N, on 'Iijo-oCi indyft,
is unsupported and without probability. It
ii not even mentioned by Tischendorf (Sth
edit.) or Tregelles.
' Wetstein, in Ice^ art. on "Monming,"
Eitto's 'Cyclopedia.' See ample discos-
■ion of th« rites and place and varieties of
sepulture in Edersheim'e * Life of JewM the
Messiah,' veL it 816, etc
en. XL 1—67.] THE GOSPEL AOCOBDING TO BT, JOHN.
93
the wailing Mary and the wailing Jews, who
took up her grief and,aocording to Oriental
custom, adopted her expression of it with
loud cries and emphatic gestures, praising
the dead^and lamenting his loss, produced
a most wonderful impression on the Lord
Jesus. Meyer thinks that the contrast
between their hypocritical or professional
tears and her genuine emotion, the blending
of these incongruous elements, the combina-
tion of a profound afBiotion of a dear friend
and the simulated grief of his bitter enemies,
led him to manifest the feeling here de-
scribed. But we liare no right to import
such an element into the scene. The con-
certed wailing was, however, the occasion
of what is described in very remarkable
terms, ivifiptixiiaara rf nvfiiiari, (col fTipc^ey
tauriv. The first expression occurs again
in ver. 38. Westcott says in the three places
where it elsewhere occurs (Matt. ix. 30;
Mark L 43 ; xiv. 5) there is " the notion of
coercion arising out of displeasure," a motion
"towards another of anger rather than
sorrow." The verb ffpi/idonai and its com-
pounds is used iti the classics and the LXX.
in the sense of hot anger, neither pain nor
grief (though it is not very evident that it
goes BO far as this in Mark i. l.S). Luther
translated it ergrimmete, and Passow gives
no other meaning. This seems generally
accepted. But at what was Jesus angered 7
This can be answered only by deciding
(vhether rtf tmiiuvri ia the dative of the
object, or whether it ia the iustmment or
sphere of his holy indignation. According
to, the old Greek expositors, Origen, Chry-
Hostom, Oyril, Theophylact— and they are
followed- by Alford and Hilgenfeld, the
latter of whom finds in it a hint of the
Gnostio Christology which, in his opinion,
pervades the GospeJ— the anger might have
been directed against his own human spirit,
at that moment tempted into an unnlial
•train of sympathy with the mourners; yet,
if this be its meaning, why was it that Jesus
subsequently wept Iiimself? and why, in-
stead of exoiting himself, instead of shudder-
ing vrith his bitterness of feeling, did he
not (as Hengstenberg says) compose and
quiet himself ? Beside, -r^ iffux? would have
been a far more appropriate term to use for
the effective and sympathetic part of his
nature than wveiimTi. It is possible, if " the
spirit " expresses that part of his human
nature in special fellowship with the Father,
to suppose that he felt a certain antagonism
with that within himself which had prompted
to some immediate manifestation of Divine
power, and to translate, « He sternly checked
his spirit.' But the miracle of Divine
struggle with death followed so immediately
that this cannot be the teue explanation
(Westcott suggests it as an alternative, but
not the best interpretation). The t^ wei-
IMTi must be the sphere of his holy wrath,
for which we must find some explanation.
Meyer's seems (as already said) to be alto-
gether iusufflcient. So also in our opinion
' is that of God et, viis. that this act of victorious
conflict with death, on which he was enter-
ing, involved his own death-warrant by
being the occasion of the last outbreak of
malice on the part of the Jews. Such a
fact would be out of harmony, hot only with
the Fourth Gospel, but with the (synoptic)
struggle in Gethsemane. Now, without
enumerating various other interpretations
of the passage, we think Augustine, Eras-
mus, Lnthardt, Hengstenberg, Moulton,
meet our difficulty by the suggestion that
death itself occasioned this indignation.
Though, like the good Physician in the
house of mourning, he knew the issue of his
mighty act, yet he entered with vivid and
intense human sympathy into all the
primary and secondary sorrows of death.
He saw the long procession of mourners
from the first to the last, all the reckless
agony, all the hopelessness of it, in thonsanda
of millions of instances. There flashed upon
his spirit all the terrible moral consequences
of which death was the ghastly symbol.
He knew that within a short time he too,
in taking upon himself the sins of men,
would have taken upon himself their death,
and there was enough to rouse in his spirit
a Divine indignation, and he groaned and
shuddered. He roused himself to a conflict
which would be a preUbation of the cross
and the burial. He took the diseases of
men upon himself when he took them away.
He took the death-agony of Lazarus and the
humiliation of the grave and the tears of
the sisters upon himself when he resolved
to cry, " Lazarus, come forth 1 " and to snatch
from the grasp of the grim conqueror for
a little whUe one of his victims. Compare
the toil of Hercules in wrestling with death
for the wife of Admetus. (Jompare alsu
oh. xiii. 21, where moral proximity to the
treacherous heart and ghastly deed and ap-
proaching doom of Judas made him once
more to shudder.
Ver. 34. — And he said. Where have ye laid
him ? They say unto him, lord, come and
see. A strange echo of ch. i. 39 (cf. Bev. vi.
1, 5, 7) — Christ asking for information. The
Lord was answered out of his own words.
His mind was made up.
Ver. 35. — Jesus wept. The shortest verse,
but one of the most suggestive in the entire
Scripture. The great wrath against death
is subdued now into tean of love, of sym-
pathy, and of deep emotion. Jesus shed
tears of sympathetic sorrow. This is In
sacred and eternal refutation of the theory
which deprives Um iacaniate Logos of St
94
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xl 1— 6T.
John of hnman heart and spirit. These
tears have been for all the ages a grand
testimony to the fulness of his humanity,
and also a Divine revelation of the very heart
of God (see Isa. ixv. 8). It was not a K\av-
efi6s, as the weeping over JeruBalem (Luke
■six. 41), but profound and wondrous fellow-
feeling with human misery in all its forms,
then Imaged before him in the grave of
Lazarus. It is akin to the judicial blind-
ness which has obscured for the Tubingen
school so much of the glory of Divine reve-
lation, that Baur should regard this weeping
of Jesus as unhistorical.
Vers. 36, 37. — The Jews therefore said,
Behold how he loved Mm ! But some of them
said, Could not this Man, who opened the
eyes of the blind, have caused that this man
also should not die? The effect upon the
'louSoioi differs here, as always ; but if (iroA-
\ol, ver. 45) many were favourably impres-
sed, we may believe here that the iroWol
•aid one to another with genuine emotion,
"Behold how he loved him I" (f^fxei, not
'nyiira; amahat, not dillgehaf). Tears are
often the expression of love as well as grief.
Heugstenberg sees in the cry of the better
class of these Jews, " How has he then let
him die 1 " probably he could not have helped
him if he would. In the language of the
other Jews there was the suggestion of in-
ability, and the ironical hint that the cure
of the blind man, which had created so great
a commotion, was only a delusion. Perhaps,
too, a covert expectation of some further dis-
play of wonder-working power. Strauss
regards it as unhistorical that the prei'ious
restorations from the dead should not be
cited. But surely, when John wrote this
Gospel, the story of the widow's son and of
Jairus's daughter was known throughout the
world. And if, in the middle of the second
century, this Gospel had been written by a
speculative theologian, who deliberately set
Mmself to coticoct such a narrative as this,
with the view of completing the picture of
the Vanquisher of Hades, he would most
certainly have cited the Galileeau miracles.
John, however, is merely recording his own
experiences. These Jews at that time may
never have heard of either Nain or the
daughter of Jairus, and spoke merely of that
which was witliin their own recollection and
experience. As they stand here, these words
are striking testimony to their historical va-
lidity. The Gospel which most unequivo-
cally establishes the claim of our Lord to a
Divine Personality or subsistence, is more
explicit than any of them in asserting his
pnw humanity, and giving proofs of it.
Ver. 38. — Jesus therefore again moved
with indignation within himself. The (^v
tauTff) "in himself" is not so forcible an
•xpreasian m "ihuddering in his spirit"
(ver. 33), but it implies a continnity of grand,
holy indignation against the anomaly ol
death, from which the human family and
he as its Representative were suffering (cf.
ver. 33). He cometh to the grave. The
(/ivTI/iftov or) tomb is forthwith described as
(o-TT'^A.oioc) a den, cavern, or cave, from <rv4os,
ipelunea, of which, partly natural, partly
artificial, abundant use was made in the East
A stone lay (eir* oury) against it ; or, over it ;
Le. either closing it up as a pit, or closing
the mouth of it, by being rolled along a
ledge horizontal with the base of the exca-
vation. The former kind of cave is shown
at Bethany, but no dependence can be placed
on the tradition. (Of. the account of our
Lord's own tomb, to which a stone was rolled.
Matt, xxvii. 60 ; xiviii. 2 ; Mark xvi. 3, 4 ;
Luke xxiv. 2 ; cf. also Thomson, • The Land
and the Book,' pp. 101—108; and art.
"Burial," in Smith's 'Dictionary.') The
tomb of Joseph was that of a rich man, and
all these circumstances show opulence, rather
than the beggary and rags of the Lazarus
of the parable.
Ver. 39.— Jesus saith. Take ye away th«
stone. "Apare has rather the idea of "lift"
than "roll away;" it is used for "take,"
"take away," "carry as a burden." Uartha,
the sister of him that was dead,' said tinto
him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he
hath been four days here. Martha's lan-
guage is another singular illustration of the
desire on her part to give a certsdn kind of
advice and direction to our Lord, as though
he might be the wiser and better for her
monitions The characterization of her as
" ' the sister of the dead " man is not-needed
for ideptifioation, but rather to explain or
justify her intrusion upon the solemn, stately
direction of the Lord. She shrank from
such an exposure of the body of her beloved
brother, as an unnecessary act, since he was
only to rise at the last day, or to be regarded
by his faith in Christ before his death as
having already passed from death and through
death into a new life. She must have re-
linquished at that moment all hope of resur-
rection of the body of Lazarus there and
then : fjS-n Sfei, " he already stiuketh." This
is explained by many of the Fathers as
proof that our Lord not only raised from
death-swoon Jairus's daughtor,and the young
man on his way to burial, but also a putre-
fying corpse ; thus giving three symbols (A
the effects of sin : (1) a young life blighted ;
(2) a man's energies dissipate d and his con-
' Tischendorf (8th edit.), K.T., and West-
cott and Hort, following N, A, B, 0, D, K, L,
etc., give here TCT€\€i;T7)K(iToj, with reference
to one that had finished his course, rathet
than TeSi/nic6Tos of T.E., referring to thai on«
that had died and was dead.
CH. XL 1—67.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN
fi6
dition •ppaiently hopeless; and (3) a type
also of one dead in trespasseB and sing
(Trench on the Miracles) — one whose habits
of trespass and bondage to evil seem to for-
bid all renewal, Godet thinks that Martha
had special reasons for such a speech. Others,
that all that we have here is the ipeeulation
or fanoy of Martha, and that it must be so.
She puts one more arrest, as it would seem,
upon the free act and love of Jesus. This
seema quite sufflcient to account for the use
of the word. It would seem that, for some
reason, the body had not been fully em-
balmed, or she would not have used the
expression. Still, all had been done with
spices and perfumes that was intended. The
Tiibingen criticism eagerly lays hold on this
point, as proof that the fourth evangelist
intended by such a touch to exalt and
exaggerate the wonder-working power of
Christ. There is no need whatever to see
in it more than Martha's sisterly love get-
ting the better of her submission to her
Master's order. T^Tapraios ydp eVn,' " For
he is of the fourth day (dead) (buried)."
On the fourth day the countenance changes,
and, as the Jewish proverb urged, the spirit
tukes its flight from the sepulchre, and no
longer hovers over the departed form.
Yer. 40. — Jesus saith unto her. Said I not
unto thee, that, if thou believedst, thou
shouldst see the glory of God t This was a
jrobable reference to the language of ver.
1, and also to the teaching of vers. 25, 26,
where our Lord had encouraged her imper-
fect faith in liimself to become a veritable
vision of Divine glory. Out of the deepest
humiliation comes the highest glory. The
putrefaction of the grave is a stepping-stone
to his throne. More is meant than the
physical resurrection of Lazarus. She would
or might by faith see the glory of Divine
power and love which woidd, by what was
about to happen, dawn upon her. Christ
was going to prove to faith that he could
and would destroy the power of death, rob
him of sting, swallow up the grave in vic-
tory, and proclaim the everlasting curse of
this mysteiiouB flesh of ours to be a van-
quished foe.
Yer. 41.— Then they took away the stone
17 from the place where the dead was laid].
' See Xenophon, ' Anab.,' vi. 4. 9,''H5e yitp
fimy weixtiralot, "They were already five
days (dead)."
• T.B., Griesbach, and Scholz here odd,
o5 Jiv \> tcBvijkSis Kelfievos, with C, B, H, and
many more authorities; but the phrase is
differently given in several uncials. But
neither do N, B, C», D, L. X, 5, 24, and
other cnrBives, nor does Yulgate nor nn-
ueioiiB other versions, contain the words.
They are omitted by Tisohendorf (8th adit), I
They lifted the stone, and Jesus lifted up
his eyes to heaven. This is not to be taken
as an ordinary prayer, but a thahksgiviag
for prayer already heard. " Jesus lifted up
his eyes," i.e. to heaven — to that sublime
symbol of the infinite activity of God, which
surrounds us day and night, and which is
in numerous religious systems made a type
and image of the Divine Being himself; nor
does our modern conception of the universe
dethrone it from this high place. Christ's
language is thanksgiving that God has al-
ready heard him. Godet and Hengstenherg
say that Jesus thanked God in anticipation
of the miracle, as though it were already
done. Meyer and Alford look back to some
earlier prayers. But surely there is some
reason for the thanksgiving. The atone it
lifted, or removed ; there lies the corpse, but
no dank sepulchral vapour issues from it;
rather some sign is given that prayer offered
by Christ had been already heard, and
that death has not made the havoc with
the frame which would otherwise have oc-
curred. Father, I thank thee that thou
heardest me. When he uttered the prayer
we cannot say ; but we know that his
mind was greatly exercised concerning his
friend before he left Persea. His words
confess that his wishes have been in har»
mony with the Divine eteitaal will. So
elsewhere the Lord tells his disciples, " If
ye abide in mej and my words abide in you,
ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be
done unto you ; " i.e. " your desires wUl be
in harmony with the Divine purpose ; you
will not be able to pray for anything either
temporal or spiritual which God vrill not
bestow, has not indeed prepared himself to
bestow and you to receive." This is the true
mystery and meaning of prayer. The hypo-
thesis of the twofold nature of Christ, instead
of being shipwrecked on the fact of his
prayers and intercessions, throws light on
the very nature of prayer itself.
Yer. 42. — ^And I knew that thou hearest
me always: but because of the multitude
wliich standeth around I said it, that they
may believe that thon didst send me. This
great utterance declares all the intimate
relation which subsists between the Father
of all and the Sou in Jesus. A continuous
absolute communion is ever going on be-
tween heaven and earth in the heart of
Jesus. His consciousness of the Father is a
door opened in heaven. Alas I these words
have been a stumbling-block to many ; have
suggested to Baur the idea of a "show-
prayer," and to Weisse a " deceptive
prayer" itehaugAeC), and to Strauss that
Tregelles, Alford, Westcott and Hort, aal
B.T. The worda are unnecessM^ to t^
sens*.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. to. 1—67.
they were introdaoed into • later bat in-
antlientio nairatiTe of the second century
to establish the Divinity of Ohrist. The
simple fact is that the words are not
"petition" at all, but thoy are spoken
thought and Divine communion, giacionsly
nnveiled for the advantage of the disciples.
They are built upon the wonderful assur-
ance which had been repeatedly given by
our Lord of his union with and association
in unique Personality with the Father. We
see from ch. xvi. 29 — 31 that the profound
desire occupying the heart of Jesus was
that bis disciples, first of all, should know
that he came out from God, and almost
with pathetic eagerness lie asks them, " Do
ye now believe?" But in ch. zvii. 21 he
•hows that his wishes were not limited to
the faith of disciples, bat extended to the
TOoduction of a like conviction in the k6(tiu>s.
Here he suya, after a pause,' " I know that
thou art hearing me always." Inhere is no
surprise in the discovery that Lazarus was
as he really is. Christ's own prayers are
always heard, even those in Gethsemane
and on the cross (cf, Heb. v. 7, ciVaKovtr^c!;
aith TTJs fifia$elas). I eaid it for the multi-
tude that ttandeth around. The use of
6x^ov ireptetTTUTa rather than ^lovdalovs
reveals the genuine language of our Lord
rather than that of the evangelist. To what
does he refer, what saying has he uttered
for the sake of this miscellaneous group?
Surely to the great declaration, "I thank
thee that thou hcardest me." His reason
for the audible utterance of his gratitude is,
"That they may believe that thou didst
send me." If ho had not uttered this thanks-
giving, the multitude would have gloiified
him rather than his Father, nor would they
have learned, as now they may, that be
came forth from God.
Yer. 43. — And when he had thus spoken,
he cried with loud voice. 'Expaiyaa-f is used
of the shout of a multitude (ch. zii. 13, B.T. ;
xviii. 40; xix. 6, 15), and implies the loud,
imperatire command to Death to give up his
prey, and relinquish the grasp which had, in
answer to his prayer, been already relaxed.
The loud voice keeps up the image that death
is a deep sleep. Tiie critical moment in
Christ's own career has arrived, when, having
pledged the Father to this manifestation
of his own glory, he was prepared to take
thb final step, however peruons to him-
self; one whioti would finally demonstrate
whether he was sent from God, or wag
meiely boasting a power he did not possess
(cf. Elijah and the priests of Baal, 1 Kings
xviii.). Observe the loud voioe, Lazarns,
soma forth i or, (JlUher,(mll)i 0'< Veni/orat I
(Origen, Chrysostoin, Lampe, suggest that
the awak«iing from death had already
plaoa. Mejw and Alidrd condemn
this. It seems to me that this supposition,
somewhat modified aa above, throws light
npon vers. 41, 42.) The words themselves
are applicable to a grave from which the
stone door had been removed. Weiss lias
made some admirable remarks on the use
made by the Tiibingen critics of this admis-
sion. In many cases in which such miracles
took place the soul had obviously not left
the body, but yet the entire surroundings
here imply that, apart from miraculous
energy, resuscitation was absolutely un-
looked for. Even Straiiss refuses utterly
the trance hypothesis, and Benan has re-
nounced the farcical drama that he thought
at one time might account for the event
and its record.
Ver. 44. — 'He that (had died and) was.
(up to that time) dead, came ont (of the
grave), bound feet and hands with grave-
bands. The swathing of the limbs after
the Egyptian fashion, each limb separately,
renders the action most natural, because
i^riXBev is used. Lazarus did not simply
stand in his grave. The early commentators
and Stier saw in this emergence of the
swathed Lazarus an additional miracle, just
as they augmented the force of the sup-
position involved in the Kfei into the fact
that our Lord raised from death a putrefy-
ing corpse. Both suppositions would be
unnecessary adjuncts of the proof of the
glory of God and power of Christ. Lttcke
and others refer to the habit of swathing
separate limbs, but in such a way as not
to impede motion if the person thus swathed
desired it. Meyer and Godet see no neces-
sity for the suggestion of the early writers.
Kuinoel thinks that i^riKB^ was used of the
mere struggle of the swathed body to
escape. The above supposition is the most
probable. So Westcott. (Kcipfo, an oirof
Key6nivov of the New Testament, is used of
girdle or bandage.) And his face was boimd
about with a napkin. The surrounding of
the face with a eudarium is the touch of an
eye-witness. Jesus saith unto them, Loose
him, and suffer him to depart ; the part which
bystanders might perform ; this was the wise
advice of Friend and Teacher. (For similar
injunctions of a physical and practical kind
on other occasions, see Luke vii. 15 and viiL
55.) The majestio miracle is no further
pressed by the evangelist, but left to teU it«
own sublime meaning, which in the multi-
plicity of exegetical hypotheses we are in
danger of missing.
" Behold a man raised up by Christ
The rest remaineth unrevealed —
He told it not ; or something sealed
The lips of that evangelist."
■ Kal is omitted by B, 0, L, and also by
Tisohendorf (8th odit.X Alford, and B.T.
OH. XI. 1—57.] THE GOSPEL AOCOEDIKG TO ST. JOHN.
87
Veni. 45— 57.— <4) The effeet of the miradt
(sign) upon the multitude and on the autho-
rities. Their final resolve, and its bearing
upon the great saerifiee of Calvary.
Vers. 45, 46. — Many therefore of the Jews
which oame to Mary, and beheld that ' wMoh
he ' did, belieyed on him ; but certain of them
went away to the Pharisees, and told them
the things which Jesus had done. Tlphs r^v
Maplav. Here Mary is named alone, as the
sister who was most deeply afflicted by the
death of Lazarus, and most in need of
friendly consolation (cf. also oh. t. 1). This
clause may be read so as to include those
who went to communicate the startling in-
telligence to the Pharisees among the
TToAAol of the Jews who went to comfort
Mary and who " believed ; " on the ground
"that ot 4\96»Tfs is in apposition with iroXAol,
not (according to the text of D, r&v ixBdyrav)
with 'louSaiaiv, This, however, would imply
that all of them believed, and that the nvts
went to the Pharisees with no hostile intent
(Meyer); but why should not ^J avruv refer
to the 'lovSaivv, implying another set not of
the Mends of Mary (Godet)? The remark
would then be in harmony with the fact i»
which the evangelist continually calls atten-
tion, that Christ's miracles and words pro-
duced a twofold effect, and made a frequent
division among the Jews, thus bringing to
light who were and who were not his true
disciples. The same facts excited faith in
some and roused animosity in others. The
great siga has been dividing men into
hostile camps ever since. As Browning's
Arab physician said —
" 'Tis well to keep back nothing of a case.
This man (Lazarus) so cured regards the
Gurer then
As — God forgive me — who but God him-
self
Creator and Sustainer of the world.
That came and dwelt in flesh on it
awhile! . . .
The very God I Think, Abib; dost tbon
think?
So the Ail-great were the All-loving too;
So through the thunder comes a human
voice.
Saying, 'O heart I made, a heart beats
beret
Face, my hands fashioned, see it in my-
self.'"
Ver. 47. — ^Ihe chief priests and Fhariseei
> The authorities differ. The T.B., Alford
(6th edit.), and Tlsohendorf (8th edit.) liave
ft, with N, A*, L, X, by Westoott and Hort
regarded as an alternative reading ; the B.T.
has t with A*, B, C, D.
* The T.B. has t 'Iqirmit, bnt none of 'the
modeni editni.
therefore gathered a oounciL If a formal
meeting of the ^reat council, if " the San-
hedrin, had been summoned, the article
would have been used. (On the Sanbedrin,
see Winer, art. "Sanhedrin," in his 'Bib.
B. Wort.;' Laiige, in loo.; Ederslieim, vol.
ii. 553, etc. This name is Greek (though
Hebraized in the Talmud), and signifles the
supreme court of the people, resident in
Jerusalem, consisting of seventy-one mem-
bers, with a president. Nasi, and a vice-
president, Ab-baith-den.) Kxtraordinary
sessions of the Sanhedrin were called at the
house of the high priest, bnt ordinary
sessions in some rooms adjoining the temple.
The points submitted to their cognizance
were hierarchical and religious. They had
at this time lost their actual power of in-
flicting capital punishment. They were a
court of appeal from lower courts in the
province, framed after the same model. Pha-
risees and Sadducees were alike to be found
in their number. The family of Annas, his
sons, and his son-in-law Calaphas, were all
Sadducees, and embraced the priestly part
of the assembly. They were the most
deadly enemies of Christ throughout. The
Pharisees are scarcely again mentioned in
the account of the Passion. The priestly
Sadducean party became also bitter enemies
of Christianity and of the Church during
apostolic times. Here they take the initia-
tive. And they said. What are we about I
because this Man is (as we must admit) doing
many signs, which will produce a perilous
effect among the people. There were certain
aspects and views both of the Pharisaic and
Badducean party with which our Lord's .
teaching coincided. When he denounced
ritualism, literalism, and traditioB, and laid
emphasis on moral law, he had to some extent
the ear of the Sadducees ; when he cleansed
the temple of the priestly bazaar, when he
rebuked the secular conceptions of Mes-
sianic glory, the Pharisees inwardly rejoiced.
Nevertheless, they had both too many
grounds of criticism and dislike not to
combine against him. The council of the
nation found it a dedicate and difficult task
to frame charges in which the entire
anthorities of the nation and the popular
clamour could coincide.
Ver. 48. — If we let him alone thus, as we
have been doing hitherto — if we suffer him
to do these things — all men will believe on
him, and the Somans will come and take
away from us, i.e. from the Sanhedrin, from
the lawful rulers in all matters affecting
religious order or privilege, our place —
the city or temple — and the nation, which
we rule through onr subordinates and sur-
rogates, but to accomplish which we shall
Srove our incompetence if we cannot keep
own all insuboidination and hoM fwrilrai
THE GOSPEL ACCOEDINa TO ST. JOHN. [oa xi. 1—67.
entlmslaBm In check; De Wette and Heng-
ftenberg strongly urge that by t^ttoc was
meant the temple, "the dwelling-place
and seat of the whole people " (Pa. Ixxxiv.
4; iivii. 4 J cf. Matt, xxiii. 38> Ewald,
Godet, Meyer, Watkins, consider Tiiiroi/ to be
the city, the seat of all the power of the
nation, spiritual and civil. The nation was
a province of the Boman empire, but the
hierarchy was still invested with great
powers.
Ver. 49. — ^But a certain one of them,
(named) Caiaphas, being high priest that
year, said onto them, Ye know nothing at
all. Among the divided interests and irre-
solute fears of the Pharisees, who had not
made up their minds as to the right course
to pursue, " one of them," i.e. of the council,
a man of firm will and hectoring dis-
position, had a clear though devilish pur-
pose of political expediency, and a stern
resolve, if he could, to repress the incon-
venient manifestation of religious earnest-
ness— Caiaphas. We know that Annas is
spoken of as cipxiepebs in ch. xviii. 15, 19.
And Annas and Caiaphas are both said to
be "high priests" (Luke iii. 2). In Acts
iv. 6 Annas is spoken of as high priest,
Caiaphas being associated with " John and
Alexander." This becomes more compre-
hensible when we learn from Josephus
(' Ant.,' xviii. 2. 2 and 4. 3) that Valerius
Gratus (in the year a.d. 14) had deprived
Annas (or Hanan, Ananias, Ananas) of the
office, " when he had held it for seven
years." So great, however, was the influ-
ence of Annas, that, either to consult his
temper or that of the people, who would
consider him the legal high priest, the
ofSce was conferred upon members of his
family in succession, first on Ishmael, then
on Eleazer the son of Ishmael, then on
Simon his son, and finally on Joseph
Caiaphas (who is declared by St. John (ch.
xviii. 13) to be the son-in-law of Annas,
thus explaining his appointment on the one
hand, and the continued infiuence on the
other of the unscrupulous Annas, who was
high priest dejure). Joseph Caiaphas htld
the ofSce from a.d. 25 to a.d. 36, and thus
throughout the ministry of Jeans. The
apostle's remark (repeated ch. xviii. 13) that
he was " high priest that same year " has
been set down by Strauss, Soholteu, and
others to ignorance on tlie part of the writer
of the Hebrew law of the priesthood. This
)l excessively improbable, even with a late
author of the second century, who evidently
knew as much concerning Judsea and its
history as the author of the Fourth Gospel
did indubitably possess. It is enough that
tke evangelist singles out " that memorable
year" (Uioke, Meyer and Lange, etc) of
tlM <ieath •£ Ohiiat; and Mmarlu on the
man who was holding the position at thii
solenin time, with obvious reference to the
fact that now for many years the functions
of the high priest were discharged only at
the pleasure of the Boman governor, who
might, as Caiaphas himself said, abolish the
office altogether if he chose arbitrarily to do
so. The first words of Caiaphas, " Ye know
nothing at all," are brusque, rough, im-
perious, but are quite akin to what we know
elsewhere of the manners of the man
(Josephus, ' Bell. Jud.,' ii. 8. 14), and of the
aristocratic clique of which he was tlie
head,
Ver. 50. — Nor' consider; or, nor do y«
take aacomtt. Hengstenberg shows that
where this verb {hoyiitcSi) elsewhere occurs,
it is used intransitively, and with this Godet
aojrees ; then they take on, as " because " or
for it is expedient for you (the text ijuv is
preferred by Meyer, Godet, Westcott and
Hort, and the Revisers. The chief difference
in tliought is that it makes the language
somewhat more dogmatic, Caiaphas hardly
classing himself for the moment with such
irresolute companions) that one man should
die for (" on behalf of " amounting to " in-
stead of") the people — i.e. for the theocratic
organization, whose were the promises, to
whom was given the dominion — and not that
the entire nation (the political aggregation)
perish. Some have supposed (like Lange)
Divine purpose lurking in the Xva. ; but it
was rather the maxim of worldly expediency
of half-paganized superstition allied in this
forn» to the sacrifice of Codrus, or of Iphi-
genia, viz. that the extinction of guiltless
and innocent victims may be demanded by
political necessity, and must be determined
upon at once, by the chief court of equity and
criminal judicature in the nation. If, thought
he, the multitudes accept this Sabbath-
breaker, this Workerof miracles, this religioiu
Enthusiast, this moral Keformer, for their
Messiah, the Romans will crush the move-
ment, will stamp out the entiiu religious
order; "we" shall be annihilated as a
power, the "nation" will be abolished as
such. It is more expedient that tliis one
man should suffer than that the whole of
our positiuu should be sacrificed.
Vers. 51, 52. — The evangelist discerned
the presence of a deeper meaning in his
words not intended by himself. As Balaam
and Nebuchadnezzar and even Pharaoh had
uttered unconscious or unwilling prophecies,
• T.B. and Alford (6th *<«t.) read iioKa-
yt(ta9t, with X, r, A, and oiherg ; the \<irrl-
(((rBf, adopted by B.T., rests on K, A, B, L,
and many cursives. The former always
occurs in the synoptists, and, Tischendoif
(8th edit.) thinks, haa been early substituted
foiit.
BH. XI. 1—67.] THE GOSPBL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
and as in all genuine propheoisi there are
meanings meant by God beyond what the
utterer of them at all conceived possible. So
here. TMs he spake not from himself: bnt
being high priest that awful, critical year, he
prophesied. The high priest was believed in
ancient times to have the power of drawing
from Urlm and Thnmmim the Divine deci-
sions as to future events (Exod. ixviii. 30;
Numb, xxvil. 21), and Oaiaphas, as priest-
prophet, may thus have conveyed an awful
and sublime truth through base and evil
dispositions. Curious instances occur else-
where (oh. vii. 27, 35) : " He saved others ;
liimself he cannot save 1 " (Mark xv. 31) ;
when the peojjle said, "His blood be upon
us " (Matt, xxvil. 25) ; when Pilate, by un-
conscious prophecy, ironically declared him
to be " King of tlie Jews" (Matt, xxvil. 37).
Wiinsche quotes a curious case of uncon-
Boious prophe y, which the rabbinical writers
attributed to Pharaoh's daughter, when she
forecast the future legislator in the Infant
derelict. The substance of the prophetic
word extracted from his saying was that
Jesus should die for the nation. Hengsten-
berg wisely says, " Caiaphas could not have
spoken other than of the Kaos." When John
wrote, the difference between the \a6s and
the iBvri had vanished away. Israel had
become an edms, like the rest. And not for
the nation only, hut that he might also gather
together into one (\a6v) the children of Ood
scattered abroad— constitute a new centre,
life-giving and sacred in the covenant of his
blood (cf. 1 John ii. 2, a very remarkable
parallelism). Who are the reicva toD 0€oS
Siea-Ko/murfiiva ? According to some, the
dispersed Israulites, but surely the passage
corresponds witli the " other sheep," of ch.
X. 16, and refers to all who enter by living
faith in him into the full realization of the
Divine Fatherhood (see ch. i. 12 and Eph.
li. 14) and their own sonship. Christ is the
true Union of Jew and Gentile.
Ver. 53. — Therefore from that day they took
oonnsel ' to slay him. The oSv shows that the
advice of Caiaphas was followed, and where-
as before this, minor courts and synagogues
had plotted the ruin of Jesus, and they
themselves had excommunicated his fol-
lowers (ch. li.), yet, after this evil counsel,
they deliberated on the surest and safest
way of destroying him. The sentence had
gone forth. They bound themselves to
Mcure his arrest for this purpose. Some of
their number, a small minority, including
Joseph of Arimathssa, disapproved of this
counsel, and withdrew from their society
' 'ZPovXeiiravTo, with N, B, D, Tischen-
dorf (8th edit.), Westcott and Hort, and K.T.,
instead of <rvi>c0ov\ei(rayTo of A, L, T.B.,
»nd Alford (6th edit.).
(Luke zxiii. 51), but the majority overruled
the dissidents. This is the very climax of
their perversity. They have resolved on
the death-penalty. The sentence has been
recorded against the Holiest. Priesthood
and prophecy have pronounced their final
verdict. They have extinguished them-
selves. Nevertheless, that which proved the
occasion of their malice became a further
proof of his Divine goodness and superhuman
claims.
Ver. 54. — This constituted the close of
his earthly ministry after his ordinary
method. Jesus therefore walked (cf ch. vii.
1) no more openly {Tra-^fniffla ; cf. cli. vii. 4)
among the Jews ; but he departed thence into
the oonntry nigh unto the wilderness, to a
city called Ephraim. Westcott says the
place Is mentioned in.connection with Bethel
(2 Chron. xlli. 19). Not far from Bethel, on
the border between Benjamin and Ephraim,
is Taiyibeh a conical hill with a village
perched aloft, which Koblnson (' Bibl. Bes.,'
ii. 127) and Stanley (' Sinai and Palestine,'
p. 210) identify with this Ephraim. In
this form the word does not appear in the
Old Testament, but Eusebius and Jerome
make it twelve miles from Jerusalem, on the
east of the road leading to Sichem ; and Jo-
sephus (' Bell. Jud.,' iv. 9. 9) speaks of " two
little towns of Btthela and Ephraim, through
wliich Vespasian passed and left garrisons."
Hengstenberg identifies it with "Baal-hazor,
which is by Ephraim" (2 Sam. xiii. 23).
The maps of Van der Welt and of the
Palestine Exploration Society place it on
the site of Ephraim, Bphron (2 Chron.
xiii. 19), or Ophrah (Josh, xviii. 23), about
seven miles north-east from Bethel, and
give as second designation Apharaim. The
intelligence must have reached our Lord
that the Sanhedrin had formally pronounced
senlence against him. This may have
induced him to retire from Jerusalem until
the next great feast, when he would publicly
challenge theii allegiance. From this
neighbourhood our Lord could (as we learn
from the synoptists) have easily joined the
caravan from Peraea, which, after crossing
Jordan near Jericho, there set its face towards
Jerusalem, or the caravan which may have
come through Samaria to Bethel. There he
abode ' (farried) with the * disoiples. VLerh
(says Godet) is not synonymous with aiv,
but equivalent to — ^he confined himself in th«
> K, B, L, and some ancient qnotationt
read iiieive, which is followed By B.T,
Westcott and Hort, Alford, and Tregelles ;
but Tischendorf (8th edit.), on the authority
of A, D, I, X, r, A, etc., with Vulgat*
(morahatur) and other versions and T.B,
reads SUrpiPe. The aftroS is omitted bjT
modem editors, with K, B, D, I, r, A.
100
THE GOSPEL ACCORDINO TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xi. 1—67
desert region north-east of Jemsalem to the
company of the twelve.
Ver. 55. — Now the FasBOver of the Jewa
was at hand: and many went np to Jem-
salem oat of the oonntry before the Passover,
that they might pnrify themselves. 'En t^i
X<lipas meiint " from the country " generally.
Though the Law did not specifically recom-
mend purification "before the Passover,"
yet the general principle of ceremonial
cleansinga had been applied to the Feast of
the Passover (see 2 Ohron. xxx. 16—20;
Acts xxi, 24). The time reqinred varied
from one to six days (Exod. ziz. 10, 11;
Numb. ix. 10).
Ver. 56. — They sought therefore for Jesus,
and said one with anothsr, as they stood in
the temple. Their excitement augmented
from day to day ; they dreaded and hoped
for the final conflict. Not being aware of
his retreat, not caring, perhaps, to despatch
him by hired assassins, they determined in
the most public way, on a great platform, to
complete the deep damnation of his taking
off, little forecasting their eternal infamy.
They were in continual search for Jesus, and
spake in excited groups when they met, ask-
ing one another eager questions when they
stood in the temple. The evangelist has
witnessed the scene ; these are two inquiries
mentioned : What think ye, generally ?
Think ye that he will not oome to the feast 1
The aorist subjunctive ia used here in the
sense of an event in the future which when
effected will be a completed act ; so that the
statement gives a reason for the excitement
among the people.
Ver. 57. — ' Now the chief priests and
Fharisees had given commandment, that, if
any one knew where he was, he should
indicate it, that they might take him. This
would not have been a difiScult task. Jesus
and twelve men could hardly have been
hidden from their spies. The country people
must have been faithful to him, and the
edicts were issued rather to intimidate the
people than to secure the immediate end;
but they were quite sufScient to excite the
inquiries of Oalilteans and others who had
gone to Jerusalem for the main purpose of
seeing him. The interdict had been aimed
probably at the family of Bethany, which
was clearly one of some consequence, or
against any household in Jerusalem which
should harbour him. It may have been the
occasion which stirred the devilish spirit in
the mind of Judas. So long as Jesus was
surrounded with an enthusiastic crowd, they
dared not seize his person. They resolved
on secrecy, but were bent on public humilia-
tion.
' There is a very great consensus of
opinion as to the omission of the koI of T.B.
With K, A, B, K, L, and some forty-five
other mauuscriptsh Tischendorf (8th editA
Tregelles, Westoott and Hort, and B.T.
omit it.
HOMILETICa.
Ver*. 1—16. — 2%» raiting of Lazwrus. This event, • third good work, hastened
the final crisis.
I. The Bbthant family. "Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany,
the town of Mary and her sister Martha." 1. Their home. It was a small village on
the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, two miles from Jerusalem. It is familiar to us
in the earlier Gospels as the place to which our Lord resorted from time to time for
happy retirement. It remains the sweetest spot in the memory of the Christian
Church. 2. 2%e members of the home. (1) Lazarus, (a) It is a suggestive circum-
stance that the parable of Dives and Lazarus was spoken about the time of the
Bethany miracle. Yet there is no ground for believing that this Lazarus was the
beggar of the parable. (6) He was stricken with a mortal disease, perhaps the fever
so common in the country. Though specially dear to our Lord, as well as his sisters,
he enjoyed no exemption from the ordinary afflictions of life. (2) Jfory. " It was that
Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair." Her
naine is mentioned before Martha's, on account of this touching incident, (o) The
incident here recorded was " to be told for a memorial of her wheresoever this gospel
had been preached " (Matt. xxvi. 13). The other evangelists do not give her name.
Her act marked at once her true faith and her abiding affection. (6) Mary was distin-
guished from her sister by her contemplative religions spirit. She sat at the feet of Jesus,
listening to his words, while Martha was busied with practical duties OLuke x. 40). (3)
Martha. She was probably the eldest of the family, (o) She had evidently the chief
eare of the house, (b) She was of a practical turn, fuU of resoiuca, and less Kiven to
Mvotioa than Mary,
OH. XI. 1—67.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDINO TO ST. JOHN. 101
II. Theib hebsaoe to jEsns. "Lord, he whom thou lorest is sick." 1. /( wa$ a
message full of delicacy ; for it did not urge him to come. The sisters knew that, even
from Persea, it was possible for Jesus to put forth his power of healing ; while they
could not but know of the perils of an immediate return to Judaea. 2. Jt emphasized
the tender affection viith which Jesus regarded Lazarus, and which made it right that
he should be informed at once of his friend's danger.
III. OuB Lokd's bemark upon the message of bobbow. "This sickness is not
unto death, but it is for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified
thereby." 1. Our Lord did not signify that Lazarus would not die, but that death
would not be the ultimate result of this sickness. 2. The sickness had a double aspect.
(1) It was to be borne by Lazarus " for the glory of God." (2) With an ultimate
design of glorifying his Son. (o) Our Lord reiterates the oneness of the work of the
Father and the Son. (6) The raising of Lazarus would bring to a head that hostility
of the Jews which would involve his-death, and, through death, his glorification.
IV. The MTSTEKI0U8 DELAY OF Jesus vs Pebjea. "When then he had heard
that he was sick, he remained yet two days in the plaiie where he was." 1. UTiis
delay, in so urgent a crisis, is all the more mysterious, because " Jesus loved Martha,
and her sister, and Lazarus." Yet Lazarus had already died when the messenger
arrived from Bethany. Our Lord's instant departure could not, therefore, have averted
death. 2. Eis delay might be caused (1) by the necessities of his work at Per^a;
(2) but, more prohably, by the necessity of making the miracle more striking and the
result more fruitful. The delay of two da^'S could make no difference to the surviving
sisters in respect of their brother's death. 3. Bis departure for Judsea was the proof
at once of his affection, his coinage, and his knowledge. "Then after that he saith to
his disciples. Let us go agnin into Judaea." The word recalls at once the region of
hostility and unbelief from which he had just escaped.
V. The remonstrance of the discifles at his bebolutioh. " Master, the Jews
of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou thither again?" 1. They think of the
danger to him, and are not regardless of the danger to themselves. (Yer. 16.) 2. Jlfe»
often allow their fears to stand in the way of duty.
VI. OuB Lobd's answeb to theib bemonstbance. 1. Every man hat his twelve
working hours of life. "Are there not twelve hours in the day?" The work must
be done in this time, or not at all. Each hour ought to be brimming over with work.
2. While the daylight cf life lasts, the worker will not stumble. " If any man walk in
the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world." The malice of
men or devils cannot destroy him till his work is done. 3. Every man Aos his night
coming when work must end. " But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because
there is no light in him." The work, therefore, must be done in the day of work.
VII. The disciples' miscndbrstandino of oub Lobd's words. "He saith, Our
friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go to awake hun. Then they said unto him, Lord, if
he sleep, he shall do well." 1. Our Lord knew Lazarus was dead. This proved his
omniscience. 2. Our friends must die, however dear to us or essential to our comfort.
3. Death is a sleep ; for it implies an awakening out of sleep. 4. Christ has trans-
form^ death into a new phase of life. The familiar description in the catacombs is
" Dormit " — " He sleeps," 5. The observation of the disciples implied that the sleep of
Lazarus rendered it unnecessary for him to expose himself to peril ; for their friend was
already on the way to recovery.
VIII. Oub Lobd's fbank statement of the teuth and the LoviNa bbsolutiok
OF THE disciples. " Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not
there, to the intent ye may believe." 1. Jesus it glad, not for the death of Lazarus,
but for its future issues. 2. He implies that if he had been at Bethany, Lazarus Wntild
not have died. He has the assured consciousness of power over death. 3. The cause
of his gladness. It was on account of the disciples' faith. (1) They were believer*
already. (2) But he contemplated the increase of their faith as a necessity in view
of their coming trials. The disciples themselves once asked, with one voice, " Lord,
increase our faith" (Luke xvii. 5). 4. The loving resolve of Thomat. "Then said
Thomas, who is called Didymus, unto his fellow-disciples. Let us also go, that we may di<
with him." (1) Thomas's name is mostly conpled with Matthew, whose twin-brother
h« possibly was. (2) He re^u^ " ' the gloomiest apprehensions. H«
102 THE GOSPEL ACOOBDINa TO ST, JOHN. [oh. xl 1-67,
judges rightly that the death of Jesus will be the end of it. (3) Yet his lore to the
Lord nerves him to share in the risks of the Judaan journey. He will follow hi*
Master even unto death.
Vers. 17 — 27. — Jesm and Martha. Our Lord had at last come to the nrighbonr-
hoiid of Bethany, but not to the village itself.
I. The condolbnck of the Jews with the bbbeavbd sistbes. "And many of
the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother." 1. 2%i» .
visit of sympathy implies that the family at Bethany was well known and highly
respected by the Jews of Jerusalem. 2. It afforded a providential opportunity to Jesus
fur the working of his last miracle in sight of the Jews. 3. The time of bereavement is
the time that demands all the resources of consolation. The days of mourning were
divided among the Jews into three periods of three days of weeping, seven days of
lamentation, and twenty days of sorrow.
II. The interview between Jesds and Mabtha. "Then Martha, as soon ai
she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him : but Mary sat in the bouse."
The different character of the two sisters is revealed in these words. 1. Martha would
evidently he the first to receive the news of Christ's coming. Not so much, perhaps,
because the message would be first brought to her as the mistress of the house, as
because, going about the house in the busy routine of her life, she would be in the
way of first receiving intelligence. 2. Mary's profound feeling, that made her a letter
listener than Martha, makes her a more helpless sufferer now. She sits still in the house.
She is not so capable as Martha of shaking off her depression at once. 3. Martha's
address to our Lord shows that she is not so overwhelmed by grief as to prevent hey
utterance. " Lord, if thou hadst been here, our brother had not died." (1) This is
not the language of complaint, for she does not say, " Lord, if thou hadst come, our
brother had not died." She must have known that Lazarus was dead before the
tidings could have reached the Lord. (2) It is the simple language of faith and love ;
for she seems to say that death could not have entered the happy home at Bethany in
the face of Divine power and Divine love. She is even sure that now he was able to
restore her departed brother to life. " Whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it
thee." She remembered, no doubt, the two Galilsean miracles of resurrection. 4. Our
Lord^s answer to Martha's touching appeal. " Thy brother shall rise again." (1) He
alludes evidently to the miracle about to be performed. (2) A belief in the resurrec-
tion of pious Jews was already familiar, as an inauguration of the reign of the Messiah,
from the language of Daniel (xii. 2) and from the Maccabees. Death is not the final
conqueror. 5. Ma/rtha's apparent misunderstanding of his saying. " I know that he
shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." (1) Her rejoinder, marked by a
spirit of mournful resignation, goes back upon the belief of the final resurrection,
wliich, however, had no direct bearing upon her present bereavement. There is an
evident touch of disappointment in her words. 6. Jesus as the Resurrection and the
Life. (1) He is the Eesurrection, (a) as he is " the First-Begotten from the dead "
(Col. i. 18) ; (6) as he is ihe Author or Cause of the resurrection of believers : " I will
raise him up at the last day" (ch. vi. 54); (c) as his resurrection involves their
resurrection (1 Cor. xv. 23). (2) He is the Life. Jesus goes beyond resurrection to life
itself, (a) He is eternal Life. (6) He gives his life for his people, (c) He is the Life
of his people (Col. iii. 3). (d) His life in glory is the guarantee of the believer's life.
" Because I live, ye shall live also." (e) He is the Life of both soul and body in the
reiurrection (Rom. viii. 11). (3) Faith which unites the believer to Christ admits of
no severance by death. " He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall be
live." This sentence might apply to Lazarus in his tomb. As a true believer, though
now in the power of death, lie would yet be restored to life. Or it might apply,
generally, to sinners who accept Christ as Saviour, (a) They are dead in sin
(Eph. ii. 1). (6) Yet when quickened by God's Spirit they believe upon Christ,
(c) And their faith ensures life spiritual and everlasting. "And whosoever liveth and
believeth in me shall never die." (o) The faith and life are regarded as equivalent
terms, because they are inseparably joined together. (j8) Death cannot break the
continuity of Christian life. The second death does not touch it at all. 7. Martha's
triumphant faith. Jesus says, " Believest thou this ? She said unto him, Yea,
OH. XL 1—57.] THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. 103
Lord, I believe that tnou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the
world." (1) This was a prompt and full acceptance of the revelation just made to her.
(2) It marks likewise the foundation upon which that revelation rested, (a) Jeans
was Christ, the end of the theocratic prophecies and promises ; (b) the Son of God,
dwelling in mysterious relation with God, and therefore able to act as Daysman
between God aud man, and restore the long-broken fellowship ; (c) making the world
the theatre of his Divine power in resurrection and life. Her confession was the simple
but profound acknowledgment of Jesus as the Besurrection and the Life.
VerB. 28 — 37. — Jesus and Mary. Our Lord deals with Mary according to her nature
•nd temperament.
L The secret message to Mart. " She went away, and called Mary her sister
secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for thee." 1. Jesus, though he would
not fly from danger, does not seek it. He did not care to attract the notice of the Jews
who were with Mary. Otherwise he would at once have gone to the house of mourning.
2. Eow promptly hut silently Mary acts upon the invitation I The true Comforter is
at hand. She may well shake off her depression. 3. Snw blessed it is to meet Christ
anywhere, but especially at his own invitation I
IL Mary's declaration to her Lord, and her Lord's answer. " Lord, if thou
hadst been here, our brother had not died." 1. Tlie same thought occupied the minds of
the two sisters, and perhaps that of Lazarus in his dying hour. But she adds not a
word more, either in the way of faith or hope — unlike Martha— but falls prostrate at his
feet, the place where she delighted to lie. 2. Mark how differently Jesus treats Mary.
He does not minister to her feith by discourse like that which he addressed to Martha,
but he shares silently in her grief. What a Friend! Wliat a Brother is here ! Yea,
more than a brother. 3. He is profoundly agitated in spirit, partly by his sympathy
with the sorrowing sisters, partly by the check that he puts upou the manifestation by
his emotions, and partly by the hypocrisy of the Jews.' " He shuddered in his spirit,
•nd troubled himself, and said. Where have ye laid him?" 4. Ife at last gives way to
his emotion. " Jesus wept." What tears are these which the spirit of inspiration has
crystallized and set like gems in the diadem of truth 1 Strange to find the Lord, who
is just about to put forth Divine power, standing a weeper at a Jewish grave. (1) It
shows that he was such a High Priest as became us, that " cannot but be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities" (Heb. iv. 15). (2) It touched even the Jewish spectators
by the spectacle of his love for the sisters. 6. The hostile Jews found in it cause for
sneering irony. "Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, have caused
that even this man should not have died ? " (1) The question might be interpreted as
indicating a suspicion of the reality of Christ's friendship for Lazarus, (2) or a doubt as
to his possession of miraculous power at all.
Vers. 38 — 44. — The miracle. There is a fresh struggle in the soul of Jesus, perhaps
caused by the malicious observations of the Jews.
I. Jesus commands the stone to be rolled away teom the sepulchre.
" Take ye away the stone." 1. This command suggests that where human power it
sufficient. Divine power will not be put forth. A word from Jesus could have taken
away the stone as easily as a word raised Lazarus to life. The action of Jesus suggests
the economy of miracle so observable in Scripture history. 2. The command was
evidently given to convince the spectators that Lazarus was, indeed, a dead man. The
pent-up odours of putrefaction would in such a hot climate convince the spectators
that there could be no imposture or collusion in the case. It was evidently the thought
of this disagreeable circumstance that led Martha to say, "Lord, by this time he
stinketh : he hath been there four days." 3. The incident suggests that there is a sphere
/or human agency in connection with the salvation of men. The miracle is symbolic,
like all Christ's miracles. It is possible for man to bring man within the knowledge of
salvation. Jesus seems to say to the Christian Church, "Boll away the stone of
ignorance and superstition from the hu|iless heathen by imparting; Bible knowledge."
He says, even, to professing Christians, " Bull away the stone that lies as an obstacle in
your own family to the salvation of your children." Many an obstacle may stasd in
Chrittian households in the way of youthful couversiona.
lOi THE GOSPEL ACOOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xi. 1—67
n. Thk fratbb of Jksub as a fbefaoe to thb hibaoIiK. "Father, I thank
thee because thou hast heard me." 1. It is more a thanksgiving them a prayer. (1)
It implies that the prayer for power to do the miracle had been already oflered up and
already heard. (2) It implies that there was at all times the most perfect conformity
between the will of Christ and the will of his Father. 2. His design in this miracle
was to dispose the Jews to see in it the glory <if Ood. " I said it because of the people
who surround me, that they may belitve that thou hagt sent me." They attributed his
cure of the blind man to the work of a demon or to deception. By his prayer Jesui
makes his Father a Participator in the miracle.
III. The miracle. " And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a lond voice,
Lazarus, come forth I " 1. The loud voice contrasts with the muttered incantations of
sorcerers, and is the expression of an authoritative Divine will. 2. The voice does not
say, " Lazarus, come to life 1 " lut " come forth 1 " " They may be alive to Christ who are
dead to us." 3. ITiat voice of power suggests (1) that it is the voice of Jesus that
pierces the hearts of sinners and quickens them to spiritual life ; (2) that it is the
same voice that will be beard in the end of the world, saying, "Arise, ye dead, and come
to judgment." 4. The immediate effect of the voice. " And he that was dead came
forth, his feet and hands bound with bandages, and his face wrapped in a napkin."
(1) It must have been a strange awaking to Lazarus after four diays* experience of
death. But Scripture gives us no record of his death-experiences. (2) His first move-
ments would be restricted by the grave-clothes. His appearance at the mouth of the
sepulchre in that strange guise suggests, in the spiritual sphere, that : (a) Christian men,
especially those converted late in life, find themselves hindered by the "grave-clothes"
of old habits, (hi) The grave-clothes ought soon to be laid aside that believers may
walk free and unimpeded in the vigour of their new life, (c) Our Lord's command,
" Loose him, and let him go," suggests (o) the propriety of the new powers being freed
from restriction ; ($) the influence of Christian men in helping to unbind the burdens
that habit may have fastened upon the individual life.
Vers. 45 — 47. — The effect of the miracle on the spectator!. There is stiU the same
division among the Jews as on the occasion of every miracle.
L The uibacle acts with ooNyiNoiNO power. " Then many of the Jews, those
who had come to Mary, and had seen the things which he did, believed in him."
1. They saw in the miracle the evidence of his Messiahship, and heartily accepted Christ
as their Redeemer. 2. It was a providentially happy visit that led them to Bethany on
that day. They came to comfort the sisters, and found for themselves " the Consolation
of IsraeL"
n. The miracle acts likewise with a bepellent poweb. " But some of them
went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what Jesus had done." 1. They had
a strange story to tell, which it was impossible to gainsay. 2. It was a hostile motive
that prompted the errand to the Pha/risees, the implacahle enemies of Christ.
Vers. 48 — 53. — The decision of the Banliedrin. The miracle at Bethany had itill
more momentous effects.
I. The meeting of the Sakhedrdt. "Then gathered the chief priests and the
Pharisees a council, and said. What are we doing? for this Man doeth many miracles,"
1. It was a conjunction of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, for the chief priests belonged
to the Sadducean faction. A common danger engaged them in a common cause.
2. They frankly admitted, not only the Bethany miracle, but other miracles that Jesus
did, but did not on that account recognize his Messiahship. 3. They received the success
of Jesus in making converts with alarm, as likely to destroy the nation. " If we let him
thus alone, all will believe on him ; and the Bomans will come and destroy both
our place and our nation." (1) The dread of the Roman power was always present to
the Jewish mind of that generation because of the determination with which it had
once and again crushed Jewish revolts. (2) The authorities feared that if the Messiah
were recognized generally as "King of Israel" there might be a fresh rising, which
would lead to me utter destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the whole
nation.
IL lu DiABOLio buooestioh OF Caiaphai, "But one of them, Caiaphaa, being
OH. XL 1—67.] THE OOSPEL AOCXDBDINa TO ST. JOHN. 106
high priest that same year, said nnto them, Te know nothing at all, and do not reflect
that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole
nation perish not," 1. 2%ia Uaiaphas was a Sadducet, and held the ofSce of high priest
from 25 till 36 of our era, and therefore during that momentous year. 2, Eia suggestion
was pitrely political, and involved nothing less than the destruction of an innocent
man to save the Jewish commonwealth. It was a truly diaholic suggestion ; for, though
the representative of God, Caiaphas holds that it is right to do evil that good may
come. He does not suggest that Jesus was guilty of any crime. A perfectly innocent
man was to be sacrificed for the public advantage. 3. IVie evil suggestion was an
unconscious prophecy. " Now this he spake not of himself: but being high priest that
year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation ; and not for that nation only,
out also that he should gather together in one body the childien of God that were
scattered." (1) It was the function of the high priest to announce the decision of the
Most High for the benefit of the people. (2) The declaration of Caiaphas was a prophecy
in the literal sense, though he had himself no true sense of its blessed import. (3) It
was not unusual for God to make evil men the organs of prophetic communication.
Caiaphas, like Balaam, declared the mind of God. (4) The prophecy had a wider scope
than the high priest imagined, for it spoke of the death of Christ as having relation to
Gentiles as well as Jews. The children of God everywhere were to be gathered into
one body in Christ.
III. Thb effects of Caiafhab'b evil counsel. " Then from that day forth they
took counsel to put him to death," 1. This shows tJie baneful influence of evil counsel.
The Sanhedrin were ready to act upon the fatal advice of the high priest. There was
no longer any hesitation or irresolution among the rulers of the people. 2. But the
question was still/or consideration how Jesus could be put to death without stirring up
a popular tumult and bringing themselves into collision with the Boman authorities.
Vers. 64 — 57. — A brief period of retirement. Jesus was now forced to withdraw for
a time into a lonely place, so as to place himself beyond the reach of the Sanhedrin.
I. The place or his retirement. "Jesus therefore walked no more openly
amono; the Jews ; but went thence into a country near to the wilderness, into a city
called Ephraim, and there continued with his disciples." I. The place lay some distance
nwrth of Jerusalem, on the borders of the desert. 2. It was welt adapted for a brief
period ofquiit and unbroken intercourse with his disciples, that he might prepare them
for bis approaching end.
II. The odbiositt of the oountbt feoplb at Jebubaleu BESPECTiNa Jesus.
1. It was near the time of the Passover, and many Jews had gone up to purify them-
selves for the feast. 2. They had heard so much respecting his miracles, his parables,
his discourses, that they sought him out to gratify a not unnatural curiosity. " They
said among themselves. What think ye, that he will not come to the feast?" The
question suggests that, aware of the plot of the Sanhedrin for his destruction, Jesus
might stay away from the feast. 3, They had been made acquainted with the decree of
the Sanhedrin. " Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had also given a commandment,
that, if any man heard where he was, he should show it, that they might take him."
(1) Jesus had disappeared from Bethany immediately after the raising of Lazarus. The
Jews could not trace his movements after that event, (2) The commandment of the
chief priests and Pharisees betrays an extreme anxiety to arrest Jesus, and put an end
to a career ao fatally disturbing to all their ideas and hope*.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTH0B8,
Vw, 6. — Jems a» a Friend. Whilst the narratives of the four evangelists are chiefly
concerned with the Saviour's public ministry, it is interesting to be allowed, with their
aid, now and again to gain a glimpse into the sanctuary of his more private life, his
more intimate associations with his personal Mends. The simplicity of the statement
made in this verse ia just what might be expected from St. John. Himself a chosen
and beloved companion and frien(C he knew how tender was the Master*! heart, aad
took pleasure in recording instances of his sympathy and affection.
106 THE OOSPBL AOCORDINO TO ST. JOHN. [oH.xtl— 6S
I. Light is here oast npoN thk ohabaoteb of the family at Bbthant.
What manner of people must those have been whom Jesus loved! The narrative gives
us several particulars regarding the sisters, so that we can appreciate the affectionate
temper of both — the eager and practical nature of Martha, and the more contemplative
habit and the quiet enthusiasm of Mary, Perhaps too much has been made of the
slight indications afforded by the evangelists of the characters of these two sisters
respectively. However this may be, they and their brother Lazarus were all mutually
attached, and were all in common devoted to Jesus. That it was exquisite grace and
condescension on the part of Jesus to honour them with his society and his intimacy,
is undeniable. Yet there was a sense in which he counted this household " worthy,"
so that liis peace rested upon it. The life of all three inmates of this happy and
harmonious home was made radiant by the visits of Jesus during his lifetime ; and by
the memory of his friendship it must have been sanctified and sweetened as long as the
circle was unbroken.
IL Light is herb oast upon the ohabaoter and dispositions of thk Lobd
Jesus himself. We see him in his true and perfect humanity, when we see him in
the household of Betliany. It is the same figure, the same Divine Teacher and Master
whom we see upon the mountain or by the shore, and in the jiidgment-hall of Pilate.
Tet we are familiar with the newness of aspect under which here and there a man
appears to us when we meet him amidst his family, or as we English say, " by his fire-
side." It is in the home that the softer, gentler, more sympathetic features of the
character reveal themselves. Imagination pictures Jesus as he visited the home at
Bethany in its days of tranquillity and prosperity, and reproduces the tones of his dis-
course, the expression of his countenance ; or as he came when the household was
plunged in sorrow, and when his sympathy soothed them, and when his omnipotence
restoied their dead one to life and fellowship. As the perfect Son of man, Jesus was
not merely the public Preacher; he was the private Friend. His ministry was not only
one of general benevolence ; it was one of personal affection.
TIL Light is hbbe oast upon the provision made for a perpetual fbiendship
BETWEEN Jesus and his people. Our Lord, as St. John has recorded, declared his
people to be his friends, and mentioned unquestionable proofs of his friendship toward
his people. It is, however, somewhat difficult for us to realize this friendship on the
part of the unseen and glorified Son of God towards us in our humiliation and imper-
fections. But the statement made in the text brings to our minds an actual instance of
the Lord's friendship, which helps us to apprehend and to feel that it is not a mere
matter of theory ; that Jesus is indeed a Friend to those who welcome him into their
heart and home with reverence and gratitude, and with the response of devout and
ardent love. Jesus is, to those who love him, a Friend who can hallow their joys, and
can soothe their griefs, who can make their dwelling bright with his radiant smile,
musical with his gracious voice. — ^T.
Yer.ll.—Sleeping and waking. Our Lord Jesus, in this metaphorical language,
doubtless adopted a view of death which was familiar to his countrymen, because pre-
sented in the works of their inspired and their uninspired writers — of seers and of sages.
Yet, in adopting it, he imparted to it a tone and character peculiar to himself. On the
other hand, what he says concerning the awakening is altogether original; herein he
claims a power which is unprecedented and unparalleled.
I. To the Christian death is sleep. 1. It is the close of the day of toil. 2.
It is the hushing and silencing of the many harsh and jarring voices of care, of anxiety,
of restlessness. 3. It is the soothing of sorrow and trouble. 4. It is looked for and
welcome, when the due time comes.
II. It is the pbebogative or Christ to abousb his people prom the slumbeb
of death. 1. Our Lord awakens slumbering souls from the stupors of sin. The
message of the gospel to such is, "Awake, thou that sleepest, arise from the dead, and
he shall enlighten thee." This spiritual awakening is the pledge of the glorious and
final awakening of the future unto the higher and immortal life. 2. As sleep is but for
a season, so the sleep of death is appointed only as a temporary, a transitory experience.
3. The voice which woke Lazarus out of his sleep is the voice which summons from
the slumber of death. Christ's assumption of this power is an imvUcit claim to Divin*
on, XL 1—67.] THE GOSPEL ACCOEDINa TO ST. JOHN. 107
authority. God's omnipotence alone oin create life, and alone can restore life when
death has asserted its power and has done its work. 4. The awakening from death
summons to an endless life of activity and holy service. Whilst the hours of slumber
are hours of re^«se, the daylight wliioh arouses the sleepers calls to the exertion of the
powers of body and of mind. This law applies to the higher realm. When Christ
awakens out of the slumber of death, it is to the happiness of conscious existence and
to the energy of untiring effort. There is no reason to suppose that this brief earthly
life is man's only perioii of service. It is the discipline and preparation for endless
ages of glad devotion alike to the praise and to the service of our glorious Bedeemer.
*• If my immortal Saviour lives,
Then my immortal life is sure :
His word a firm foundation gives;
Here let me build and rest secTue."
Ver. 21. — 7%« absence of Jesus. Among our Lord's friends none were more affec-
tionate or more faithful than the favoured family of Bethany. That, in the hours of
their anxiety and of their mourning, Mary and Martha should have lamented the
absence of the Master, is not surprising, nor does it call for any blame. But they did
not simply regret that Jesus was not with them ; they went further than this, and
believed and said that, had he been present, the calamity which befell them would have
been averted.
I. The temper of mind which lamented the bodilt absence op Jesus in
AFFLICTION. Whon this is analyzed, it appears to be mixed. 1. There •was faith. In
their trouble, the first thought of the sisters was of Jesus. Tbey sent to him an
earnest entreaty to come and interpose on their behalf. When he came — as they
thought too late — they welcomed and honoured him. They threw themselves upon
his sympathy, and professed their belief that, even now, their case was not beyond the
reach of his power and compassion. All this implied faith. 2. The faith, however,
was imperfect. This appears from their laying undue stress upon Christ's bodily
presence. They ought to have been reassured by his language upon receiving tidings
of his friend's sickness. They onght to have reflected that his absence was no sign of
his want of interest or affection, was no sign of any lapse of power. Their tone of
mind evinced the imperfection of their faith.
II. The reasons which accouktbd for the bodily absence of Jesus in the
TIME of his feibndb' AFFLICTION. 1. The ultimate reason both for Lazarus's sickness
and death, and also for the Lord's delay in visiting Bethany, was a moral reason,
relating to his own ministiy. The Son of God was hereby to be glorified ; his mission
was to be fulfilled. 2. More particularly, the faith of the disciples was called out and
strengthened by this action of the Lord Jesus; it was partly " for their sake," to the
end that " they might believe." They had witnessed many instances of his power ;
they were now to see the crowning proof of the omnipotence of him whom they
trusted and, honoured. 3.. The religious confidence of the sisters was to be developed,
and a full confession was to be elicited from them. Much as they revered and loved
tlieir Lord, Martha and Mary had yet much to learn; and that their conception of
Jesus and their faith in Jesus might be perfected, it was necessary that they should
see him in a new light, and have a further proof of his Divinity. This end we know
from the record to have been answered in their experience. 4. Many unbelieving Jews
were convinced. Some such would not, in all likelihood, have been impressed by
Christ's sympathetic spirit, had he come to Bethany and pitied the sorrowful family,
and saved Lazarus from death. But when they saw their neighbour raised from the
dead, these men believed. Thus there was wisdom, there was love, even in that con-
duct of Jesus which seemed at first sight inconsiderate and unkind. — T.
Vers. 25, 26. — The living and life-giving Lord. The confession of Martha was
a good and sound one. Yet it is clear that our Lord did not wish her to rest in her
creed. He pointed her to himself as the Sum and Substance of all true beliefs, as the
Object of all true faith. Creeds are good for the ciemory, Christ is good for the heart.
I. Lm IS nr Cbbist. The miracles of raising from tiie dead which Jesus wrought
108 THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINa TO ST. JOHK. [oh. zi. 1—67.
wen intended not only for the assuagement of human sorrow, but for the wtisfyiDg o(
human aspirations. He drew the attention away from tlie great work to the greater
Worker. In him was life ; and by his iacamation and sacrifice he brought the life of
God to this world of sin and death.
IL The life of Chbibt, when oomhitnioated to meh, beoomeb a spismTAL
IMHOBTALITT. " The Son quickeneth whom he will." He introduced the new life into
our humanity. How it has spread I In how many soils haye barrenness and death
disappeared, and spiritual yitality, vigour, and fruitfulness abounded in their place I
Christ has taught the independence of the spiritual life upon the life of this body of
our humiliation. In his own resurrection he manifestly conquered death. Living, he
has the keys of death and Hades. He is both the Firstiruits of the rising again, and
the Agent and quickening Power in raising his people. What can compare for spiritual
potency with the life-giving authority of the Saviour ? In what other is there hope
for man's deathless spirit? Like monung after a stormy night, like spring after
a dreary winter, like triumph after arduous warfare, like the hav.en after a tem-
pestuous voyage, — so is the immortality of the righteous who, living in Christ, live in
perpetual blessedness. All their aspirations are realized, and all their hopes fulfilled.
III. It is bt faith that the olobious immoetalitt of the blessed IB
ACHIEVED. Christ presents himself as the Divine Object of faith. It is no arbitrary
connection which is exhibited in these words of our Redeemer as eziating between faith
and life. Life is personal, and spiritual life comes from the Lord and Giver of life to
those who believe. Faith is spiritual union with the Christ who died and rose for us,
and is the means, first of a death unto sin and a life unto righteousness, and then of all
which thia spiritual change involves. A life in God is a life eternal. — ^T.
Ver. 27. — A good confession. Martha of Bethany, if we may judge £rom the little
recorded of her, was an interesting and admirable character. She was not only warm-
hearted, frank, and practical, but one who thought clearly, and professed her faith with
boldness and with no hesitation, no qualification. Where shall we find a confession of
faith concerning Jesus more sound, more full, more ardent than this uttered by the
lister of Lazarus of Bethany?
I. Tee ohabacteb and extent of Mabtha'b faith in Jesub. Observe the
language which is indicative of this — ^how it proceeds from point to point. 1. She calls
Jesus " Lord." This would seem to be simply a title of courtesy, of respect, of rever-
ence. In itself the word may imply no more ; when applied to Jesus it may be the
acknowledgment of a special authority. 2. She calls him " the Obrist." This soimds
natural enough to us ; but, coming from Martha of Bethany, how much does this desig-
nation involve I How bard it must have been for one of Jewish birth and training to
recognize in the Prophet of Nazareth the foretold Anointed of God, the Deliverer of
Israel, the Saviour of mankind I 3. She calls him " the coming One," i.e. the Being
foretold in Hebrew prophecy, possessing the nature, the authority, the offices, belong-
ing to the Commissioned of God. 4, She calls him " the Son of God." This is,
indeed, a lofty flight of faith ; justified, it is true, by the fiict, yet exciting our amaze-
ment and admiration.
n. The QB0UND8 OF Mabtha'b faitb. We cannot give a perfect account of these ;
but we can form a fair judgment as to the reasons and motives which led this woman
to make a confession so remarkable and so just. 1. What she had seen Christ do. It
is not credible that, intimate as were the members of her household with the Lord
Jesus, she should never have witnessed any acts of Divine power such as he was wont
to perform in every place where he discharged his ministry. 2. What she had heard
Christ say. She too, like her sister, had often sat at the Master's feet, and heard his
Word. The teaching of him who spake as never man spake, produced upon her mind
a deep and abiding impression ; for such a Teacher her reverence could not be too
great. 3. The impression she had received of his character. As Guest at Bethany,
Jesus had afforded Martha many opportunities of judgii^ of his nature ; and her
reason and her heart alike assured her that he waa indeed Divine. It was a just
Judgment, and wisely formed.
UL The bbooupenbe of Mabtba's faith. Her ardent and loving confession was
not unrecognized or unrewarded. It brought her : 1, The sympathy of the Sarioiu
OH. XI, 1—57.] THE GOSPEL ACGOEDINQ TO ST. JOHN. 109
with her in her bitter sorrow. 2. The help of Jesus in her trouble— help bestowed
readily and graciously, help taking a form miraculous and glorious. 3. The encourage-
ment of the Saviour in her own spiritual life. His companionship became the means
of strengthening her beautiful faith, and intensifying her ardent love. — T.
Ver. 28. — The coming and the call of Christ. The message of Martha to Mary la
the message of the Church to every cbild of man. " The Master is here, and calleth
thee."
I. The oouinq and the fbesenob of Jesus. Christ came from the Father, and
has come unto men. He came once in his ministry, and he comes ever in his gospel.
He is here to welcome and to bless. He is here both in his Word and in his Church.
IL The call of Jesus. 1. The intent of his call. (1) It is a call to salvation
from sin, and from its power and consequences. (2) It is a call of sympathy addressed
to those in sorrow, as in the case of Lazarus's sisters. (3) It is a call to enter upon
his service. To one he says, " Follow me I " to another, " Go, work in my vineyard 1 *
2. The character of his call. (1) It is sincere. He always means what he says. This is
not always so with the invitations men address to their fellow-men. (2) It is authori-
tative. The Master calls. This is not an invitation which may be either obeyed or
disregarded, according to men's caprice ; for our Lord's royal call is ever a command.
(3) It is effective. There is power in Christ's voice. How many times has that voice
awakened men from death to life I To such as have responded to its summons, no
other voice has half the charm of this.
III. The blessedness of becognizinq Christ's pbebbnoe and aESPONOiNO to bis
CALL. They who act thus are as prisoners who obey the summons to liberty; as the
imperilled who answer the call which assures them of deliverance and safety ; as guests
who accept the invitation to the banquet ; as friends who are welcomed to fellowship
and to immortal honour, — T.
Ver. 32. — Unavailing regrets and unfmmded fandea. It ia in human nature to leaa
upon the presence of friends and patrons. In their absence it seems as if we could not
help exclaiming, " Ah ! if only we had been supported by their nearness, their counte-
nance, their encouragement, then all would liave been otherwise, all would have been
far better with usl " So the soldier ngrets the absence of his commander ; the ofiBcial
the absence of his chief; the child the absence of his parent. And so, sometimes, like
Mary of Bethany, the Christian laments the absence of his Lord.
" I. One sayb, " If thou, Lobd, hadst been hebb, I would have believed on
THEE." To some Jesus seems so far away, in time, in space, that they feel it bard to
cherish faith in him. But such should remember that faith is more trmy faith when it
is tried by the distance of its object. " Blessed," said Christ, " are those who, not
having seen, yet believe."
II Anotbeb says, "If thou, Lobd, hads^ been hbbe, I should have besisteu
TEMPTATION." In the absence of the mighty Master, how can the servant stand ? Yet,
reflection assures us that the Spirit of Christ and the Word of Christ are sufficient to
enable the tempted to resist the adversary, and to overcome in the trial. Peter yielded
to temptation, and denied his Lord, in his very presence. The same Peter afterwards
boldly confessed his Lord when that Lord was no longer present in the body upon
earth,
III. Anothbb SATS, " If thou, Lobd, hadst been hebb, I ehould have been
SPARED THIS 80BR0W, 08, AT THE LEAST, I SHOULD HAVE BEEN SUPPCBTED UNDBB IT."
But this is not certain. Trouble is often — to the Christian it should be always — blessing,
even though in disguise. If so, wisdom and love may permit it, whether Christ be, as
to the body, present or absent. And certainly his Divine supports and consolations
may be experienced, even though his form be not seen, his voice not heard.
IV. Another says, " If thou, Lobd, hadst been herb, I would have boldly
EKOonNTEBED PBBSECuTioN AND DABED DEATH." They who through timidity and
faithlessness fail in witnessing to their Lord, and then make to themselves this excuse,
prove how little knowledge they have of their own hearts. Some have thought, " If,
like the dying malefactor, we could have hung by the side of Jesus, with his presence
to •noounge and his example to cheer us, then w« nould have dared to die for him ; but
110 THE GOSPEL AOCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. [ch. xi. 1—67.
how can we suffer for his sake when unnoticed, unsupported, and alone ? " This way
of thinking overlooks Christ's spiritual presence. In reality, they who suffer for him
" suffer wifh him."
v. Another says, " If, Lord, thou hadst been hebe, then thy woek entrusted
TO BTT HANDS WOULD HAVE PROSPERED." There are those who fear that in this spiritual
dispensation, where no present Lord stands ready to work signs and wonders for the
conviction of men, it is vain to hope for great results to follow the preaching of tht
gospel and the witness of the saints. Yet it cannot be denied that greater works than
those wrought during Christ's ministry were effected after his ascension, and that the
spiritual economy was introduced into the world with signal trophies of might and
signal omens of victory. It is not the Master's bodily absence which accounts for the
slow progress of the truth and kingdom of Christ. Spiritual causes account for this
lamentable fact ; spiritual powers alone can check the advance of error, and hasten the
kingdom of God, of righteousness, of truth. The Church has not faith enough in the
Lord's own assurance, " Lo, lam with you alway, even unto the end of the world."
Application. It is well for us to remember that, as a matter of fact and reality,
Christ is always here. His Spirit is near our spirit. He is truly present to those who
have faith. When duty is difficult and arduous, let us reflect, Christ is here! When
temptation is urgent, or when trials are severe, let us not forget that Christ is here !
When bereavement overtakes us, and we are very sensible that those whom we have
loved, and upon whom we have relied, are gone, then let us cherish the comforting
assurance that Christ is here I— T.
Ver. 35. — The tears of Jesus. Thrice in the gospel narrative is Jesvw recorded to
have wept ; viz. over the unbelieving and doomed city of Jerusalem, by the grave of
his friend, Lazarus of Bethany, and in the garden of Geth.<!emane, when enduring the
agony which all but overwhelmed his soul. Much valuable and consolatory reflection
is suggested by the simple record, " Jesus wept."
I. -Christ's capacity for tears. 1. It is obvious to say this capacity lay in his
true human nature. As we read in Job, " Man is born to sorrow ; " as our poet sings,
"Man is made to mourn." Jesus was "a Man of sorrows." 2. Christ was capable of
human sympathy. Men weep for themselves, and they weep for others. The tears of
Jesus were tears shed, not for himself, but for members of this race whose nature he
assumed. 3. This capacity lay yet deeper in our Lord's Divinity. It is unjust to
represent God as unfeeling ; he is susceptible of some deep " painless sympathy with
pain." He pities and grieves over the sorrow he nevertheless in wisdom and in love
permits.
II. The occasions of Christ'b tears. The narrative reveals: 1. His personal
sorrow for the death of his friend. He had been wont to come to Bethany to meet
with a cordial welcome and a friendly smile from Lazarus. And as he knew the joys
of friendship, so did he experience the distress of bereavement. There was justice' in
the exclamation of the Jews, " Behold how he loved him I " 2. His sympathy with
the grief of the bereaved sisters. Mary and Martha were nearest in kindred and in
' affection to the deceased Lazarus ; and Jesus, who loved all three, could not but feel
for the sisters whom he found in sorrow and in tears. 3. Consciousness of the power of
sin. Nothing less than this can account for the prevalence and the bitterness of the
heart's anguish. Jesus, who knew all things, knew this ; it was sin which " brought
death into the world with all its woes." In every instance of human mortality Jesus
could not fail to discern the bitterer root of fruit so bitter. Hence the strong emotion
he displayed, as he groaned and was stirred and moved by the mighty wave of feeling
which swept over his soul.
III. The practical outcome of Christ's teabs. There are cases in which tears
are a substitute for help. It was not so in the instance before us. The heart that
found expression for its woe in tears, found expression for its sympathy and pity in the
reaching out of a hand of help. Jesus first wept, and then succoured the sorrowful
and raised the dead. Christian sympathy should be like Christ's sympathy, which was
not content with words and tears, but made for itself a way of practical compassion.
rV. The significant lessons of Oheibt's tears. 1. They assure us that we hava
in him a feeling Friend, who in aU our afflictions is afflicted. 2. They teach ui a
OH. n. 1—67.] THE GOSPEL ACCX)BDINO TO ST. JOHU. Ill
lesBon of gympathy — that we Bhonid "weep with those who weep." 8. Thev remind
MM bj contrast of that state where " all tears shall be wiped from off all foces.'^
** The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.*
T.
Ver. 4:7.— A lignificant admistion. It was not before the public, but in the secret
conclave of the Sanhedrin, that the Sadduceao chief priests and the Pharisees made
this very remarkable admission. Animated only by selfish considerations, these men
looked the facts in the face. They regarded the position of Jesus in the light of their
own interests, and accordingly proceeded to deal with his case with a brutal frankness
and insensibility. It was no time for misrepresentatioa or self-deception. To this
sincerity of wickedness we owe the valuable witness of those who were as competent
as any of his contemporaries to judge of the validity of the claims of Jesus. " This
man doeth many miracles."
I. This admission accounts for the peaks and the malice of Christ's enemies.
Had Jesus been a mere teacher, he would not have excited the enmity which, as a
matter of fact, encountered him. But he wrought mighty works, and by their means
not only excited interest among the people, but acquired influence over them. That
this influence might be used to the detriment of the religious leaders of the Jews was
their chief dread with regard to Jesus. The exact ground upon which they might well
fear him they did indeed misunderstand. Yet it was his possession of superhuman
power which made him formidable to their imagination and to the foreboding of their
guilty hearts. It was this authority which in fact, though in adifierent way from that
expected by them, did prove fatal to their position, and subversive of their sway.
II. This admission establishes the fact of Christ's possession of MiRAouiiOus
POWER. If it had been possible for these selfish and calculating ecclesiastics to do so,
doubtless they would have denied the fact of Christ's miracles. It was against their
interests to admit it, could it with any plausibility be questioned. The witness of
Christ's friends to his superhuman power is valuable ; that of disinterested and impartial
spectators is more so ; but that of his avowed enemies is most valuable of all. They
attributed his mighty works to an infernal power; but they never denied them. How
can the conclusion be avoided that these signs and wonders did really take place ?
III. This admission agoravates the guilt of those who conspired to slay
Christ. There could be no question that the miracles of Jesus were for the most part
obviously benevolent and merciful, and that this was well knovm to his enemies. What
excuse then could they have for plotting his death ? If he was not only a wise Teacher,
but a popular Benefactor and Healer, his enemies, in conspiring to bring his ministry
to a close, proved thefr indifl'erence to the welfare of the people, which Jesus so
compassionately and powerfully promoted. It was not only that they slew "the Holy
One and Just ; " they slew the Self-denying and Compassionate.
IV. This admission should serve to convince the sceptical that Christ was
the Son of GIod. If men enter upon the consideration of Christ's claims with the
foregone conclusion in their minds that no miracle can by any power be wrought, then
all evidence that may be adduced will be adduced in vain. But if they come with
unprejudiced and candid minds, the testimony recorded in this verse must surely have
weight with them. At all events, it may serve to show that the objections against oui
Lord's claims advanced in these days are utterly unlike those advanced in his lifetime.
There was keen criticism then, although of a different kind from Jihat we meet with
now. Then, the only ground on which our Lord's authority was disputed was the very
natural ground of the selfish interests of his enemies. It was thought expedient to
bring his ministry to a close by violence, falsehood, and injustice. With such a method
of opposition to Christ many modem unbelievers have no sympathy. But it is very
hard to substantiate any other method of opposition, that is, upon the grounds of
rational plausibility. Take the testimony of Clirist's worst foes, and deal fairly with it.
And their admissions will be seen to preclude the possibility of impugning Christ*!
authority. Nor must it be forgotten that the " many miracles" which Jesus wrought
when here on earth were the earnest and the promise of those greater and more amasinf
112 TAB QQSPEL AOCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xl 1— 6T
moral miracles which from the throne of his glory he has been working through the
long ages of the Christian dispensation. — T.
Ver. 48. — 8dfi»hnes$ blindi men to righteousness. It is sometimes brought, as an
argument against man's intuitive perception of right, that there are always to be found
those who act spontaneously and without remorse in de&auce of the moral law. This
argument would hold good were there no principles in man's nature which militate
against righteousness. But the fact is that selfish and sinful passions, and considerations
which become evil motives, come into play in the human breast. And just as it is
no valid argument against gravitation that bodies often, under other physical forces,
move in contradiction to that universal law, so in the moral realm there are impulses to
action which both conflict with and often overcome the conscience of right, and further,
even succeed, as it were by clamour, in silencing the heavenly voice. We have a
striking illustration of this complexity of human nature in the counsels and conduct of
Christ's enemies in the Jewish Sanhedrin.
I. The language of the chief fbiests and Phabisees is implicit testimont
BOTH TO THE INNOCENCE AND THE AUTHORITY OF Jesus. If they had possessed any
information, or had even cherished any suspicion, that Jestis was in any way unworthy
of confidence and respect, it is certain that charges against his character would have
been adduced, and that an effort would have been made to substantiate them. But
it does not seem to have occurred to them that there was any evidence upon which
they could found such charges. This goes a long way towards proving that our Lord
was acknowledged to be of blameless character, and that his ministry was felt to be
irreproachable and benevolent. At the same time, it was explicitly admitted that his
miracles were genuine. The enemies of our Lord did not complain that he professed
to wield miraculous power whilst all the time he only made a baseless boast. For the
very gravamen of their consultations was that Jesus did many miracles. They, at all
events, admitted that superhuman authority resided in our Lord.
II. Christ's enemies considered his ministby mbbelt in the light or its conbe-
qoenoes, as these would pbobably affect their own position and interests.
When men look at conduct, not in its relation to principles, but in relation to residts,
they are usually in danger of error and of grievous practical misdeeds. It is better to
think of actions as agreeing or disagreeing with a standard, than as involving results.
The reasoning of Christ's foes was sound enough upon their own assumptions. They
argued thus : Jesus works many miracles ; the result of these will be the faith and
adhesion of increasing numbers of the Jewish people ; this will lead to popular excite-
ment, which will give rise to tumults or, at all events, to manifestations of enthusiasm,
and perhaps fanaticism; such movements will bring about the interference of the
Boman authorities; and, as surely as this takes place, the Sanhedrin will be blamed for
its inability to restrain the populace, the last remnants of national rule will disappear,
and the subjection of Israel will be complete. It is not possible to regard this train of
reasoning as motived by exalted patriotism. It was for themselves that the chief
priests and rulers were concerned — for themselves chiefly, if not solely. It is easy to
cloak selfishness in the garb of public spirit and love of country. The discerning and
just mind can see through such hypocritical pretences.
III. Considerations of bightbousnbss are often lost when the considerations
OP selfishness and ambition take possession of the soul. After all said and done,
Jesus was one single Person ; his enemies were many. He was lowly in the world's
esteem, and they were the dignified leaders and rulers of the people. He had no force
to back him — at least, none that they were cognizant of — and they had their own
armed men to support them, and could command the troops of the Roman procurator.
8u/jh being the case, why should they scruple to oppose Jesus by fraud and by violence ?
Nothing prevented save the sense of justice ; and this they silenced and stifled. Accord-
ingly their decision was taken, their plans were laid, and in due time were executed,
under the influence of selfish fears. It is all too true to human nature. Let self be
lost sight of, and then justice, equity, fairness, may prevail. But let self be made pro-
minent, and alas I how often will the right be sacrificed as of no account 1 A lesson
this as to the importance of cherishing a high standard of morality ; and a lesson, too,
of the proneness from which we all suffer to give heed to the counsels of interest and ot
OH. XL 1—67.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 118
personal •dTUtcement. Let all men beware lest, beginning with indulging foolish
Tiews of the importance of personal aims, they end by " crucifying the Son of God
afresh."— T.
Vers. 49—52. — The counsel «f Oaiaphas. We have here recorded the witness of the
earthly to the heavenly High Priest, of human guile to superhuman innocence and
goodness, of worldly policy to disinterested benevolence, i.f pejsnnal, selfish ambition to
Divine and ardent love. The Sanhedrin as a whole had tftstificd to the reality of our
Lord's miracles; Caiaphas here testified to the sacrificial offering and the world-wide
mediation of Christ. And it may be noted that, not long arter, Pilate bore witness to
his Divine royalty.
L The intention of Oaiaphas in his prediction of Christ's vicarious death.
To understand this we must notice: 1. The character of the high priest himself.
Caiaphas was a Sadducee, who is said to have bought "his sacred office ; he was the
nominee of the Roman authorities, and acted in public business under the influence of
Annas, his father-in-law. We do not wrong him in deeming him pre-eminently a
politician, whose aim was the maintenance of the existing order of things, and the
repression of any popular display of feeling, and especially any symptom of disaffection
or disorder. 2. The position of Jesus at this critical period of his ministry. His
miracles, and especially the raising of Lazarus, had produced a great impression ; the
courage and hopes of his adherents were raised; the number of his disciples and
admirers was increasing, and consequently the fears of his enemies were aroused, and
their hatred was intensified. Jesus was the great Figure in the view of aU classes of the
people. The hopes of some and the fears of others centred in the Prophet of Nazareth.
3. Such being the character of the high priest, and such the position occupied by Jesus
in the public estimation, it is evident what was the meaning of the remarkable language
which Caiaphas used. In their hearts, the Jewish leaders would have rejoiced if a
great Deliverer, such as they expected their Messiah to be, had risen up among them
— ^had emanciiiated Israel from a foreign yoke, and had provided for themselves posts
of honour and power under the new dynasty. But they saw that Jesus was not the
Deliverer they hoped for. They thought it likely that his preaching and teaching
might lead to insurrection, which the Romans would certainly repress with severity.
They preferred to retain such self-government as still lingered among them, such
dignity and honours as were still allowed them, rather than risk the repression, the humi-
liation, the subjection, to which an unsuccessful insurrection would lead. Hence, the
counsel of Caiaphas. He was for immediate, stringent, and violent measures. Having
no sympathy with the proloand teaching and spiritual aims of Jesus, looking upon
religion only in the light of statecraft, Caiaphas advocated the ruthless destruction of
him who was the occasion of so much anxiety and selfish fear. His policy was to crush
Jesus, to propitiate the Romans, and to keep his own position until the advent of the
expected Deliverer. Let the innocent Jesus be sacrificed ; but let the nation be saved,
or rather the rulers, who ever thought more of themselves than of those whom they
governed. After all, Jesus was but one, and they were many. With no care for truth,
for righteousness, for religion, for God, the degenerate leaders of the chosen people
sacrificed to worldly policy him whom the Father had consecrated and sent into the
world.
II. The intention of God, pdttino a dbepee heanino into the prediction of
Caiaphas. It is true that genius often utters language which is susceptible of a mean-
ing far deeper than appears on the surface. But according to the interpretation of the
evangeHst, Caiaphas, being high priest during that memorable year of sacrifice, waa
prophetically guided or overruled in his language. Thus it was foretold : 1. That
Jesus's death should have a bearing upon others. It is true that no man dieth unto
himself. But Jesus so lived and so died as to secure the salvation of those whose nature
he assumed. For others he lived, and for others he died. 2. That Jesus should die
for his own luttioo. He came to his own. He was sent to the lost sheep of the house
of Israel. And though he was rejected and cast out, he did sot die in vain, as far ••
bis own people were concerned. The first converts made after his ascension were foe
the most part Jews. The apostles were themselves Hebrews, and WHne of thent weN
ministers to the ciicumcisiov True, the natioo at a whde rafiised the Saviour, »ai
I
lU THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINO TO 8T. JOBS. [ck xi. l->«7,
for that refusal they suffered the most terrihle disasters. But their fall was the rkM of
the Gentiles, and the time is yet to come when the Jews shall be gathered in. 3. That
Jesus should die for the spiritual Israel. " Not for that nation only." To this con-
ception Gaiaph:^ could not rise ; hut St. John, by Divine inspiration, read this meaning
into his words. No doubt, St. Paul did very much to enlarge the general conception
entertained regarding the objects of Christ's mission to earth. He showed how Christ
had broken down the middle wall of partition, and had made of Jew and Gentile " one
new humanity." Thus the mystery which had been hidden was disclosed; that tlie
salvation of God is for all, irrespective of race and privilege. The text makes it mani-
fest that, in this view of Christianity, St. John was in perfect sympathy with the
aposUe of the Gentiles. 4. That the death of Jesus should issue in the union in Christ
of all the scattered children of God. This fifty-second verse is one of the sublimest in
the whole compass of revelation. Not only shall the children of the Jewish dispersion
he reunited. All lowly, faithful, prayerful, obedient hearts in every land shall com«
under the mighty sway of Christ's precious cross. Christ is the divinely appointed
head of the ransomed race ; in him its true unity shall be realized, and in lum the
benevolent purposes of the Father shall be completely and eternally fulfilled. — T.
Ver. 11. — 2%ree views of three vital subjects. We have here —
L A VIEW OF Christian friendship. 1. It has Christ as its Centre and Inspiration.
(1) He is its Author, its Model, and Inspirer. He is the only true Friend of humanity.
In him all the elements of true friendship pre-eminently meet ; and they are pure,
elevating, and Divine. (2) By union with him it is alone attainable. Apart from Christ
there can be no true Christian friendship. (3) Love is its leading feature. It has other
features, such as sincerity, truth, fidelity, guilelessness, and constancy; but they are
all the emanations of deep, high, broad, pure, and burning love. 2. It is common and
mutual. " Our friend." Not " my " nor " your friend," but " our friend." The friend
of Jesus and that of his disciples. The friendship is common and mutual. Friendship
expects and deserves the same in return. It manifests itself specially to Christ and his
followers, and generally to mankind for Christ's sake. Many profess great friendship to
Christ, who is personally absent and invisible, but act not as such to his followers, who
are visible and present — a proof of a lack of Christian friendship altogether, or a great
scarcity of it. The true friend of Jesus is the friend of all his disciples. 3. It is a
mark of a high Christian excellency. Our Lord wished to make an honourable mention
of Lazarus, and speak of him in high but appropriate terms. He did so by calling him
a friend. There are degrees of Christian excellence, and there are outer and inner
circles of Christian fellowship. Christian friendship is one of the inner ones. Lazarus
had attained to this. Every believer is a brother, but every brother is not a friend.
This is a distinction attained but by a comparative few. 4. It is not altogether
excepted by death. Lazarus, though a friend, yet died. Christian friendship does not
prevent all actions of death. In spite of it, the change, with its pangs and pains and
separation, is experienced. The law of dissolution is left by Christ to take its natural
course, even with regard to most of his best friends. 5. Although not excepted by death,
yet it triumphantly survives it. Lazarus was dead, stiU he was the friend of Jesus and
of his disciples. " Our friend Lazarus." Death, so far from destroying Christian friend-
ship, serves its highest interests, intensifies and purifies it. It burns in the pangs of
dissolution, blazes even in the swelling river, and shines with increasing brightness
through the intervening gloom.
II. A Christian view of death. " Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." 1. With regard
to his friends, Jesus has changed the name of death. It is not to be called any more
death, hut sleep. Christ not only changes human character, and the character ot
human events, but changes human language. In the Christian dictionary the word
"death" is not found but as an explanation of the word "sleep." The worldly mind can-
not understand this new language of Christianity. And even the disciples could not yet
understand it. Christ had to speak to them in their own language, the language of the
old world, and say, "Lazarus is dead." 2. With regard to his friends, death is reallg
tnuuformed into sleep. Death to them is abolished. To his foes, death is death stil^
and will ever be so ; but to his friends, all that makes it really death is taken away.
They are too near him who in the lata for death to hurt theja ; it acts as l^eii friend, Ma4
OIL xi. 1—67,] THE GOSPEL AOCOEDINa TO ST. JOHK. HI
IbIIb them into a quieb and happy 'sleep. Death is friendly to all the friends of Jeaiu. 8.
Thii vi&u) of death is very consoling. (1) In this view, departed pums/riends are stiU
ki a conscious and a happy existence. They are neither annihilated nor lost, only asle«[w
Neither are they in a state of dormancy. Physical sleep is a state of unconsciousness,
but the term as applied by Christ refers not to the state of the soul in relation to the
spirit-life, but in relation to this life, with its trials, afflictions, and sin. In relation to
these, it is asleep ; but in relation to the spirit-life, it is awake and intensely and happily
alive. (2) In this view, death is necessary a/nd refreshing. Physical sleep is a refresh-
ing rest, and one of the essential conditions of life and health. We could not fully
enjoy spiritual life without ptiysical death. We cannot stand a hard day's work with-
out a good night's rest. The sleep of death is a necessary and most refreshing prepara-
tion for the " weight of glory," aod the pleasant enjoyments and duties of an eternal day.
(3) In this view, death is natural. Had man retained his primitive innocency, doubt-
less there would be some process of transit from this world tantamount to death,
although not so called — called perhaps "birth;" but it would be perfectly natural,
timely, desirable, and beautiful, like the falling of a ripe apple &om the tree. But sin
has made this transit unnatural, painful, and filled it with horrors ; but union with
Christ makes it natural again. It becomes natural and even desirable in the degree this
union approaches perfection. " Having a desire to depart." It is not death, but sleep.
(4) In this view, death is robbed of all its real terrors. We may be afraid of sleep in the
day, when duty calls ; but at night, after the day's work is done, who is afraid of sleep ?
We are far more afraid to be awake. What parents are afraid in the bedroom at mid-
night, surrounded by their sleeping children? Christians' death is but sleep, and their
graves are but beds in which they enjoy rest from their labours.
III. The besobbection op the friends of Jesus. 1. It wiU involve a Divine
process. It will involve the exercise of Divine power. Divine power alone could
restore Lazarus to life. All the power of men and angels would be insufficient.
The same power which made man at first a living soul can alone reunite body and
soul at last, after the great dissolutiun. 2. This Divine process mU le performed by
Christ. He raised Lazarus, and he shall raise all the dead at last. This is most becoming
ind essential, as the resurrection is a most vital part of his redemptive work. 3. A
Divine process most easily performed by Jesus, and most natural and improving to
them. When on his way to raise Lazarus, he spoke of his Divine process not as an
exploit of power, but as an easy task ; as easy as it would be for one of his disciples to
awalte a friend out of his slumbers. " I go that I may awake him." The resurrection
of his friends to Jesus will be a most easy process, and to them a most natural and
refreshing experience. There will be no sudden shock, no painful consciousness of the
pangs of death and the grief of separation ; but the throbbing delight and gratitude of
awaking after a sweet and a refreshing sleep. The Christian's death being sleep, his
resurrection wiU be an awaking out of it. How natural and delightful 1 4. A pro-
cess of Divine friendship. Not alone of power, but of friendship as well. " Our friend
Lazarus sleepeth," etc. He approached his grave as a Friend, and, as a Friend, called his
friend back to life. The resurrection of the wicked will be an act of retributive justice,
but that of the good of Christian friendship. Mutual friendship was an element in tha
resurrection of Lazarus, and will be at the resurrection of the last day.
Lessons. 1. The death of Lazarus was an opportwnity for Jesus to shmo his power
and friendship. Our greatest miseries are his special occasions of meroy. 2. His power
and friendship manifested in the resurrection of Lazarus were only specimens. What
he did to him he wiH do to all his friends. 3. i/' (he friends of Jesut, we may venture
to die. Death will be only sleep. 4. If so, we may venture to deep, Jesus wiU awake
us in due time. He cannot leave his friends to sleep long. It is worth while awak-
ing * friend. We would leave a foe to sleep along, unless we awoke him t» try to make
a friend of him. His friends shall not sleep too long. He is on his way now to tha
resurrection. 6. It is worth while to sleep in erder to he awakened iy Jesu*. How
iweet his voice in the morning I But this cannot be experienced without tha sleeps
But the sleep would be intensely dismal but as an introduction to the ^riooa awaking
6. Th* friends of Jetus at the geneni resurrection will he better e§ tt«m X— nii. Kow
ha awoke to the old life ; they to a new one. He awoke to experiaBoe, perhaps, triak
untold, and wecy^ ovar tha (psawaf Haters, and pay with interest t«ua ahM ok Ua oi^
U« THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINO TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xi. 1—67
but they ghall awake to weep do more. Lazanu left his grave and his grave-clothes
to assume them again ; but they shall for ever leave the abode and garments of mortality
and enter life eternal.— B. T.
Vera. 16, 21. — Oood in apparent evil. Notice —
L That all the koveuents or Ghbist on eabth had an ihhediati beoabd
TO OTHEBS. 1. Eis life on earth was purely vicarious. " For your sakes." Not only
his death was vicarious, but bis life was equally so. Not only be died for others, but
he lived for them as well. His vicarious death was ouly tfae natural outcome of his
vicarious life. All his movements, bis actions, his miracles, his teaching and utter-
ances, the fact and sum of his life, were for others — for mankind generally and for his
disciples particularly. "For your sakes." 2. Eis life on ewrth was pwrdy »df-
sawifieing, " For your sakes." He sacrificed every personal feeling, convenience, and
consideration for the advantage of others. Had he consulted his own personal feelings
—feelings of the tenderest affection and the sincerest friendship-^friendship for this
dying and the living-^nothing would have kept him away from the death-bed of his
beloved friend at Bethany ; but these tenderest feelings of personal friendship he
sacrificed for the sake of others. For their sakes he was not there. This was the great
and grand principle of his whole life. 3. The vicariousnesi and self-sacrifice of his lift
ivere to him the sources of the greatest pleaswre. " I am glad," etc. He found hia
highest joy in doing good to his fellow-men, and the greatest delight of his life was
spending it for the advantage of others. In benefitting them even his own pain was
turned into pleasure, his sorrow into joy, and the greatest self-sacrifice afforded him
the greatest satisfaction. 4. Eis life on earth was one of untiring activity. Nevertheless,
let us go unto him. His time for sorrow and joy was very limited. His was to act.
(1) His activity was ever timely. He would ever act in his own time ; but his time
was always right. Some thought he was too late ; hut if he went, even to a grave, it
was not too late. (2) His activity was often wonderful in its aim, hut ever successful.
" Let us go unto him." Lazarus was dead, and his soul in the spirit world ; but he
was not too far for Jesus to reach him — ^he was at home there. To human view
Lazarus was a prisoner of death, and it was a bold march to go to him through the
territories of the king of terrors ; but, bold as it was, Jesus undertook it successfully.
(3) His activity was ever inviting and inspiring. " Let us go." The disciples could
not go as far as the Master, but let them go as far as they are able. If they can only
see, weep, and witness, let them do what they can ; he will do the rest. They were
inspired to go. (4) His activity waa ever heljful, in consoling, teaching, and
quickening.
II. That all the movements or Christ on earth had a special beoabd to
THE GREATEST OOOD or OTHEBS. " To the intent that ye may believe." 1. Whatever
he did was done with a definite purpose. "To the intent." He had one great and
special aim through life. In every movement and act and utterance of his there was
a definite purpose, and he kept this ever in view. It was the inspiration and guide of
his movements. In all his various and busy activities there was not a siiigle random
shot; but he ever took a definite aim, on which bis whole being centred. This is one
of the secrets of his ultimate success. 2. Whatever he did xvas done for the best and
highest purpose. In relation to his own mission and the salvation of the world.
" That ye may believe." This implies : (1) That although his disciples had faith,
yet it was weak. It was incomplete. This was only to be expected. They were as
yet but babes in Christ, and their faith was young and tender. Tbeir wings had not
fully grown, and could not soar very high — not high enough as yet to reach and fully
rest on the Saviour. (2) That it was capable of, and required growth and confirma-
tion. Genniue faith, however weak and small, will grow by trial, by experience, by a
fuller manifestation of its object, and cries out for this. Ite growth is certain but
gradual (3) That the growth and confirmation of their faith involved their greatest
good. This alone could bring them into closer union with Christ and with the Father,
and open to them the door of the spiritual kingdom, and fully present to their view
the grand but real visions of the spiritual empire, and Jesus as the King in bis beauty.
This was the only true foundation of their character, and the only hope and sura
means of iti fiiture perfection. 3. Whatever he did was done in the beet way to effed
m. 3U. 1—67.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. U1
the highest purpote. His absence from Bethany served the interest of faith far better
than his presence would have done. This implies : (1) That the death of Lazarus
could scarcely take 'place m the immediate presence of Jesus. This is implied in what
Jesus said to his disciples, and in what the sisters said to Jesus. We have no account
that death ever took place in his presence. Even at a distance the prayer of faith was
BufScieut to call forth his triumphant power against it. When he met the " king of
terrors" on the highway with a lad, a stranger to Jesus, in his prison-van, he had to
give him back to his mother at once : how much more would this be the case with
regard to a sick friend 1 Death could hardly perform his work in the very presence of
life. However, Jesas could hardly trust himself, and was glad that he was not there.
(2) That the restoration of Lazarus from death was more beneficial to faith than his
preservation from it would have been. (3) That it was the highest aim of Christ to
serve the interest of faith in the most efficient way. He did not expect it to live and
thrive on nothing, but furnished it with the strongest proofs, and with the most
nourishing diet. He not only produces faith, but supports it. His general aim was to
produce faith where it was not, but especially to perfect it where it was. His aim was
concentration of influence — ^the perfection of the few faithful ones, and through them
the perfection of the many. "That ye may believe." 4. 2%e confirmation (f faith
in the disciples produced in Jesus the greatest joy. (1) This was the joy of a favourable
opportunity of doing the, greatest good. Such opportunities are rare. Jesus availed
himself of it, with delight. Faith was struggling in the gloom of a friend's death.
But this furnished Jesus with a special opponuuity to display his Divine power in the
grand miracle of life. (2) The joy of foreseen success. He foresaw the success of his
last great miracle, which involved the success of his life, and through the wail of grief
rolled the sweetest strains of music to his soul. What joy is like that of the joy of
success in the chief aim of life?
III. What produces eeoret and bobbow in ub often pboduoes gladness in
Jesus. His absence caused sorrow to the sisters, but joy to him. The same event
producing different feelings in different persons, as illustrated in Jesus and the sisters,
and why? 1. Jesus could see the intention of hin absence; the sisters could not. 2.
Jesus could see the ultimate result of his absence ; they could not. Jesus could see the
restoratioa of his friend, tlie display of Divine power, the triumph of faith, and the
glory of God. This produced in him gladness. The sisters could not see this, aud
they were sad. 3. Jesus could see the gain of faith by the death of Lazarus to be
iofmaeasurably greater than the loss of thefamMy. They could not see tliis as yet. (1)
Their loss was ovUj personal, limited to a few. The gain of faith was universal. (2)
Their loss was only physical and social. The gain of faith was spiritual and Divine.
Social feelings are nothing to the ecstasies of faith. (3) Their loss was only temporary,
for a short time. The gain of faith was eternal. (4) Their loss was made up. with
interest; but the loss of faith for the want of the miracle, who could repair? He was
the prepared object of the miracle, and the only one of the family not to begrudge the
sacrifice. His death was the occasion of life to faith, and doubtless shared the joy of
Jesus at its triumph, and was the willing sacrifice to its life.
Lessons. 1. When the claims of personal feelings come in collision with those of
public good, the former are to give way at any cost, and give way with joy. 2. In the
strange dealings of Frovidence we should fry to learn the Divine intention ; that is our
good. 3. This is difficult, if not impossible, often to realize. Therefore let us trust and
wait. 4. In the light of results all will be plain and joyful. Jesus was glad in Persea,
while the sisters were sad in Bethany ; but at the resurrection they could join with
Jesus in the song of triumph and the anthem of life. ** AU is well that ends welL'
— B.T.
Vers. 21 — ^27. — Martha's faith. We have here—
I. Heb faith manifested. 1. In its strength. In her conversation with Jesus there
•re proofs of a genuine and strong faith in him. (1) Faith in his personal presence as
capable of preventing her brother's death. " If thou hadst been here," etc. She hao
full confidence in the efiScacy of his power and influence, and the sincerity and warmth
of his friendship, to stand between her brother and death had he been present. (2)
Faith in hit ever and all prevailing infiuence with Ood. " I know that even now,"
fl8 THE GOSPEL ACCOBDING TO ST. JOHN, [eat XL 1—67.
etc. In her faith God was the great lonrce of rapreme and universal power and fayour,
and the intercession of Christ with him was aU-prevailing and coextensiTe with the
power of God, and eyer present and available. Even now it was not too late. (3)
Faith in the great resurrection. That all the dead shall rise at the last day, and that
her own brother would appear then among the vast throng. This problem has baffled
many a bright intellect, and staggered the faith of many a mighty giant, and driven
him to the shades of doubt and unbelief. Then, as now, there was many a Sadducee
and agnostic. But Martha was not one. This great and mysterious fact was a leading
article in her faith, and could say to Jesus with serenity and full confidence, " I know
that he shall rise," etc. 2. in its weakneu. Though genuine, and strong in some of
its features, it is still weak and incomplete. In her faith : (1) Christ's power is
limited by place. " If thou hadst been here," etc. In her faith the presence or absence
of Jesus made all the difference with regard to the exercise of his mighty and friendly
Ijower. Present he would and could, absent he could or would not. Her faith partook
largely of the chaiacter of her religion, and had a tendency to localize Divine energy.
In this she was very different from that ruler who deemed himself unworthy of Chnst
coming under his roof. And there was no need : " Speak the word only, and my servant
shall be healed." In this his faith was right and strong; but Martha's wrong and
defective. Christ could prevent her brother's death in Peraea as well as at Bethany if
he so wished. (2) Christ's power is limited by jira^er. With regard to the best of men,
prayer is the medium of Divine power, and yet its limitation. In hii human nature
and official capacity Christ eyer exercised prayer, but was not limited by it ; he was
really above it. Martha had fully grasped what he was in relation to God, but not
what he was in himself, the Source and Giver of life ; and her faith had not yet risen to
the Divinity of his Person and mission. (3) Christ's power is limited by time. " If
thou hadst been here ; " but that is passed. " I know that he ihall rise ; " that is future
and distant. Her faith could grasp the Divine power and infinite certainties of the
present with regard to Jesus. "As the same yesterday," etc. 3. In its private
struggles. In the language of Martha there are indications of the private struggles of
her faith. (1) Its struggle,/^ some special favour, for consolation in their hereavtme»t.
Something which no one else could give. Her love was stronger than her faith, but
still her faith timidly struggled for a blessing. (2) Its struggle unth eloubt. That sh«
bad a faiot belief that something great would be done seems evident. The sisters were
too intelligent and true to dismiss as insignificant the message of their Lord. "Thii
sickness is not unto death." Before his death they could well understand it, but
what can it mean now? Scores of times it was pondered over in their minds. It
must mean something good and great as coming from him, but what ? There was a
doubt, which is only the struggle of faith and its vacillation between light and dark-
ness. -(3) Its struggle /or a more definite knowledge and a clearer light. "I know
that he shull rise," etc. This she said, not merely to indicate her £uth in the distant
resurrection, but also to draw him out, and it indicates the struggle of her faith for a
nearer and a clearer light, and a more present help and solace.
II. Heb faith 8TKBKGTHBNBD. 3. By its own trials. (1) It was tried by the
absence of Jesus. Whoever would be absent from their brother's bedside, he was fully
expected to be tiiere. But he was not. Although sent for, he came not. A great dis-
appointment, and a severe shock to faith. (2) By his long delay. He was expected
at the heel of the message ; but came not for several days, and their brother was in the
grave. (3) It was tried by their sad bereavement. Their brother was dead — dead,
while ke might be alive if Jesus had been there. Faith was really in a storm. The
night was d:irk, and there was no light but that of the resurrection ; but that was too
dim and distant to be but of little support. (4) Faith is strengthened after all by it$
ovm trials. It gains strength by trouble, disappointment, and opposition. It gains
strength in weakness, and is prepared for more ; and down in the region of doubt it i«
often trained to take higher flights, to receive sublimer truths and grander visions.
2. By ike special revelation of Christ of himself. (Ver. 25.) He reveals himself. (1)
As the Resurrection and the Life. There is an inseparable connection between the two.
The former is the effect, the latter the cause. Jesus reveals himself first in relation t*
the effect, for this is first seen, and our first concern on this side. This was uppermoit
in UarthiL's thoughts. This was the subject of her conitant meditatioB, towaras wbiok
OH. XL 1—67.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. lir
her faith stretched forth ; and here Jesus meets her. " I am the Resurrection." But, as
usual, he stops not on the surface with the effect, but leads faith down to the cause.
" And the Life." This is complete, and faith is in the light. (2) As being all' this him-
self. " I am," etc. Not " I can raise the dead," but " I am," etc. Not " I can give
life by prayer to God," but " I am the Life." He is this in himself, in virtue of the
Divinity of his Person and commission. He is the Bisurrection and the Life, physically
and Bjdrilually. (3) He ii aU this now. "I am," etc. Not "I shall be at some
future period," but " I am now, irrespective of time." Tlius, to Martha's faith, what
was distant is near, what was future is present, and tlie resurrection and the life are
embodied before her in the person of her Lord. The resurrection is not entirely
future, but in Christ it is potentially now. 3. By a revelation of the wonderful effects
of faith in him. (1) With regard to tht believing dead. "He that believeth on me,
though he died," etc. They continue to live io spite of the dissolution of the body,
and shall live in union with it again. (2) With regard to believing survivors. " Who-
soever liveth," etc. The death of believers is not really death; to faith death is
abolished. It is only a pleasant change, a sweet sleep, and a natural departure from
the land of the dying to the land of the living. The life of faith is uninterrupted.
" Shall never die." It is not in the least interrupted by the dissolution of the body,
but suddenly advanced. What we call death is really a resurrection with Christ into
a sublimer state of being, a birth to a higher life and a more perfect manhood. (3)
Faith in Christ produce these effects with regard to all believers without distinction.
" Whosoever," etc. 4. Her faith is strengthened gradvally. Jesus feeds faith as a
mother feeds her babe, little by little; and he teaches faith to move as a mother
teaches her child to walk, or as an eagle teaches her young to fly. She takes them on
her back and soars aloft and throws them down on the friendly air, and repeats the
process till they are able to reach the highest altitudes themselves. Thus Christ
taught Martha's faith gradually and helpfully. " This sickness is not unto death." His
absence, the death, the disappointment and doubt ; but he comes at last, and in his
welcome presence and revealing and hopeful words faith obtains a resting-place.
" Thy brother shall rise again." Thiis gradually, by self-exercise and Divine support,
faith is taught to soar aloft till at last she reached the grand heights of the resurrection
and the life.
III. Hbb faith tbiumphant. " Tea, Lord," etc. 1. Her faith accepts him fully.
(1) As tAe Christ. (2) As the Son of Ood. (3) As the One expected to come into the
world. Who would fill all the world's expectations and wants, and carry out his
Divine purposes. Her faith accepts him as being all he had just revealed, and much
more.. (4) Aa the Lord of her faith atid whole spiritual being, who should rule over
her, and to whom she would submit. 2. Although her understanding could not fully
grasp his revelation, her faith could fuily accept him. We are not to think that she
understood all that Jesus had just told her; but, failing this, her faith embraced his Person
and mission with implicit trust and hope. 3. In accepting him she ensured aU at onee.
What he had just said, after all, contained only a few crumbs from his rich table, a
few drops fronvthe inexhaustible ocean of his power and love. Instead of remaining
with these, her faith embraced him altogether, and ensured at once his Divine and
infinite fulness. 4. She makes a hearty and full confession of her faith. The con-
fession is fuller than the request. "Believest thou this?" "Yea, Lord," and much
more : " I believe that thou," etc. To believe in Christ is much more than to believe
a few truths of his revelation. Probably Martha's head had become dizzy in looking
dowa from the heights of the resurrection and the life ; but faith came to the rescue,
and threw her arms around him who is both, and there found a safe repose and a
glorious triumph.
Lessohs. 1. In some directions too much may be expected of Christ. "If thou
hadst been here," etc. There is a slight complaint in these words, as if Christ were
bound to be there. But he was under no obligation to keep even Lazarus alive. Too
much often is expected of his personal presence, time, attention, and service. He had
other places to visit, other things to do, other wants to supply, and purposes of his
own to accomplish. Some are ignorant and selfish enough to monopolize Christ and
his ministers to serve their own personal and private ends. 2. In the right direction*
too little M tx^pected Iff lum. The appetite is often keener for the physical than for th«
iaO THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [at xi. 1— 6»
■piiitual, for tbe personal than for the general, for the temporal than for the etemaL
Many are more anxious for health of body than for health of soul, for a physical
resurrection ttian for a spiritual one. They prefer a dead graveyard to a living
sanctuary, and some interesting talk from the minister during the week to a good
sermon on the sabbath. Too little is expected of Jesus in the right direction. He
will not satisfy our whims and low appetiles, but will save our sonls to the uttermost.
3. In the right direction too muck cannot he expected of him. The more the better.
The more by faith we expect, the more he will give and we receive. " According to
thy faith be it unto thee." Expect as much as we like, his grace will exceed our
highest expectations, and will surprise us with more. Martha's expectations were for
a fiiture resurrection at the last day, but Jesus surprised her with a present one in
himself; and that very day became to her a day of resurrection. 4. 2%e absolute Tiecet-
sity and importance of faith in Christ. It is necessary to the gracious operations of
Jesus and to our participation of his grace. Without it even he could not do much,
and we can do or enjoy nothing. But with it, in relation to our highest interest, Christ
is omnipotent, and we through him are eternally happy and blessed. " He that
beUeveth in me, though he were dead," etc. — B. T.
Vers. 28 — 32. — Martha's and Ma/ry's faith. Notice —
I. Certain fbatubes of Martha's faith. 1. The satisfaction of htr faith.
" When she had so said," etc. Her faith was unspeakably satisfied with Jesus, with
his presence, with his gracious words, and his wonderful revelations. She needed no
further explanations. Her mind and heart were full to the brim. She was satisfied with
her own confession, that shu had been so far enabled to unbosom her heart and
unburden her mind, and confess her full faith in her Lord. She could remain no louger,
but, spiritually buoyant, joyous and elevated above her grief, she went her way. 2.
The natural affinity of her faith. She came to Mary. She went not to some of her
neighbours, nor even to the Jews, who were in her house, but to her own sister.
Christianity does not destroy nor check the natural instincts of relationship ; but, on
tlie contrary, revives, sanctifies, and uses them for the highest purposes — to bring the
soul to Jesus and Jesus to the soul, and form a spiritual alliance between them.
Andrew sought his brother Simon. 3. The communicativeness of her faith. No sooner
was she in the house thao she called her sister. Her soul was aU ablaze. Her faith
was full and running over. Her heart was almost bursting to communicate its joy
and satisfaction, and especially with a desire that her sister share the same, and go to
the fountain to drink of its living waters. Genuine faith in Christ is ever communica-
tive, benevolent, and sympathetic. It partakes of the genius and disposition of its
object. Having found Christ for the first time, or found him more fully, or enjoyed a
clearer vision of him, there is an intense desire to make it known to others, arising from
the special request of the Master, and often from its own character and inspiration. We
have a happy illustration of this in the woman of Samaria. 4. The discretion of her
faith. Her &ith met a difficulty at the threshold. There were in the house indifferent
and unfriendly ears to Jesus, and it would be neither safe nor wise to make public her
mission. But where there is a will there is a way. She called her sistbr on one side
and told her secretly. Her message was secret and personal, and it was wise that it
should be so conveyed. Faith shoHld be discreet as well as bold and faithful, and
encounter difficulties with discretion as well as with valour. Much harm may be done
in the transmission of the message. What is intended to be private is often made
public, and what is public is made private. Faith has its secret mission as well as its
public one. In this case it should be whispered. 5. The message of her faith " The
Master is come," etc. It is implied : (1) That the family of Bethany had Jesut at
their Matter. He was their Master absolutely, and only one. He sat on the throne o(
their heart. He occupied that position, not on account of any worldly influence,
wealth, or bearing, for he was poor. He occupied that position as the Christ, the Son
of God, and the Saviour. The best of masters, not by usurpation, but by the
choice of faith alone. (2) The Master's arrival. "The Master is come." He was
their Master wherever he was. It was Joyous news that he had come at last. And
his long delay made his arrival all the sweeter. Whatever complaint there was, it
was on the surface. Ib the diapth of the heart there was the most hearty wekonw and
<a XL 1—57.] THE GOSPEL ACCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. 121
gratitude. There was a vast difference between this meeting and the last. One of the
members of tbe family had passed away. Lazarus was in Ms grave, but now there is
no talk of him. Grief for him is for the time lost Jn the joy of the Master's arrival
(3) The Master's invitation, " Calleth for thee." He will call some one else by-and-
by. This call of Mary is not recorded by the evangelist, but it comes out in the
message of faith. It is personal and gracious, and full of personal friendship and
affectionate consideration and sympathy. She is not forgotten by the Master.
IL Certain featcees of the faith of Mary. 1. 2%e readiness of her faith.
" As soon as she heard," etc. The readiness of her faith is not only proved by her
prompt, response to the kind invitation of Jesus, but also by the interview between
them. Jesus had not so much wurk to inspire and strengthen Mary's faith as he had
with that of Martha. Her faith iiad been long ago nursed, strengthened, and prepared
at his feet. Faith thrives well at the feet of Jesus. 2. Tlie alacrity of her faith.
" She arose quickly." This was rather unusual for her. Martha was impulsive and
quick in her movements. Mary was reflective and slow. Impulsiveness runs;
reflection walks slowly, and often sits under its heavy but delightful burden. When
the more reflective and deeper nature of Mary was thoroughly stirred, her movements
were exceptionally quick, to the surprise of all who saw and km^w her. Faith is very
swift. There is only one swifier in movement, that is Jesus. Faith is willing to give
up to him in the race. " He lainteth not, neither is wearv." 3. The attractive Object
of her faith. What made her rise and move so quickly ? The known arrival of Jesus,
his kmd and gracious invitation, and the resistless attractlm of his near presence.
The Jews thought that she had gone to the grave to weep ; but this was a mistake,
and not the first nor the last mistake with regard to the movements of faith. She had
now stronger attractions than those of the grave — the attractions of him who " is the
Resurrection and the Life." He called, and she ran. A happy illustration of the
words, " Draw me, and we shall run after thee." 4. Hie story of her faith. (1) The
story of tlie death of their brother. It was the same story as that of Martha. This
was the sad tale of Bethany, and especially of the bereaved family in those days
of weeping. Nothing else was scarcely thought and spoken of. (2) The story of
a conditional and glorious certainty. The presence of Jesus would have certainly
prevented their brother's death. A present Saviour would beyond doubt result in a
living brother. "If thou," etc. How many "ife" have we in relation to the death
of dear, dear Mends 1 If we had done or not done this or that! if the doctor were
here in timel How groundless are our "ifs" generally! But in tbe "if" of these
sisters there was a glorious certainty. (3) The wail of o lost opportunity. Past
possibilities and especially conditional ceitaiiities with regard to departed friends are
ever very painful. It was so here, and the pain felt bursts forth in a wail to the
Saviour. " If thou," etc. 6. 2%e attitude of her faith. Its story is the same as tliat
of Martha's, but its attitude differs, and this makes all the difference. " She fell down
at his feet." (1) The attitude of deep humility ; of a burdened and a broken heart,
and a contrite spirit ; of conscious unworthiness to address him but at bis feet. (2)
The attitude of profovmd reverence, of humble homage, affectionate devotion ; an
acknowledgment of th« majesty and graciousness of his presence ; and gratitude for
his kind invitation and coutinued esteem. (3) The attitude of earnest prayer. The
deepest prayer of her faith could only be expressed in the silent but eloquent
language of her prostrate and suppliant attitude. The attitude of simple submission
crnd trust. Submission with regard to the past, and trust with regard to the future.
What Martha said to Jesus, Mary says also, but at his feet. If she complains, she
pours her complaint out at his feet ; and there leaves the profuundest prayer of her
faith and the heaviest burden of her heart in simple trust and submission.
Lessons. 1. In our bereavements Jesus ever comes to us. When we are in trouble
he is never iar, and even his delay is only to try our faith, ai.d agreeably sui prise it at
laat. How welcome is his presence in such an hour I 2. In our hereavemeitt* If hat m
special message to us, and the message is gracious and personal. " He calleth for thee."
He calls through the living and the dead. Departed pious louU are his niiniitering
spirits. He calls us through others who have been with him. Martha, fresh from the
Saviour, called Mary to him to share the same comfort. 3. If Jetus is met byftHk, im
thiitt,find Wk»r« than we keum htt. Ha takes away to give u« more — to gwe ua hiuuel/
t22 THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST, JOHN, [ch. xi. 1—57
more fully. Before he could not draw us near enough to himself, neither was the way
clear for him to come to us. When the temporal sea ebbs, let us look out for the flow
of the eternal. 4. Rather than go to the graves of departed friends, let us go to Jesus,
who it the Resurrection and the Life. And if we go to their graves, let us take Jesua
with us as a Companion. He is the only safe Gruide through a graveyard. Without
him it is dark, dead, and dangerous ; but he will fill it with light, life, and joy, and
will restore our friends, not to sense, but, far better, to faith, and bring us even now
into spiritual fellowship with them, and a bright prospect of a complete reunion in the
future.— B. T.
Ver. 35. — The Saviour's tears. "Jesus wept." Who wept? Jesus, the Son of God,
the eternal Word, who was in the beginning with God, and who was God 1 What
made him weep who is the Delight of heaven, and over sets its golden harps to the
tune of happiness and joy? What could bring tears into the eyes of him who wipes
away the tears of thousands, and hushes the sighs of millions of the children of fate ?
How could he weep? In human nature, on his way to the grave of a friend, We are
told that Jesus wept. Notice his tears —
I. As EXPRESSIONS OF HIS DEEP SYMPATHY WITH THE SISTERS. They Were in the
depths of trouble and grief. They had lost : 1. A brother. Their brother Lazarus was
dead, and now in his grave. A brother is one of the nearest and dearest relations of
life. It is not a neighbour or a friend that was cut off by death, but a brother. 2. An
only brother. To lose one out of many is a great trial, but in such a case there is an
alleviating consideration — ^tbere are others to share the grief, and to whom wounded
affection may stUl cling. But these sisters, as far as we can see, had lost their only
remaining brother. As they returned from the graves of dear ones before, they had
Lazarus with them as the centre of their human affections, the healer of their grief; but
now he is under the cold hand of death. 3. A most kind and good brother. Even the
death of an undutiful and prodigal brother is keenly felt, for he is a brother in spite of
all. But the death of a good brother is more keenly felt still. Lazams was a model
brother. The natural relationship was intensified and endeared by sweetness of temper,
kindness and goodness of nature, and piety of character, which made him not only
their support, but their chief solace and sunshine. 4. Jesus deeply sympathized with
them. (1) With their personal and social loss and grief. They were left lonely and
undefended in the world. (2) With their utter helplessness in the face of death. In
themselves they were entirely helpless in this circumstance. They could do nothing
but weep, and he wept with them. (3) He sympathized, as they represented the grief
and bereavements of the whole human family. The death of Lazarus was only a
specimen of the ravages and the universal reign of the "king of terrors" on earth,
which he had come to abolish ; and the grief of these sisters was only a specimen of the
universal grief of the human race whose nature he had assumed, and whose sorrow he
carried; and he could not contemplate all this without expressing his sympathy. 6.
This expression of sympathy is most tender. Jesus was not only sympathetic, but most
tenderly sympathetic with all human woes. Many have syrajjathy, but they manifest
it awkwardly and even roughly ; it is spoilt in transmission. But Jesus manifested his
sympathy with, these sisters most tenderly ; he conveyed it to them in tears. " Jesus
wept."
II. As EXPRESSIONS OF BTRONO AND OBNUiNB niiENDSHip. Jesus Wept, not Only in
sympathy with the bereaved sisters, but in friendship to their departed brother. The
Jews were right for once in their interpretation of Jesus when they said, " Behold how
he loved him! " Lazarus was the special friend of Jesus. Their friendship was not
long. 1. It was very intimate and sincere. It was the highest and purest friendship,
arising from a general agreement in temper, taste, character, principles, and sympathies.
In Lazarus Jesus could see his image ; and in Jesus Lazarus could see a perfect Model,
and all that his heart could wish. So intimate and sincere was the friendship, that
Jesus could not refrain from weeping for the temporary separation of his friend. And his
were not mercenary tears — he was not a paid mourner — but they were tears of genuine
friendriiip. 2. /( was very valiutbh. The friendship of Lazarus was very valuable to
Jesus during his active ministry. His foes were many, but his friends were very few ;
ke had only one Lazarus. Many a time had h» sheltered from the storga UBder tho
om. XL 1—67.] THE GOSPEL ACCOKMNG TO ST. JOHN. 12S
idng of biB friendship^ and there tasted of the sweets of human kin<1neRs in an hostila
world ; these reminiscences now crowded his memory, filled his heart with sorrow, wad
his eyes with tears. 3. It was most intense. If it had been only of a short duration,
shis was amply made up in depth, breadth, and intensity. Jesus could love in an hour
more than we can in an age. His lore to Lazarus must be intense ere he would weep.
Small natures can weep often, but great ones only weep on extraordinary occasions.
Only twice it is recorded that Jesus wept. Once over a spiritually dead city; now
near the grave of a departed Mend. One was the wail of pity, and the other the wail
of personal and wounded love ; and so intense were his feelings that they could not
be suitably expressed but in tears, nor find relief but in a wail of sorrow.
III. As EXPEEssioiiB OF HIS THOROUGH HUMANiTT. 1. It is characteristically human
to weep. We know not of any other being that can weep but man. Angels, perhaps,
have not the power to weep ; they certainly have no need. Devils have need, but not
the inclination and power. Man has the need and power to weep. Jesus was a
thorough Man; he wept. 2. It is human to weep with those that weep. Human
sorrow is ever contagious. Tears are its natural language. A thorough man will ever
be impressed by the emotions of his fellows, and will express them, as well as those of
his own, in the general language of tears. 3. Jesus was thoroughly human. " Jesus
wept." We are glad in a sense that he wept ; we rejoice in his tears, for in them we
meet him as • thorough Man. A Saviour who could not weep, could not be a perfect
Saviour for us ; but in tears we embrace him as our human Friend. We scarcely know
which to admire and adore most — Jesus on his way to the grave, in his thorough
humanity weeping ; or Jesus at the grave, in his thorough Divinity calling the dead to
life. Id the one he is our God, in the other he is our Brother ; and in both he is our
perfect Saviour.
IT. As KXPRESsiONS OF DiviNE coMFASBlON. 1. Sis compastton UMU Divine, The
tears were human, but the compassion and sympathy were Divine as well. God, as
■nch, cannot shed tears — cannot weep ; but he can sympathize, pity, and sorrow. The
tears of Jesus were virtually those of incarnate Deity, they were feithful and expressive
translations of Divine emotions into human language, and a revelation of the Divine in
the human. 2. His compassion was practical. Our compassion often begins and
ends in tears. We are helpless. We weep over the graves of departed friends ; we can
do nothing else. Our tears cannnt restore them to life and society. But the tears of
Jesus did this. They became unbearable to Heaven; they moved Divine power, and
Lazarus had to return. They were divinely practical, and practically Divine. Jesus
does not literally weep now, but in his friends, and this wail shall by-and-by bring
about the great resurrection and the grand reunion at the last day.
Lessons. It is natural and right to weep after departed friends. 1. Although we
know that they are in happy existence, fair happier tha/n on this side. Jesus knew that
Lazarus was so ; still he wept. 2. Although we know that we shall soon meet again.
Jesus knew that he should soon meet Lazarus even on this side ; stiU he wept. 3.
WTten we weep after our departed friends, who are also the friends of Jesus, we are not
alone. Jesus wept, and virtually weeps still, and shall not cease till all his friends are
fully with him, and with each other, and death swallowed up in victory. — B. T.
Ver. 40. — The vision of the Divine glory. "Jesus said unto Martha, Said I not unto
thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God ? " When Lazarus
of Bethany fell sick, his sisters sent a messenger beyond Jordan to carry the tidings to
Jesus. Our Lord's reply was to the following effect : " This sickness is not unto death,
but for the glory of God," etc. We cannot doubt that these words, or the substance of
them, was conveyed by the messenger to Martha and Mary, and yet, either before the
arrival of the message or shortly after, Lazarus died, and his death was followed by
his burial. Four days of mourning passed away, and at last Jesus himself came ta
Bethany. Martha met him at the outskirts of the village, and he told her that her
brother should rise again, and that he himself was the Besurrection and the Life. At
last the Saviour stood at Lazarus's grave. It was a cave, and its inner recess, which
concealed the dead from view^ was blocked up by a stone. Be'fore it stood Martha and
Mary vak • oowd of their weeping friends. But when our Lord bade the bystaaden
talta vmvr th« stone, then Martha interfered. She evidently hoped from first to last that
IZt THB GOSPEL AC»0BDmO TO ST. JOHN, [col xi. 1—67.
Jesus would do something to meet her case, and, though her hopes were Tagne, they
were nourished hy his own words ; hut now her fears prevailed against her hopes. Hel
faith gave way before the exigencies of sense. She dreaded the removal of the stone and
the evidences of corruption. She could not bear to look into the dark and noisoms grave.
How gentlv, and yet how solemnly, does Jesus chide her unbelief I " Said I not unto
tliee," etc.? He remindii her of all that had passed between them before. And could
she now mistrust him, whatever he might do? Why doubt that power and wisdom
and love, even all that makes up Divine glory, would shine forth in his actions? This
was enough for Martha, and now she trusts her Lord. Now she is in a right state of
mind and heart for profiting by all that followed. Had it been otherwise, even the
raiisino; of her brother from the tomb would not of itself have revealed to her the glory
of Grod. For her it might have been but a temporal mercy, an earthly, perhaps a
q<iestionable boon, carrying no spiritual blessing along with it. Miracles, when they
w.«re wrought, were extraordinary means of grace, but they might be misunderstood
and abused like any other means ; nay, we must not forget that there were men who
witnessed this miracle as well as Martha, whose hearts were only hardened hy what
they saw. They went their ways to the Pharisees and helped them to plot against the
Prince of life I Our text is this, " If thou wouldest believe," etc. The significance of
these words extends far beyond the occasion on which they were uttered. As a master-
key opens many locks, so it is with such sayings of Jesus dropped incidentally in the
course of conversation. If we could only use them aright they would open many of
the secrets of our hearts, and explain to us much of the character and of the ways of
God.
I. Thesk words contain a obeat dootbine, viz. that the olobt or God oajt
ONLY BE SEEN BY THB BYE OF FAITH. This is Universally true, whether we think of
bis glory as displayed in nature and in providence, or by his Word and his Son from
heaven. The psalmist of Israel exclaims (Ps. xix.), " The heavens declare the glory of
God ; and the firmament showeth his handywork." And so it has been from the
beginning. But wh^t multitudes have, alas I been deaf and blind to all this teaching — in
some ages worshipping the host of heaven instead of him who made them all ; and in
later times seeing nothing in God's grandest works but a vast and complicated machine
without a final purpose, a thickly woven veil of laws and second causes with nothing
behind it I Ah t the last word of unbelief is a blank and cheerless materialism. And
the same thing must be said of the very highest display of God's glory in the face of
Jesus Christ. There, surely, it shines forth in wondrous and yet attractive radiance.
"Christ the Power of God, and the Wisdom of God." His life on earth the very
ima^e of God's holiness. His cross the meeting-place of righteousness and mercy.
His resurrection the triumph of victorious grace. But why is Christ to so many a
stumbling-stone and a rock of offence ? Why is he still despised and rejected of
men, so that they turn from him with indifi«rence or, perhaps, with a far worse
feeling ? Why do they think nought of his Divine glory, and make so much of the
glory of man, which is as the flower of grass ? The Apostle Paul replies that " the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God . . . neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned." The god of this world, or the spirit of the age,
or, it may be, some lust of their own hearts, has blinded their eyes, so that they will not
believe. On the other hand, every Christian knows, by a very practical experience, that
the glory of God is a spiritual thing, which can only be seen by the eye of the spirit.
By whatever way he has been led in providence and grace, he has learned this much,
that God, who commanded the Ught to shine out of darkness, has shined in his heart
and opened his eyes. And what has been the result ? May we not say that, so far as
he has walked in this light, life has become a more solemn and blessed thing than it
was before, and the Bible a different book to what it was, and the day of rest other-
wise hallowed and welcomed, and the means of grace, instead of seemly and well-
meaning forms, have become wells of salvation 1 Not seldom among his fellow-pilgrims
in lile's journey he recognizes men and women who have the mark of God on their
foreheads ; and there are times, too, when on the face of nature itself — on the many-
coloured earth beneath and on the heavens over his head — there seems to him to rest
" a light that never was on land or sea," revealing to him a glimpse, as it were, of (h«
glory of th« Kttrnal.
OH. zi. 1-57.] THE QOSFEL AOCX>SDINa TO BT. JOHH. 126
n. ThXBK WOBM OONTAn A OBEAT nOMISK, TRKABUBBD UP SEBE FOB THE ENOOU-
BAOEUENT OF EACH DI80IFI.E OF Cbbibt. " Said I uot unto the«, that, if thou wouldest
believe," etc. ? For this vision of faith of which wo have been speaking does not per-
petuate itself. I do not mean that it passes away like a dream in the night, leaving no
traces behind it. The Christian who has seen ought of the Divine glory must desire to
Me it still, or he would be no Christian at all ; but bow many things tend to veil it
from his view I Sometimes, from the inevitable cares and engagements of life, often
from causes which cannot be traced, he finds himself in perplexity and gloom. But,
weak and changeful as he is, God's promises do not depend on his varying moods of
mind ; and in view of such a promise as this, faith bursts into prayer, and evermore the
prayer of faith shall live. " I beseech thee, show me thy glory ; " " Open thou mine
eyes, that 1 may see wondrous things out of thy La w j " " Lord, I believe ; ■ help tliou mine
unbelief," But it is in the greater trials of life that the soul feels most its own intrinsic
weakness, and that the promise in the text ia " exceeding great and precious." When,
for example, health is suddenly shattered ; or when fair earthly prospects are dashed
to the ground ; or when the family circle is broken in upon, and a tenderly loved
member is taken away ; — then nature's darkness and nature s sorrow compass us in on
every side. The heart whispers, " Vanity of vanities." Our common life loses its
interest — "like a dream when one awaketh." And perhaps unbelief j no longer like a
silent, lifeless weight, but rather like a mocking demon, assails the very foundations of the
faith, or tells us that oiu: interest in them has been cdl a delusion. Thus it was with
the Psalmist Asaph, when in an hour of infirmity be exclaimed (Fs. Ixxvii.), " Will
the Lord cast off for ever? . . . Doth his promise fail for evermore? . . . Eiath God
forgotten to be gracious ? " Poor and cold is the comfort that the world can give in
such a case — ^perhaps telling the sufierer that things might have been worse ; or that
misfortune is the common lot of man ; or that time vrill in the long run blunt the
edge of his feelings ; and that " wild flowers may yet grow among the ruins of his
happiness," and that meanwhile " to bear is to conquer his fate." Ah I surely if these
are the only lessons that trial has to teach us, we must often come to look upon provi-
dence as a necessary eviL How different are the Master's words, " If thou wouldest
believe," etc. I This is indeed the sum and substance of many an ancient oracle. In
all ages the Spirit of Christ, which breathed in the prophets, had spokes in the same
tones. God's children were ever taught to look within the veil and walk by faith.
" Who is among you that feareth the Lord, . . . that walketh in darkness, and hath
no light ? let him trust in the Name of the Lord, let him stay himself on his God "
(Isa. 1. 10). But here Christ himself adds his "Tea and Amen" to all the promises given
by his forerunners ; and not only when he raised Lazarus from the grave, but above all
when he burst for ever the chains of death in his own resurrection, he gave assurance
unto all men that his words are faithful and true. What, then, is the perpetual
message of these words of his to his disciples ? Believe that your secret trials are not
the shafts of a blind fate, but the decrees of a reconciled Father's will. They are not
designed to crush you, inscrutable as they now appear. They bid you " be still, and know
that he is God;" but they are never lightly inflicted, never inconsistent with his
wisdom and love.. Trust him, then, In the dark. Trust him when your heart is aching.
Trust him when human sympathy falls short of your need, and your faith shall not be
in vain. He has many ways in providence and grace of showing you his glory;
tempering your trials with mercy ; perhaps giving them an unexpected issue ; raising
you above them, and, as it were, above yourselves; giving yon new discoveries of his
love, a deeper assurance than you ever had before that he is your God. Thus those who
walk by faith and uot by sight have this promise of Christ fulfilled to them even here
below. Through the checkered experiences of life, whether those be joyous or grievous,
Gud is ever drawing near to them and manifesting himself to them. They shall never,
indeed, take the measure of his perfections, and they adore him for this ; but whilst
their knowledge of him cannot be full, it may be most real ; whilst it cannot be com-
prehensive, it may yet be sufficient for their life-joumey. They may see enough of his
gloty to make them habitually humble and thankful and hopeful, to strengthen them
for daily work, and support them under dauy trial. How often may two persons be met
with whose lives have been visited with much the same trials and enriched with much
the same outward blessings, and yet as they approach the evening of their Smjt yea
12« THE GOSPEL ACCORDmO TO ST. JOHN. [o«. xi. I— 57.
hear the one complaining that he wag horn under an unlucky star, that hia fteps hare
been dogged by an unkind fate, and that all w vanity and vexation of spirit; while tha
other is saying that goodness and mercy hare followed him all the days of his life, and
asking what he shall render to the Lord for all his benefits towards him 1 Whence th«
difference between the two? Is it not from this — that the one has lived without God
in the world, whilst the other has sought for grace to walk in the light of his counte-
nance ? So much for the life that now is. But there is a larger fulfilment of this
promise that belongs to the life to come. Here the glory of God can only be seen
amidst the clouds and darkness of this storm-tossed world. The faith of his children,
too, is not only tried by the long conflict between good and evil which rages around
them, but by the unbelief of their own hearts and the weakness of their bodies of
humiliation. " Now they see through a gkus darldy." But this is not to last for ever.
This vision is only for an appointed time. And when the mystery of Gktd has been
finished, and the children of the resurrection open their eyes on the new heavens and
the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, then shall each one of them learn the
fulness of these words of Christ, " Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe,
thuu shouldest see the glury of Gk>d ? " — G. B.
Yer. 11.— Death and deep. Here we have another instance of what b so frequent
in John's Gospel, Jesus using common words in special and unexpected meanings.
The disciples did not understand Jesus — how were they likely to do so? Their
rejoinder was a very natural one. Why, then, should Jesus speak of the reality of
death under the form of sleep?
I. All death would be pbculiablt BEpnoNAirr to Jesus. Jesus, we may take
it, had in him a fulness and healthiness of natural life which woul4 lie at the very
antipodes of death. Many live on the verge of death, as it were, for a long time. They
have just enough of the vital principle in them to keep the organism going. But Jesus,
in his own natural life, was far away from death. He had no occasion to look upon it
in the despairing, bewildered way which the common run of men must adopt. To have
spoken of Lazarus as dead, without being forced so to speak, would liave suggested
thoughts to the disciples which he wished to be swallowed up in the inspiring dis-
coveries of a new revelation.
n. Death was to oet a new and special UEANiNa. Contrast the way in which
Jesus speaks of Lazarus here with the language he uses in Luke ix. 60. Here he
speaks of the dead Lazarus as only sleeping ; there he speaks of living unbelievers
in himself as being dead. This is the true death, to be dead to the reception of the
heavenly Bread. Lazarus was dead, according to the manner in which men use that
word ; no one would have thought of putting food into that mouth. But so far as
concerned the Bread that cometh down from heaven, Lazarus was not dead. The life
that needs nourishing from heaven is more than the flesh and blood, which is only
converted food. The flesh and blood may go, but the life remains. With regard to
the unbelievers, however, Jesus reckoned them as dead, for the true Bread found them
as indifferent to its nearness as a corpse would be to a loaf laid beside it. " Death" is
a word that very reasonably has the most dreadful associations, and Jesus wished to
make the most of it as reserved for the most dreadful state of things he knows. That
a believer iu Jesus should pass from the world of sense is dreadful, just as a paroxysm
of physical pain is dreadfiu ; but once the experience is over, all may be right. But
that any one should remain out of living union with Jesus is far worse than any pain
or deprivation belonging to physical death.
III. Sleep was to get a new and bfeoial meamino. Human being* get
separated from each other in sleep. No communication is possible between them that
sleep and them that wake. But that very lapse of communication will make the com-
munication fresher and more active when the lapse is over. It is probable that I^zarus,
returning to life, returned to a healthier and more vigorous life. Natural sleep comes
after a period of labour, and as the result of exhaustion, and it is followed by fresh
power and zest for work. But it is work of the same sort, and with the same faculties.
When the Christian believer falls asleep, he falls to wake in an altogether new sort of
morning, amid new scenes, and to engage in a new service, free from the toil and
ytruggl* and thwarting which belong to the servue here. In the higher state of exist-
OB. zi. 1— ST.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 121
enoe there will still be work, in a sense — the work of faith ; but the toU of lova mi the
endurance of hope will alike have vanished. — ^Y.
Ver. 19. — MartJta'e and Mary't comforters. I. A kibsion that couIiD not bb esoapkp.
The mourners must not be left unvisited, however awkward and vain the condolences
may be. Such vitiits may indeed be looked upon as often having somewhat of evil in
them ; but the evil is not a necessity, whereas the good is always a probability. And
in certain circumstances, where everything is favourable, where- Christian character
belongs alike to the departed, the mourners, and the comforters, such a mission may
have in it the highest good. Sympathy, though it be no more than silent companion-
ship, is the demand of humanity.
II. A MISSION snca as had been PBRFOitMBiD INNUMERABLE TIMES. That very day,
all over Israel, people would be setting out on similar errands. Condolence would be
reduced to a system. The very words would get stereotyped.
III. A MISSION SUCH A8 IN UANT INSTANCES WODLD ONLY INTENSIFY THE LOSS.
When people are mourning for their dead, nothing the unaided intellect of men is able
to devise can lighten the blow or heal the wound. Too often there is an incongruity
between th6 words that must be spoken and the real feelings. We cannot sorrow for
the bereaved as they sorrow themselves. If we could watch the vast majority of people
so as to observe from what occupations they go to condole, and to what occupations
they return^ how we should be impressed with the inconsistencies of human lifel A
man may go visiting the widow and the fatherless in the afternoon, but that will not
keep him from the convivial circle in the evening. To go from the house of mourning
to the house of feasting is all in the business of the day. The visitor heaves a sigh of
relief when he has got the necessary formality over. And this is plainly what must be,
according to the limits of nature. To feel the pain of bereavement as the bereaved feel
it would make life intoleriible.
IV. A MISSION WHICH Jesus often undertakes in his own wat. Jesus has done
for few, very few, what he did- for Martha and Mary. But, after all, we must not exag-
gerate the act whereby he comforted thei'i. The resurrection of Lazarus was not as the
resurrection of Jesus. Lazarus twice kne.v the pains of death. It was the mortal body
into which he came back. But to all mourners Jesus would come with the plain,
unvarnished truth. He would not say, "Comfort 1 comfort 1" when there is no comfort.
He would have his people understand that the only guarantee of abiding relations is
that there should be a spiritual element in them. Mere natural relations soon break
up when there is nothing better in them. Jesus virtually tells all so to live that,
when they are gone, survivors may not he driven to delicate hypocrisies concerning
them, as it were whitening their sepulchres to please the bereaved. — Y.
Ver. 28. — The Teacher, wanting his disciple. I. The propriety of the description.
What a flood of light this one word " Teacher " (Si$(i(rKa\os) casts on the relations of
Jesus to the family at Bethany 1 How it corresponds with what we are told elsewhere
of the docile attitude of Mary, sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to his Word I
Martha, lacking as she seems to have been in spiritual insi:!ht and sympathy, could not
have known the significance and propriety of her description ; but we speak ofttimes
better than we know, and the description was very significant and appropriate. The
time had come when Jesus had a very practical lesson for both Martha and Mary, but
Mary would learn the most. The service of Jesus to mankind, always essentially the
same, has many aspects, many ways of beginning. Jesus began his work in some by
bodily healing, but in very many — more, probably, than wo imagine — by dropping into
their ears marvellous utterances which attracted and charmed them. And of this
number Mary seems t<> have been one. Jesus was a Friend of the household, and
Martha might have said, "Our Friend is come, and calleth for thee;" but some happy
providence ruled her tongue, and she spoke just the word that set prominently forward
tne teaching mission of Jesus.
IL The LESSONS the Teacher had COME TO teach. Jesus, indeed, was always teach-
kig, always shedding fresh light on dark places. Not one of kis wonderful deeds bat
was Ml of instruction. His miracles were instructive, and his teaching was miraeuknis.
His miracles were grmt «4>jeot-kssoBB, and here surely is om vf the riehest. Hww it
128 THE GOSPEL ACOOBDENa TO CTT. JOHK. [cs. XL 1—1)7.
■tops the men who want to map out the laws of life and death with adentiSo preciiion i
Ko wonder they deny the validity of such a record. Jesus comes in here, as elsewhere,
with a truth greater than any our senses can tell us. Mere human experience points
out the sequence thus: life, death, corruption, and so union with mother earth. Jesua
comes with his power, and makes the sequence thus : life, death, incipient corruption,
life again. Our experience tells us the actual, not the necessary. Then another great
lesson Mary had to learn was that of ahsoluta trust in Jesus. Jesus was using the dead
decomposing body df Lazarus for nobler purposes than one would have thought possible
to reside in a corpse. Jesus can make use of the dead not less than of the living.
III. Wb should FEEL THAT THE TeACHEB IS OALLINO TOE US OONSTANTljT. Not a
day but what we can apply the great leading principles of the truth as it is in Jesus.
Not a day but what we can find illustrations of his laws kept and his laws broken.
The very daily newspaper should be read with Jesus to explain its hearing on his great
purpose. He can show us what is really great and what is really little. Without him
to guide, we are very likely to overlook things of the crreatest moment, and dwell
admiringly on things of little worth; and especially, amid the frequent inroads of>death,
we need to be thoroughly taught the lesson that there is One greater than death. Jesus
never points to more glorious and inspiring truth than when he points to himself. — ^Y.
Ver. 35. — Why these tean t This is the only occasion on which Jesus is recorded as
having shed tears; for although tlie Passion in Oethsemane is alluded to in the Epistle
to the Hebrews as having been a scene of strong crying and tears, yet this is too
general and rhetorical an expression to be taken literally. (In Luke xix. 41, ^KXauirt
is used, not UiKpvre, as here.) But Jesus, going to the grave of Lazarus, did mani-
festly shed tears, and this intensity of emotion was noticed. Why, then, was he
moved to this extent ?
L A TESTIMONY TO THE FULNESS OF HiB HTTMANITY. These Were the tears of friend-
ship. Many a time Jesus must have been filled with profound pity for human suffering
and bereavement, but that by itself would not cause him to shed tears. Jesus was on
terms of loving intimacy with the family at Bethany. Every bit of evidence should
be welcomed that deepens the impression of this ; for to be sure that Jesus had special
friends is to make us feel that he was a true, full Man. Every true man must have
some who are dearer to him than others. A Jesus without intimate friendu would have
been a contradiction to all that is best in humanity.
II. A TESTIMONY TO FULL COMMUNION OF FEELiNO. lu One Sense there was no need
for these tears. In a few minutes many tears might be shed, but they would be tears
of joy over the restored relative. Jesus knew what was going to happen ; why, then,
did he seem as if plunged in the very depths of sorrow ? The answer is that he really
was in the very depths of sorrow, in full communion of grief with the two sisters who
were his friends. Jesus behaved in all respects naturally and tenderly.
III. We must not, however, forget ihat these were the teaes of Jesus. They are
part of the proof of his humanity, but they must be looked at in the light of the whole
of that humanity. They were the tears of a sinless Jesus. Tears must be looked at
according to their cause. Oftentimes they express the most utter selfishness. The
passion of grief, natural and inevitable as it is, brings out the whole man by the very
violence of its expression, and so enables us to see how much evil there is in the heart.
People can hear with equanimity of deaths all round them ; it never strikes them
there is anything wrong — anytlung that wants explaining. The problems and the
mysteries of life are as if they were not. But let the blow break their own circle,
Mid utterances the most reckless and purely self-regarding come from their lips.— Y.
Vers. 46 — 53. — Misiahen patriotism. I. The fundamental mihafpbehknsion. We
must vndetstand clearly the great and fundamental error that underlay all the ani-
mosity of the Pharisees and priests towards Jesus. To understand that error makes
their Frieatless pursuit of Jesus more explicable. Jesus talked much of a kingdom,
and what should the Pharisees take that to mean unless a visible kingdom — a kinadom
the establishment of which must be contested and prevented by the Roman empire,
tolerant «f bo authority that rivalled its own ? If these Jews had only comprehended
■ha I tkt Viacdaas of heaven rei^ was, they would have spared themselves naudl
OIL zo. l-«0.] THB QOSPEIi AOOORDIKO TO ST. JOHN.
129
anxiety, and been free from the staina of great wickedness. That all men should believe
in Jesus meant, in the esteem of the priests and Pharisees, that Jesus would be made a
King after the fashion of men. They judged Jesus by themselves. They had no
standard by which to guess at his motives and proceedings, save their own ambitious
hearts. Each one of them would have been glad to be a king if they could have got
the multitude to accept them. They did not yet uuderstand that human government,
an exceedingly important thing in its place, is but secondary and subordinate com-
pared with the perfect subjectionof the individual to Jesus. If Jesus had had all the
authority and power of the Boman empire at his back, he could have done nothing
with it.
II. The nNsnccESSFUL bohekk. Successful, and yet unsuccessful. The priests and
Pharisees succeeded beyond their hopes. Jesus did not become the sort of king they
feared he might be. They got him out of the way, and then they were happy. But,
for all that, the Romans did in due season come and take away both their pla<!e and
their nation. It is the frequent delusion of men that if only they do certain things
they will prevent or secure certain other things. The best way of providing for the
future is to attend to present truth and present duty.
III. The unconscious peophdbt. Caiaphas knew full well how popular Jesus was in
many quarters, and what a hold he had on the people in the country districts, so to
speak. No doubt the national party was in a dilemma to begin with, and to this was
added the deep feeling in the hearts of many that to attack him was to attacl: a really
good Man. They would not have hesitated for a moment if he had been a mere dema-
gogue, but being what he was they did hesitate. So Caiaphas comes to the front with
what, from his point of view, was a statesmanlike proposition enough. What he says
amounts to this, " We must not think of the character of the one, but the necessities of
the many." You do not hesitate to demolish a fine building and scatter its contents if
that will stop the burning down of many streets. And the Father of Jesus has the
same principle underlying his plans, only it is • principle carried out with true
wisdom and perfect success. — Y.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XIL
The twelfth chapter neither belongs in-
trinsically to that which precedes nor to
that which follows. It is a paragraph of
high significance, as bearing on the con-
struction of the Gospel. It is the transition
between the public and the private ministry,
the great pause between the two classes of
manifestation forming the climax of the
public ministry.
IIL COHSUMMATIOK OW THB POBUO
MnnsTBT.
Vers. 1 — 8. — 1. The/east of love and gra-
titude.
Ver. 1. — Jesni therefore, six dayi before
the Passover. Every preliminary of that
solemn feast is memorable to our evangelist.
The coincidence of the Passover feast and
the killing of .the Paschal lamb, with the
sacrifice of " Christ our Passover," cannot
be concealed. [For the grammatical con-
struction with 7rf>\ of. note, oh. zi 18, where
a similar nse of iar6 occurs ; not, however, a
Latinism, as some have supposed, as similar
Iphrases ere foand in good Oreek (see Winer,
'Greek Gram.,' p. 69).] The date from
which the calculation is made is com-
plicated with the intricate controversy
upon the day of our Lord's death, t'.e.
whether he suffered on the 14th or 15th
of Nisan, and whether a "harmony" is
possible or not with the statements of the
■ynnptists, who all three assert that our
Lord ate the Passover with his disciples'
(see Introduction, pp. xoii. — ^xciv.). How-
ever this matter be finally settled, if the
14th of I^isan was the day on which the
Passover was killed, "between the even-
nings," the 13th was reckoned as the first
day before the Passover, and the sixth d«y
' 2%« month Niian.
The day when tin
Puchsl Itmbs Fewt-
were Blain. dav.
6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,1% 18, 14, 15, 16,17
Sahbaoi Sa^Oi j
Sabbath Sabbath
If Christ were omoiSed on the 14th, the
sabbath was a high day oorrespondin{f with
the great feast and convocation, and Easter
was the 16th. If the cmeifixion took place
on the 15th, both 16th Md 16th ww«
MbbftUu, and Baitnr wm on the 17th.
180
THB GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xn. 1— Sa
ironld be the 8th of Nisan. If the weekly
sabbath occniied on the 16th, then the
9th also was a sabbath. The Lord would
then have reached Bethany on the eve of
the Babbath, and have rested on the sabbath
itself. The evening of the 9th would be
the occasion of the feast, and the 10th would
eorreepond with Palm Sunday. If the Lord
were crucified on the Hth, and the weekly
sabbath coincided with the Passover-day of
convocation, the 15th, then the previous
sabbath was on the 8th, and our Lord
must have reached Bethany in "the end
of the sabbath," and then the feast whs
on the following day. When Jesus halted
at Bethany, the vast crowd of pilgrims
advanced into the suburbs of Jerusalem,
encamping on the Mount of Olives, and
would be ready for the great demonstration
of the next day. Westcott, after Bengel,
observes that John's Gospel begins and
ends with a sacred week (cf. ch. i. 29 —
35, 43; ii. 1). Jetuii Oierefore, dx days
before the Passover, came to Bethany. The
quiet rest of that last sabbath with the
family at Bethany is a thought full of sug-
gestion. Thoma accounts for the triumphal
feast and anointing, "six days before the
Passover," as answering to the day on which
the lamb was separated from other and se-
cular animals, and consecrated for this holy
service (Exoi xii. 3 — 6; Heb. vii. '26).
The segregation, however, was partial or
premature, and the anointing (see below)
took place five days before the Passover. It
is not said that the day of his arrival at
Bethany ia the day of the festive welcome.
Bethany is described as the place where
Lazarus was. The explanatory clause,' he
who had been dead, is not necessary, as the
evangelist limits and explains sufficiently
the great motive for his pause and presence
at Bethany by adding, whom he (Jesus)
raised from the dead. It is extraordinary
that some most able expositors should be
so unwilling to accept the synchronous
statements of the synoptists. Their narra-
tive is not out of harmony with the bypo-
thens that our Lord passed the previous
days with the pilgrim-band from Periea,
and that, taking the head of the procession
as it was passing through Jericho, he should
thus have distinctly challenged the autho-
rities, and taken up the public position to
which they were anxious he should lay
claim. By hie visit to the house of Zao-
ehaos he proclaimed the new feature and
' 'O TtSfTiKiis of the T.B. is rejected on
the authority of K, B, L, X, Syriao some-
what donbtftilly, by Tischendorf (8th edit.),
by Westcott and Hert and B.T. But Laoh-
mann retains it ; Tregellei iaelwles it
\yithinbiMtot*,
spirit of his kingdom ; by healing the blind
man he gave a typical illustration of the
work of grace needed by all his disciples ;
by resting at the home where human love
and Divine power had been so wonderfully
blended he called the most solemn attention
to his supreme claims ; by pressing on with
urgency up the steep mountain pathway at
the head of his disciples he seemed to bo
ready, in his own words, " to lay down his
life, diat he might take it again." The
oBc, according to Meyer, is simply the re-
sumption of the narrative, but surely those
are right who regard it as a distinct refer-
ence to ch. xi. 55. The Safihedrists had
given the iyroK'ti that if any knew where he
was, they should declare it. Christ was re-
solved, now that his hour was come, to lift
the whole responsibility from liis friends,
and take it upon himself. The other evan-
gelists do not mention the halt. Their pur-
pose was not a chronological one. They
give the narrative of the anointing apart
from its deepest meanings and consequences,
apart from any references to Lazarus (see
Matt. xxvi. 6—12 ; Mark xiv. 1—11). There
are other subtle omissions from the synop-
tists, the difficulties of wliich must be
settled as between themselves. Thus, accord-
ing to Mark xi. 12 and 20, an interval of a
whole day and night took place between
the withering of the fig tree and the conver-
sation about it, but Matthew makes the
conversation follow immediately upon the
miracle. In like manner, John abstains
from any reference to the discussions in the
temple, to the withering of the fig tree, to
the cleansing of the temple, or to the pa-
rables which followed.
Yer. 2. — ^Ihere, therefore, they made him
a supper, and Uartha served : but Lazams
was one of them that sat at the table with
him. John does not tell us in whose house
" they made the dinner" or supper, and un-
less Simon the leper (Matt. xxvi. 6 and
Mark xiv. 3) is a member of the family (or,
as some suggest, the husband of Martha),
we cannot suppose that, it was in the quiet
home of Bethany that this feast in honour
of Jesus was held, but that it took place, as
the synoptists positively declare, "in the
house of Simon the leper." Simon may easily
have been one of the many lepers whom our
Lord had healed, and whose soul was filled
with accordant gratitude. At that table
there would be seated two transcendent
proofs of the power of Jesus to save, not
only from the semblance but £rom the
reality of death (see Meyer ; Matt. xxvL 6).
We wonder, with Godet, that Meyer should
reject this simple supposition as " spuiioua
harmony." All that is here stated is in
agreement with it : (1) that Martha should
have shown her levereaee by serviim; bag
•H. xiL 1—50.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
131
Loid, Moording to her wont, not necessarily
M hostess (Hengstenberg and Lange), but
as the expression of her devoted tlmnkful-
ness; (2) that Lazarus should have been
one of those who sat at meat, recUned at
table, with him, i.e. took a position as a
guest, like himself; and (3) that Mary
should have poured forth her costly spike-
nard, in royal self-forgetting love. The
conduct of all the three thus mentio&ed is
compatible with the fact stated in the sy-
noptic narrative, that the festival was cele-
brated in the house of Simon the leper. Our
Lord had commented, in the house of Simon
the Pharisee (Luke vli. 44, etc.), on the ab-
sence of the customary anointing with oil.
Mary knew of this, and resolved that, what-
ever the woman who was a sinner had done,
no similar act of neglect should occur on
that memorable evening. A chronological
discrepance renders An identification of the
synoptic narrative of Matthew with this
story perplexing. In Matt, xxvi 2 we are
brought to within two days of the Pass-
over, whereas here we cannot well be less
than five days before it. However, there is
nothing in Matt. xxvi. 6 — 13 which indu-
bitably declares the date of the supper
The " two days " may refer to the date of
Judas's treachery, after mentioning which
he goes back to an event which furnished
occasion and temptation to the avaricious
mind of Judas.
Ver. S. — Uary therefore took a pound
(the synoptists Matthew and Mark say
"an alabaster," t.e. a flask made of the
costly spar, which was peculiarly adapted
to the preservation of liquid perfume, her-
metically sealed before it was broken for
immediate use. The fact, as stated by
Matthew and Mark, is inconsistent with her
reserving any of the precious fluid for
another occasion) of ointment (" liquid per-
fume," sometimes added to the more ordinanr
oil), of pure (or possibly; pUtie) nard. Mark
uses this unusual word iri<rTiK6s, which
belongs to later Greek. The derivation of
iriaKTM6s from jrlvu, equivalent to "pot-
able," is not appropriate in meaning, though
this " nard " was used for perfuming wine.
In Mark xiv. 3 also the Authorized Version
translates it "spikenaid," as it does here
(cf. also Song of Sol. i. 12 and iv. 13, 14,
where Hebrew j^a corresponds with yipSos).
But the one place where the word was sup-
posed to be found in Aristotle is now seen
not to be irurriKiix, but wu<rTiK6s, trustworthy,
or unadulterated. It is possible that the
word may have had a local geographical
vedue, belonging to some proper name, and
is untranslatable. Very preoioni. _ Mark
(xiv. 3) uses the word iroAvrcAoSs, and
Matthew (xxtL 7) Papmlnov. John appears
to combine the idea of both word* in nil ir«-
Kuriiutv. Each of the synoptists severally
raentionaa fact which John omits — that Mary
hroike the alabaster box, and poured the
costly unguent on his head in rich abun-
dance, as though hers had been the royal
or high-priestly anointing (cf. Ps. cxxxiii.);
but John shows that this at least was not
all she did. She anointed the feet of Jesus,
and wiped his feet with her hair: and the
house was filled with tiie Odour of the oint-
ment. Thoma thinks that, conformably with
John's idea, the anointing of the head of
the true High Priest was the work of God
alone, quoting Philo's comment on Lev. xxL
10, etc., " The head of the Logos, as High
Priest, is anointed with oil, i.e. his inner-
most essence gleams with dazzling light ; "
and adds, that as the feet of the high priest
were washed with water from recent defile-
ment of the world's dust, so God's anointed
Lamb and Priest was anointed on his feet
with the spikenard of faith, the best and cost-
liest thing that man could offer. So profound
an analogy seems to us contrary to the sim-
plicity of the narrative, Which is perfectly
natural in its form. 'The perfumed nard
ran down to the Saviour's feet and the
skirts of his garments, and there accumu-
lating, the significant act is further re-
counted how Mary wiped ciff the superfluous
perfume from his feet with the tresses of
her loosened hair. This simple act pro-
claimed the self-humiliation and adoration
of hur unbounded love, seeing tliat the
loosening of a woman's hair wiis a mark of
unusual self-abandonment. Many most un-
necessary inferences have been drawn from
this. John adds an interesting feature,
revealing the sensitive eye-witness of the
scene, "and the house was filled with the
odour of the ointment ; " and the whole house
of God ever since has been fragrant with
her immortal and prophetio act.
Ver. 4. — But Jndas the Iscariot, one of
his disciples,' who was about to betray him,
said. The speaker here is singled out by
name. Matthew refers the speech to the dis-
ciples generally, in whom the suggestion of
Judas had stirred up (without guile or blame
on their part) a not unnatural inquiry. Mark
says " some " murmured to tliemselves,
" Why this waste ? " (loss, destruction). John
(without the malice which Benan has at-
tributed to the writer) mentions the source
■ The T.B. reads, Ac'yc' o^" "' i* Tfiv /m-
0riTuv avTov, 'loiSas Hfiwvos 'IffKaptt&TiiSf with
a large number of later uncials, with va-
rieties of spelling in Old Latin Versions.
The B.T., Tischendorf (8th edit.), Alford,
Tregelles, on the authority of K, B, L, 1,
83, Vulgate, and numerous versions, letkd.
A4yft Si 'IfMau i 'ICKopiirtis, fXs iK rit
lia$7)TSt ti-rn, i (itWir, eto. B.T.oaiita 4n.
18S
THE GOSPKL ACXIORDIKO TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xn. 1— «a
of tiie Buggestion, " Jndaa Iicariot, Simon's
Bon." The word Sliioivos, contained in T.B.,
is omitted hire in the best texts. The fact
that he was the traitor, being one of the
well-known and awful events of the gospel
history when John wrote some half a cen-
tury later, might well be introduced by the
evangelist, with no other than a purely his-
torical motive.
Vers. 5, 6. — ^Why was not this ointment
sold for three hundred pence, and given to
the poor 1 Sinful motive often hides itself
under the mask of reverence for another
virtue. In Mark's Gospel the same price
was put upon the pound of pure nard as
that which is mentioned here — about £10 of
OUT money. Christ had given emphatic ad-
vice about generosity to the poor, and even
during this very week (ch. xiii. 29) it is
clear that his words were not forgotten, and
in his great disconise,probably also delivered
during this same week, he identified him-
self with the poor (Matt. xxv. 35, etc.), and
called for unreserved consideration of them ;
so that this language was not unnatural.
The value of this ointment is another mi-
nute iTidication that there is no connection
between the Lazarus of John and the Lazarus
of the parable. But John adds that the
utter lauk of perception on Judas's part of
Mary's self-devotion was prompted by the
most unworthy motive. The suggestion of
Jurlas is put down by the evangelist to the
sheerest covetousness. During the interval
that elapsed, Judas had revealed his cha-
racter, and John did not hesitate to refer
the suggestion to the traitor. Now this he
said, not because he oared for the poor. He
really oared nothing for the poor. He was
ambitious, eager for the display of the
Master's power, anxious for the rewards
which might follow the Master's assump-
tion of supreme authority, turning to his own
account all that might happen. But because
he was a thief^ and having ' possession of the
common purse (the word yAatraiKouos, which
occurs in the sensu of a ohest (2 Chron. xxiv.
8), has a curious etymology, which had passed
out of recognition ; from yXdaa-a and Kofieu
comes yXiDiT<roKoiie7ov, that in which mnntii-
pieces of flutes might be kept in safety, and
subsequently a chest or box for the safe
guardianship of other valuables), he was the
bearer — perhaps, bore away (see oh. xx. 15,
and Josephus, ' Ant.,' vii. 15. 3, for this use
of ficuTTiia), at all events had at his dis-
posal— of Oke things which were oast, in
generous profusion, into it. Thoma makes
the •atoanding suggestion that "John"
' "Exw, on the authority of K, B, D, L,
etc., 4i preferred 1 ly Westcott and Hort, and
B.Tn 'I'rtigeUes, 'fi»cbeiidotf (8tb edit.), to
(^ nai of X.B.
here covertly refers to Simon Magus of
Acts viii. 18, etc. The question is often
asked — Why was Judas entrusted with the
common purse? Was it not likely to aggra-
vate a diHposition to which he was prone 7
Did not Jesus know what was in man ? and
had he not discerned the propensity of Judas
(see ch. vi. 71)? In reply: (1) The ap-
pointment may have been made by the
apostles themselves. (2) Our Lord may
not have interfered with it, deeming confi-
dence more likely to help him than distrust.
(3) It may also show how, if men will yield
themselves to sin, Oud will not and does not
promise them immunity from temptation,
but sometimes even brings them into it. (4)
The purse might have been a preservative
against the vile temptation to sell his
Master, and a test and motive for self-con-
quest.
Ver. 7. — ^The two readings of the text
must here be compared with one another
and with the synoptic narrative. The T.B.
reads, Let her alone : ' unto the day of the
preparation for my burial she has carefully
guarded this precious perfume. This is, in
one sense, that very day, and she has found
out the solemn fact in a way in which the
disciples hail as yet failed to do. With this
agrees the language of the synoptists, " Why
trouble ye the woman? she hath wroa<;ht
a good work on me; . . . she hath done
that which was possible to her (h ia-xey
iirotifjaiv) " of Mark xiy. 8. In fact, Mark
expressly conveys this thought — " she has an-
ticipated the anointing of my body for the
burial." If we have the direct testimony of
Mark (t.e. Peter), Christ must have ex-
pressed himself thus. Matthew also in
diiTerent words records the same pathetic
and subtle thought : " For in that she poured
[cast] this ointment upon my body, she did
it to prepare me for burial " (ch. xxvi. 12).
Hengstenberg, Godet, and Stier abide by the
reading of the T.B. ; but the principal manu-
scripts, in most powerful combination, have
led Lachniann, Alford, Tischendorf, and
Westcott and Hort to r^id here,''l;'a eis rrlv
rjfiepav tov ^yraipiafffiov TTjp^^tnj oftrrf," In order
that she may keep or guard this for the day
of iuy burial." Westcott says that the sy-
noptists imply rather, by the word KaTex"",
that she bad not already consumed the
whole of tlie ointment. Meyer, with this
text, translates, "Let her alone, that she
may preserve it (this ointment, of which she
' T.E. reads, 'A<;'« aMir, " Let her alone,"
omitting Jva, with the later uncials ; and, in
place of Tiipiiaji, reads Ter^pijKf v ; but N, B,
D, K, L, 33, 42, 145, numerous versions, fol-
lowed by Tischendorf (8th edit.), Tregelles,
mmI B.T., omit the period, aad imd lyei wit|
•■. xn. 1— 50.]; THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
1S3
hag just ponred some over my feet) for the
day of my embalmment." This certainly
Beems incousistent with the complaint of
the disoipleB or of Judas, at the apparently
superSuous expenditure, and would compel
UB to restrict the airi to the unused portion.
The advocates of the T.B. reading say that
it represents the original text, which has
been altered by oritioiBm arising from mis-
understanding of the idea of the day of
burial having ideally arrived ; but why did
they not alter on the same principle the lan-
guage of the synoptiata ? The advocates of
Lachniann's text say that it has been altered
by copyists, to bring it into accord with the
text of the Bynoptista. Lange justifies the Re-
vised Version, " Suffer her to keep it against
the day of my burying," and puts it thus :
" Permit her to keep it [t.e. to have kept
the ointment which she might have used at
the burial of Lazarus] for the day of my
burial," now ideally present in the outbreak
of Judas's devilish malignity. So virtually
Luthardt and Baumgarten-Crusius. Godet
argues that this is forced and ungrammati-
cal. But there is this advantage in it, that
it brings the language into much closer re-
lation with the synoptists. Westoott prefers
the idea of Meyer. The older view is to
me far more satisfactory. Edersheim (ii.
35) adds to this, " Mary may have had that
alabaster box &om early days, before she
had learned to serve Christ. When she
understood that decease of which he con-
stantly spake, she may have put it aside,
" kept it," " against the day of his burying."
And now the decisive hour is come.
Ver. 8. — This verse is omitted in D, but
abundantly attested here. It occurs atmost
verbatim in Matthew and Mark, and can-
not be set aside on the authority of this one
eccentric manuscript. For the. poor ye have
always with you (cf. Deut. xv. 11). You
will always have opportunity of doing to
them, as to representatives of me, what is in
yonr heart of compassion (c£ Matt. xxv.
40 — 45). But me, as an object of personal,
tangible regard and visible attention, de-
serving thus and ever the affluence and ex-
uberance of your love, ye have not always ;
and, though I shall be with you always in
my Divine power and Spirit, even unto the
end of the world, and though I shall always
be with you in the person of the poor and
needy, yet in the sense in which this ex-
pression of love can be made, I shall be
absent. As though he had said, " After tljis
very niglit, the opportunity to offer me
affectionate attention or symbolic homage,
to give expression to feelings in accordance
with just presentiments as to my mission,
will be over for ever, and belong to the
hnKW unable past — N»w or never I She has
tamt 1U» ^liat, ike will have everlasting
remembrance thereby." The frankincense
of the Wise Men, the ointment of Mary, the
homage of the Greeks, were symbols, and
can never be repeated. The greatest motive
for generous and affectionate interest in the
poor is tliat they represent the Lord ; but
they are hot to be rivals of the Lord him-
self. Westcott remarks, "The promise of
the future record of the act of love is omitted
by the one evangelist who gives the name
of the woman who showed this devotion to
her Master." Moulton, " The very charity
that cares for the poor whom we see has
been kept alive by faith in and devotion to
the crucified Eedeemer whom we cannot
see."
Vers. 9— 11.— 2. The effects of the great
tign.
Vers. 9. — (1) On much people of the Jewt.
The article (i), which the best texts intro-
duce before Sx^os itoxbs, gives to these words
an almost technical force. The huge multi-
tude of the Jews — the surging crowd of
ever-gathering pilgrims blemled with the
" common people," the bulk of the populntiou
of Jerusalem and its neighbourhood (ch. xi.
55, 56) — therefore — because, i.e., of the
rumours of the feast, the news of the royal
consecration and sacred anointing, which
had taken place in honour of Jesus and his
last great miracle — learned that he was
there — that he had left his unknown place
of retirement at Bphraim. We gather from
the synoptic narrative that he had joined
the pUgrim-throng, advancing first into
Jericho, and then, after a night spent there,
had moved onwards to Bethany. Thedisper-
Rion of hundreds of these excited followers
into Jerusalem had again bruited abroad
the fact of the resurrection of Lazarus, and,
by reason of the Lord's return to Bethany,
the Jerusalem-party at length learned where
he was. 'O Sx^^os ex rav 'louSalaiv shows an
antithesis intended between the Judnan and
the Galilffian crowds. These the synopti.^ts
describe as "those that went before, and
those that followed after." And fhay came,
not for the sake of Jesus only, but that they
might see Lazarus also, whom he raisea
from the dead. Jesus was not the only at-
traction ; the risen man Lazarus was a rival
in popularity, and by tliis ocular, tangible
specimen of the supernatural resources of
Jesus, they would deepen their interest and
strengthen their convictions. Many of this
Jerusalem populace, on acoount of him
(Lazarus), and the fact of his resuscitation
(uir^yoi'), went away, perhaps, though not
necessarily so, " apostatized," from the high-
priestly party, from the hostile party in the
capital, and separated themselves fmn the
open bat desperate plot against the Divia*
Master, and believed on Jesus — threw 1m
their part and lot with the Lord and his dis<
IM
THE QOSP£L AOOOBDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xu. 1— 6a
•iples. This roused the malignity of the
anRplritual and uuscrupulons party of Caiv
Shai, of Annas, and of the Pharisees in the
anhedrin.
Vers. 10, 11.— (2) On the ehit/prietU. The
chief priests oonsulted tliat they might pnt
Laumt also to death; beoanse that by reason
of him many of the Jews went away, and
believed on Jesns. They deliberated to kill
Lazarus as well as Jesus. It was not
enough that oue man should die; another
and another must fuUow if their plan is to
succeed. And now the hour bad come (oh.
it 4 ; tU. 80), but not until our Lord had
once more warned the disciples with intense
significance and explicitness of his approach-
ing death and burial. Thus another strilcing
illustration is given of the judgment, the
ertn'a, the sifting process, which is always
going on in the presence of Christ. His
greatest signs, his wisest teachings, his
most amazing love, briog out the twofold
lesalt. Some receive, some reject, some
burst into louder acclaim, some try to slay.
As with the history of this " Gospel," some
hear in it the very voice of the Eternal, bat
there are others who would grind it to
powder. Because Ignatius and Polycarp
bear witness to the existence of the Gospel,
these Lazaruses must be put to death, or
banished to a later period out of harm's way.
Even the genuineness of the Apocalypse, so
long a tower of defence for the Tiibiiigen
school, is too powerful a proof of St. John's
residence in Asia to be accepted with equa-
nimity or left in possession, and some of the
later critics have taken counsel to repudiate
its Johannine authorship.
Vers, 18 — 19. — S. The triumphal entry into
JertuaUm. Chriit't challenge of the autho-
ritie», and its retulti. (On the differences
between John's account of this transaction
and that of the synoptic narrative, cf. com-
mentaries. Matt. xxi. 1 — 11 ; Mark xL 1 —
10; Luke xiz. 29 — 14.) On the precise
order of events it is difficult to speak with
absolute decision. The main difference be-
tween the synoptists aad John is in the
break at Bethany of the journey from Jerieho
to Jerusalem, to introduce a feast, which is
related afterwards by the synoptists, though
■ot limited by them to any later chronological
porition. It should be observed, moreover,
that the synoptic narrative contains numerous
leferences to the residence in Bethany
during several days of the week (of. Mark
xi. 12: Matt. xxi. 17) which followed.
Jahn adds important detaib, and white he
•nits tk* gnat disonisiMi ia the temple,
the withering of th« fig tree, the clesnring
of the temple, the parables of the judgments
on soribes and Pharisees, and the pro-
phecy of the future, he portrays the inner
life of the Lord, and records his most graoioni
esoteric teaching and sublime prayer. The
current tradition of the Church, the distinct
note of time for Christ's arrival at Bethany
(six days before the Passover), make the
triumphal entry take plaoe on Sunday after-
noon (of. ver. 1) of Passion week.
Vers. 12, 13.— The next day (on the
morrow) must be the day after the feast.
We have seen that that feast probably took
place on the evening of the eabbuth. The
events that happened are far more abun-
dantly described in Matthew, Mark, and
Luke — the excitement in Jerusalem, the
method in which the triumph was carried
through, the mode adopted to secure " the
young ass," the weepin]^ over Jerusalem
from the summit of the hill ; none of these
circumstances are inconsistent with this
account. Brief, however, as our narrative
is, it adds some features which are peculiar
and highly historic. A' vast crowd that
had come to the feast, when they heard that
Jesus was coming to Jemsalem. These that
had come from the country, and had already
encamped near or in Jerusalem, came group
after group to Bethany to esscrt him into
the city. The synoptists, not mentioning the
pause of the sabbath at Bethany, and not
clearly indicating where and when the feast
at Bethany took place, naturally connect the
journey from Jericho with the entrance into
Jerusalem. John explains, in addition, that
there were of the Jerusalemites themselves
certain who had been led to go to Bethany
and throw in their lot with the Lord. The
early pilgrims mentioned in ch. xi. 55, 56,
also came forth f^om the city to hail and
welcome his approaoh. Took branches of the
palm trees, and went forth to meet him. The
synoptists had mentioned that the trium-
phant host had cut "branches," K\(i$ous(Matt
xxi. 8), from the trees, and Mark (xi. 8)
had said ori^iSat, fragments of trees, grass,
small branches, that could be strewn in the
way. Luke (xix. 85) simply mentions the
garmentt thus strewn — a fact mentioned also
by Mark and Matthew. Our narrative gives
greater definiteness, and even adds a new
feature, by speaking of rit $aia tuv tpaivlicay,
"the palm nranoheB of the palm trees,"
which they waved probably in triumph, m
' Tregelles, TisoheKdorf (8th edit)^ ud
B.T., on the authority of K*« A, and qnotft-
tions from Origen, ao oait tlM oraeU f
before i)^\»$^
CH. M. 1— 60.J THE GOSPEL ACCOfiDING TO ST. JOHN.
13i
they had been aoouetomed to do in token of
the approach of a conqueror (cf. 1 Maoc. xiiL
51, where Simon's return to the city was
celebrated with "thanksgiving and Paiav
and with harps and. cymbals," etc.). The
nee to which the branohes of the well-known
palm trees were put, differs from, but does
not exclude the use to which K\dSoi and
iTToiPiSfi were alsci pni Bethany (see note,
oh. zi. 1> was "the nouse of dates," and the
palm branches for the Feast of Tabernacles,
on its first celebra^n ai£ter the Captivity (cf.
Lev. sxiii. 40), were fetched from the mount
(Neh. Tiii. 15). Thq palm tree was a sacred
symbol for Israel. **Tamar," a palm tree,
was a favoarite name for a woman. The
filaccabsBan coins were decorated with the
palm and vine. The medal struck by Titus
represented a captive sitting under a palm.
Throughout their history, in their gorgeous
temple ritual, it continually reappears, and
at the last the Apocalypse represents the
victorious songs of triumphant elders accom-
panied by the waving of the palm. If we
compare the four accounts of the demon-
stration, we shall see again how in com-
bination they vividly represent the whole
scene. The multitude cry, according to —
Matthew (xzi. 9) : " Hosanna ' to the Son of
David: Blessed be he that cometh in
the Name of the Lord ; Hosanna in the
highest."
Mark (xi. 9, 10) ; " Hosanna-; Blessed be he
that cometh in the Name of the Lord:
Blessed be the coming kingdom of our
father David : Hneanna in the highest."
Luke(xix.38),Temembering the angel's song:
"They praised God with a lond voice.
. . . Blessed be the King that cometh in
the Name of the Lord : in heaven peace,
and glory in the highest."
John says they went forth to meet him,
palm branch in hand, and cried,
Hosanna : Blessed he he that cometh in
the Kame of the Lord, and (blessed be)
(even) the King of Israel.
These differences show how various groups
used v\ith freedom the tones and sentiment
of the hundred and eighteenth psalm,
adopting the welcome with which the priests
were accustomed to greet the pilgrims to
the festival. But each account demonstrates
that, on this occasion, there was a general
ascription to our Lord of Messianic honour.
He is hailed by the people as King of Israel,
as the Head of the coming kingdom of their
father David, and as giving glory to God.
' 'Cliravvi is a Gredzed ffirm of the words,
K|-nj;"B'^n, equivalent to "Save, I prayl"
abbreviated to Kjl)0ia It ia followed here
by the datire, rip utif AafilS. It is a quotation
^m Ft. ozviii.' 25, 2&
The Name of_ the Lord ii the manifestation
and compendium of all the perfections of the
Lord. For centuries the gracious hope had
rung forth in the sacred liturgy, and now
the people see that the hope ia on the point
of realization.
Ver. 14. — And Teens, having found a
young ass, sat thereon; as it is written.
The whole account of the process by which
our Lord secured the ivipiov is described
at great length by the synoptists (see Matt.
xxi. 2; Mark si. 12; Luke xix. 30). The
foal implies that the animal had never home
another burden. The account of Matthew
refers to the mother and the foal, as though
they were inseparable, and together bore
the sacred burden. Mr. Holman Hunt, in
his picture of the ' Triumph of the Imno-
cents,' has represented the beast bearing
Mary and her Child as accompanied by the
colt. The entire process of securing both
must have taken time, and augmented
the excitement. Christ at length, on the
eve of his Passion which he so distinctly
foreshadowed, allowed the enthusiasm of the
people to prevail, and accepted the homage.
The Galilee pilgrims take up the demon-
stration, which was commenced, as we see
from John's Gospel, by "the Jews" and
those Jerusalemites who had been pro-
foundly moved by the significance of the
resurrection of Lazarus. The curcumstanoes
thus elucidated from thd four narratives, re-
veal undesigned coincidences. The entry into
Jerusalem did not take place till the after-
noon, and so we find that all that our Lord
did on arrival was to "go to the temple,
look round on all things, and, now that the
even was come, to revisit Bethany with the
twelve" (Mark xi. 11).
Ver. 15. — John, as well as Matthew, sees
here a symbolical fulfilment of what had
been declared by one of the latest of the
prophets, as the peculiarity of the Messiah
(Zech. ix. 9) : Fear not, daughter of Zion :
behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's
colt.' This oracle is admitted by commen-
tators of opposite schctpls to refer to the
Messiah. There was no need, in order to
fulfil the spirit of the whole passage, that
the King should come to his own Ulerally
upon the back of a beast of burden. The
prophecy does, however, suggest the modesty,
the absence of all pomp or display of worldly
wealth and power ; nay, the humiliation on
' See careful treatment of Zeob. ix. 9, 10
in Wright's ' Prophecies of Zechariah.'
Tiurpie (the ' Old Testament in the New/
pp. 221, 222) compares critically Matthew's
quotation of Zerhariah with its modifications
of both the Hebrew and the LXX., with
John's abbreviated citation of tha sans
ISO
THE GOSPEL ACOOKDINa 10 ST. JOHN. [oh. xii. 1— SCL
the part of the true King. Both Matthew
and John omit the characteristics of "right-
eons and saved," ' i.e. " delivered " from the
hands of his cruel enemies. The suffering
Servant of Ood of the great oracle of lea. liii.
was in the mind of the Prophet Zechariah,
and he adds this feature to the triumphant
coming of the true Prince of Peace, that he
would " cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the horse from Jerusalem," i.e. so act
that even the national pride and power and
military prowess should come to an end;
" Speak peace to the nations ; rule from sea
to sea, from the river to the ends of the
earth." As John and Matthew both see the
symbulical fulfilment of the prophecy, they
doubtless would have us bear in mind the
whole passage. John transforms the " Ee-
joice greatly, shout," etc., of the prophet
into "Fear not." He seems to take it at
one stage only of fulfilment, when anxiety
might momentarily be put to rest. The
"Fear not" is a lower form of "great re-
joicing," It is something for men to dis-
miss their doubts and hush their unrest,
even when they cannot burst into song.
Hengstei4[>erg and Godet urge that the
"meekness and lowliness" to which the
prophet referred, and which Mntthew cited
I'rom him, was imaged in the lowly beast on
which never man sat. But it must not be
forgotten that the ass was used by distin-
guished personages (Judg. v. 9, 10; x. 4;
2 Sam. xvii. 23 ; xix. 26). And all that was
really meant by it was the choice of a
creature associated rather with daily life
than with military display. Meyer and
Moutton urge that it was a chosen symbol
of peace {Kad-tiftevos is substituted for the
iwiPePnKiis eVl of the LXX. and Matt. xxi.
5). Contrary to Kelm's animadversion, our
Lord and his disciples adopted here the
idea of a Jewish Messiah, stripping it of
its worldly characteristics. It should be
observed that, while John's narrative is in
harmony with the synoptists, he greatly
abbreviates it.
Ver. 16, — These things nnderstood not his
disciples at the first: but when Jesus was
glorified, then remembered they that these
things were written of him. This verse
shows that the disciples (of whom John was
one) took part in the celebration, though
they did not see at the time, nor until after
the Ascension — not until they saw by faith
the Stija into which the Lord had entered —
that the honour which they had done to him
had corresponded strangely with the marvel-
loas words of the old propheo;^. And that they
had done— clearly the disciples, on gram-
' The Authorized Version incorrectly
tm— lates the word y'f\i " having salvation,"
irkereM it means " being saved."
matical grounds ; ol /mliiTat, is the gnbjest ot
iiroii\aav — these things onto him, 'ZSo^iaBit
is used of the uplifting to the glory which
he had before the world was ; not until than
was the Spirit given that explained so much
of the mysterious life. (For other illustra-
tions of rb vpoTov, in the rare sense of " at
first," see ch. x. 40 ; xix, 39.) (1) Men often
act and speak without perceiving the full
meaning of deed or word, not grasping the
link of connection thus instituted between
a consecrated past and a predestined future.
(2) Words and actions are freely done from
personal motives and in entire spontaneity
when they are neveri:beless fulfilling the
Divine purpose and working out the plan of
God. (3) The revealing moment comes, and
the whole significance flashes into view.
Vers. 17 — 19. — These verses connect the
enthusiasm of the multitudes with the great
miracle of ch. xi., indicating a point concern-
ing which the synoptic narrative is silent,
and further they consociate the miracle and
its eSect upon the multitude with aggrava-
tion of the malignant feeling of the consti-
tuted authorities which leads to the capture
and crucifixion of the Lord Jesus.
Ver. 17. — ^The mnltitnde therefore which
was with him when he called Lazarus out
of the tomb, and raised him £rom the dead,
were hearing witness. The seventeenth
verse goes back to fhe (^x^oi) miUtilude
who are mentioned in ch. xi. 42 ; i.e. to the
friends of Mary and Martha and to other
inhabitants of Bethany, as well as visitors
from Jerusalem (oh. xi. 31). All these are in-
volved in the explicit declaration, 6 B>v fitr
avTov. Which was with him when ' he called
Laiarui out of hit grave, and (not only so,
but) raised him from, among the dead.
Those who had actnally beheld the miracle,
and were as eye and ear witnesses of the
event, who had hovered about Bethany since
his return to it, — these were bearing witnese.
They spread themselves abroad in the crowd
of Galilffian pilgrims and others, and were
uttering their testimony on all sides. The
word is used absolutely, as ia ch. xix. 35,
' "Ore, not Sti, which would alter the
meaning of the whole passage, and require
the following clause to become the object of
the verb f/uipTipei : " The multitude which
was with him [at the time at which the
narrative reached] were bearing witness that
he called Lazarus." But ilre is read by all
the principal uncial codices, X, A, B, E,
etc., and versions, and by B.T., although
Meyer and Tischendorf (8th edit.), mainly
on internal grounds, prefer 8ti; not se
Alford (6th edit.), Mrfl, Tregelles, Weat-
cott and Hort, or Bftle Beviseia, nor Tiseh-
endorf In previous editions. "On is found
in D, K, L, n, and lome patristio lefeiencM.
ra. xn. 1—60.] THE GOSPEL ACOOBDING TO ST. JOHN.
18T
knd the Imperfect tenie ihonld not be turned
here into a mere preterite.
Yer. 18. — ^For tliis oanse alio the (i ix^")
mnltitude — which here seems to be the aggre-
gate of the (ix^os ToXds) crowds made up
of the Judssan and Galilsean pilgrims aud
"the Jews" who had believed on him — met
him (see cipecially vers. 12, 13) — went forth,
and cut down the blanches of the palm
trees, and came in high jubilance to meet him
— because they heard that he had wrought
this sign. The resurrection of Lazarus is
the motive of the triumphal procession. The
synoptists, who have omitted the whole epi-
sode of Bethany, are naturally silent con-
cerning the impression produced by it on
the Passover pilgrims and the Jerusalem
crowd, John, more intimately acquainted
with the currents of thought in the capital
til an the rest, drew here from his experience
and memory, and has preserved Mstorical
features which they had ignored.
Ver. 19. — The Pharisees therefore, at the
sight of the popular enthusiasm, said to
themselves; t.e. to their own inner circle.
Uengstenberg thinks here is a hint of
some medium of communication between
John and the Pharisees, and imagines it to
be found through Martha and Simon (her
husband). Their language was. Perceive
[ye]— or, ye perceive (either imperative or
indicative)— that ye prevail nothing ! The
interrogative may also be a true translation.
Do ye ■perceive that ye prevail nothing 1 On
either hypotheais, it cannot be, as Chrysostom
Bays, the language of the fiiends of Jesus
among the Pharisees, but rather the cry of
despair and rage. Eehold, the (K(((r^os) world
has gone away after lam. They are re-
penting that they had not followed out the
coercive plans and murderona designs of
Caiaphas, and had been content with half-
measures.
Vers. 20 — 80. — 4. The detire of the
" Oreehs " — the representative* of the Western
aorld — to tee Jesus, and his reply. And now
a scone is related of transcendent interest '
— the one solitary incident of the Passion
week between the triumph and tlie night
of the Last Supper. John assumes hero a
knowledge of all that, in current tradition
and narrative, had taken place between these
two events. The cleansing of the temple,
the solemn parables by which Jesus re-
pulsed the Sauhedrin, the conflict with
Sadducees and scribes, and with the com-
bined forces of Herodians and Pharisees, the
denunciation of the icribes and Pharisees,
and the prophetic parables, possibly the
•wful doom of Jerusalem, and the departure
b«m the temple. Thif event may have oc-
enired towards the close of this solemn and
crowded week, and it made profonsd im-
pression upon John. The Hellenes were
probably "proselytes," like the Ethiopian
chamberlain (Acts viii. 27). Edersheim says
they were " proselytes of righteousness," for
no others would be allowed to worship at
the feast. Whether they came from some
Greek city in Iturssa, or from Oyrene or
Edessa, Ephesus or Alexandria, we know
not. As wise men came from the East to the
cradle of the Lord, some can imagine these
Hellenes to have been Judaized thoughtful
men who were longing for the light and joy
found in the Holy Scriptures, and the reli-
gious teachings or ceremonial of the temple,
into the outer courts of which they would
be admitted. When they saw the kind of
reception which this mighty Sage was re-
ceiving from hii own people and from the
constituted authorities, they were ready to
plead with him to go among them, and to
offer his message to the Gentiles. For the
most part he had confined his mission to
" the lost sheep of the house of Israel," but in
his care for the Herodian nobleman, the Bo-
man centurion, the Syro-Phcsnician woman,
and his references to the "other sheep he
had," to the "world" which his Father
loved, etc., he partially revealed his ulti-
mate mission to the whole world, though be
always implied that such a mission presup-
posed his cruel cutting off and awful mys-
terious hour.
Yer. 20. — ITow there were oertain Greeks
among those that went np to worship at the
feast. Ticcs implies a group, and a larger
company of these ava$aiv6vTQ}v, who were
and are in the habit of going up (perhaps
were still doing it even when John, before
writing his Gospel, had first put the narra-
tive into words). They went up with a
view to worship in the feast, that is, there
were burnt offerings and thank oileringa
which they were aUowed to piestnt. This
shows that they were not heathen nor un-
circumcised Hellenists, whichever view of
that word be accepted.
Yer. 21. — These therefore oame to Philip,
who was of Bethiaida of Galilee, and asked
him, saying, Sii, we would see Jesus. The
first expression of that great yearning which,
swollen by multitades without number, i«
loud as tlie voice of many waters and miglity
thundering*. It is the waU of every peni-
tent; it is the birth-cry of every renewed
soul ; it is Ae M|ttared burst of joy as each
198
THE GOSPEL ACCORDINO TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xn. 1—60.
■on of Ood ^SM behind the rell. The
"therefore" impUei some kind of preTious
relation with Philip, whose somewhat timid,
I'antioui, epeculative mind, as hinted in the
earlier portions of the Gospel, made him
aroeuible to them. Personal acquaintance
is, of course, possible. Was Philip identical
n I th the Aristion of Papias (see Introduction,
|i. xzxiv., and Archdeacon Farrar, Expositor,
NoTcmber, 18S1)? The mention of Beth-
I'liida of Galilee confirms the suggestion
Uiat they were inhabitants of one of the
( i reek eities of Decapolis, or of the slopes of
the Lebanon. Many commentators refer to
['hilip's Greek name as indicating procliyi-
tics or sympathies on his part which would
m:iko him peculiarly accessible.
Ver. 22.— The slight modiflcation of text
prefurrad by the Beyised Yersion gives great
vivacity to the picture (see below, note 1).
riiiUp receives the respectful request of
the Greeks, "Sir [my lord], we would see
Jcsna," i.«. "converse with." They pro-
btibly sought to bring some proposal before
liira. Surely they must have had, if they
wished it, many opportunities of merely
teeing Jesus, when he crossed the Mount
of Olivet during those three days, or tarried
in the court of the Gentiles; now they
pressed for an interview. Philip cornet^
and telleth Andrew. Andi'ew was the ear-
licst of the disciples, who brought his own
liri'ther Simon to Jesus (ch. i. 40 — 42).
Ho is mentioned as in close association with
Sipuon, James, and John, as partners with
tliem in the fishing-trade on the lake of
(iaiilee (see Mark i. 16, 29, and iii. 18, com-
[inrcd with Luke v. 10). There is some hint
that Andrew and John, after the first call
U> become followers of Christ, clung to him,
and went with him to Jerusalem, ami then
retnmed witli him through Samaria, after
which occurred the second call of the brothers
Simon and James. The frequent references
to Andrew and Philip in this Gospel corre-
spond with the tradition preserved in the
Jfiiratorian Fragment on ttie Canon, touch-
iiij; Andrew's part in the composition of this
U- Rpel. These two disciples are represented
as consulting with each other on previous
occasions, as though peculiarly related in
sympathy. Philip sees certain diflSoulties,
and Andrew has a practical mind, and pro-
poses a wt.y out of them (see oh. vi. 7, 8).
There was something now to be said on both
iidis. Their ancient prophecies anticipated
a world-wide aspect of the Messianic king-
dom (Isa. Iv. 4, 5 ; Ivi. 3, 7 ; as well as Gen.
ilix. 10). Now, if this incident occurred
after Jesus had claimed the hundred and
tenth psalm as an oracle which described
Ue own Divine claims and his universal
fiotory as the Lord and Bon of David and
seiraJ Warrior-Prest (Slatt. xxii. 41 46, and
parallel passages), Philip may have felt thii
moment to be a most critical one in his his-
tory ; for he may have been perfectly aware
of the outbreak of peril which converse with
Greek proselytes might at that moment have
provoked in the minds of the turbulent popu-
lace. ' Andrew oometh and Philip, and they
(together) tell Jesns. Jesus ftlone could solve
the difficulty at that time, and Jesus him-
self is the just and reasonable Source of all
enlightenment. Jesns is at this hour the
highest Ejcpression of man and his destiny,
and he is also the perfect Manifestation of
the Fiither, the only Mediator between God
and man, absolutely one with both. We
still go to him to know what God is and
what God would have us to think and to be,
and to learn what man may become. We
take to him the puzzles of our logic, the
accusations of onr conscience, and the bur-
dens of our heart. Additional interest is
thrown round this narrative by a suggestion
of Archdeaeon Watkrns, that, in the course
of this week, our Lord had cleansed the
temple and courts of its profane traffic, and
declared it to be a lumte of prayer for aU
nations. Such grand revolutionary concep-
tiiin's as those of our Lord must have deeply
stirred the souls of the susceptible Greeks.
Aliens were, as we know from Josephus
(' Ant.,' XV. 11. 5), forbidden to pass beyond
the balustrade round the iepw. M. Gan-
neau* has found among the ruins of Jeru-
salem one of the slabs of stone which
recorded this exclusion.
' ''Epx*'''oi ♦JXiinros Kol A^'yci t^ 'ArSpecf
^PX^TCU 'Avipeas KaL ^iKimos iral \4yovfft is
the reading of K, A, B, L, cursives, Italic,
.^thiopic. The ical ndKtv was added in N
to the repeated ipxtrai, which subsequently
displaced the verb, and the ital disappeared
before the \iyovtrtv. Had the verb been
written as a gloss, Hpxovrat would have been
written. The reading is preferred by B.T.,
Tischendorf (8th edit.), Tregelles, Meyer.
' See ' Survey of Western Palestine :
Jerusalem,' by Warren and Oonder, p. 423,
quoted from the 'Quarterly Statement of
tlie Palest. Explor. Society,' 1871, p. 132,
by Clermont-Ganneau. The inscription is
written in monumental characters, in seven
lines : Mr/Seva aAAo7ci'>) eicTTropcuirflai erroj
Tou iTfpi TO Kpov rpufaxrov koi irepiPoXou oi
S Of \n(p8ri cavTwi aiTios firrat Sta to cJoko-
Koy$eiv 9avaror — ^"No stranger is to enter
within the (rpu^nutros) balustrade round the
temple and enclosure. Whoever is caught
will be responsible to himself for the death
which will ensue." Curiously, Josephus, in
the passage referred to, speaks of the rpi<paie-
Tos which surrounds the Upov. The inscrip-
tion also throws interesting light upon Qu
episode ia Acts xxi. 86, etc.
OH. MB. l-rBO.} THB QOSPEL AOCOBDINO TO ST. JOHK.
189
Yen. 23— 26.— (1) The ghtifteaUon o/ Ae
Bon of man in and wrough itaOt.
Ver. 23. — ^And Jeans answereth ■ them.
Many oommentatora (Ewsid, Oodet, Heng-
Btenbcrg) think that Jesus did not address
the following words to the Gieeks, that
until be had gone through the agony of
death, and entered in human nature on his
Divine and mediatorial reign, the mission
to the Oentiles could not commence. Tho-
luck supposed that the interview was over,
and that the solumn words are addressed to
the disciples in the presence both of Greeks
and of others aftemardt ; but there is no
suoh break suggested. It is more probable
(with Luthardt, Edersheim, Lange) that
the Greeks were close behind Andrew and
Philip, and that our Lord at once, for their
advantage, as well as for that of the dis-
ciples, proceeded to explain the solemn im-
pression made upon himself by this remark-
able desire. Surely it is mneceBsary to
say that our Lord was anxious not to give
umbrage to the priests, or to rouse the
animosity of the people. Every word of
the terrible address of Matt, xxiii., all
the controversies in the temple, even the
triumphal entry itself, would and did give
mortal umbrage to the priestly party and
to the Sanhedrin. He bad boldly chal-
lenged tlieir entire position. He had smit-
ten down their prejudices and assailed their
notions of exclusive privil^e, and therefore
would not have shrunk, on that ground,
from intercourse with devout Greeks wor-
shipping at the feast. The words are surely
said to them and ahmet them, but in the
main for the instruction of tiie disciples
themselves. The hour is come for which
he had been waiting (see oli. ii. i ; xiii. 1) —
the mysterious " hour " on which liis glory
would depend, and the destiny of the world
turn. God not only contemplates great
periods, tsons of time, but " acceptable
years," "days of the Lord," "moments of
time," as parts of the eternal plan. That
the Son of man shonld he glorified. The
"Son of man," rather than "Son of God,"
is the term he uses in reference to, and in
the presence of, the Greeks. The highest
Man is now about to assume his supreme
glory, to go forth, as the mighty Man, to
rule the world of men. The Son of man is
about to ascejd into his eternal throne, to
clothe himself with all authority of judgment
and mercy in heaven and earth. The glori-
fication of the Son of man is one of the high
main themes of the Gospel, and its justifica-
> Tregelles, Tisohendorf (8th edit.), West-
«ott and Hort, and B.T. read iaroKpiveTm,
with K, B, L, 33. T.R. and Lachmann
mid inKfinaro, with A, D, r. A, Vulgate,
mABjrimo.
tion U to be fonnd in the fact that the Son of
man is indeed the Logos made flesh, and the
Lamb slain, and like the Serpent is being
lifted up, and as the true Shepherd is laying
down his life that he might take it again. The
advent of the Greeks opens prophetic vistas
which involve tremendous experietiaes of
his own, and also great principles of service
for all his followers. His Passion was so
inextricably interwoven with his glory, that
the former becomes verily the prelude of h's
victory and supreme exaltation. His death
is but his glory. Moreover, the approach
of the Gentiles suggested the uuiversal
belief in him which would fullow upon his
Passion and resurrection, and he " foretells
that the hour of his glorification was already
come " (Augustine). (See remarks in Intro-
duction, pp. Ixxviii. — Ixxx., on the several
epochs in this record of the Lord's life,
where the "hour" seems to strike, but is
again and again postponed with a view to
fresh revelations, exactly as the climax is
deferred throughout the Apocalypse.)
Yer. 21. — The oracle is introduced with
a solemn 'A/tV, ^M"! A^<» ^t"" '• Verily,
▼erily, I say unto you, Except the com (or,
^atn) of wheat, having fkllento the ground,
die, it abideth by itself alone : but if it die,
it heareth much fruit. The simple illustra-
tion of life through death, life triumphing
over death. " Even nature protests against
the Hellenic fear of death " (Lange). As
long as the corn of wheat is scrupulously kept
from decomposition and deatli in the granary,
the hidden germ is dormant ; let it be sown
as " bare grain " (1 Cor. xv. 36, etc.), then
the strange force within it puts forth its
hidden faculty, the outer covering of this
point of energy falls away, and the new
thing appears. God gives it a body, and
much fruit is brought forth. Thoma sug-
gests that the Johannist here is putting
into the lips of Jesus the thoughts of Paul.
How much more probable is it that Paul
grasped the thought of Jesus, and applied
a part uf it to the grand argument for tlie
resurrection, both of Christ and Christians I
Compare with this the teaching of oh. Vi.,
where the Bread of life is given for the
food of men. Even the "bread-making"
for man involves, in another way, the tem-
porary destruction of the living germ in the
grain of which it is composed, that it may
become the life of men. Christ is himself
the " Son of God," the " Logos incarnate,"
the "Son of man." By becoming, in his
death, the food of man's soul, he created
thus a new life in the hearts of men. Over
and over again our Lord has declared him-
self to be " the Life," and " the Source of
life," for men ; but he here lays dovm the
principle that this life-giving power of his is
eonditiouated by his death. "The great har-
140
THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xil 1—60
TMt will be reaped only when he shall hare
noriftced hii life and put away sin by the
saorifloe of himself. It is, too, only as every
belieTing man dies to biniBelf, is orucified
with Christ, is dead with him to the world,
that he rises again in the newness of life.
Vers. 25, 26. — The Lord here introduces
a solemn, almost oracular utterance, wliich
proves how close and intimate is the rela-
tionship between the synoptics and the
Fourth Oospel. On several great occasions
our Lord has impressed this law of the
Spirit of life upon his disciples. Thus in
Matt. X. 37 — 39, in the lengthened commis-
sion given to tiie twelve, after calling on
his followers to place his own claim on their
affection as greater than that of father,
mother. Mend, and calling for self-sacrifice,
and self-crucifixion, he said, " He that findeth
his life (ifn/x^) shall lose it : he that loseth his
life for my sake shall find it." Again (Matt.
xvi. 25, etc.), after rebuking Peter for his
unwillingness to recognize the necessiity and
significance of the killing of "the Son of
the living God," he laid down the same law
once more, calling for self-denial and daily
cross-bearing, and adds, "Whosoever wiU
lave his life shall lose it : and whosoever will
lose his life for my sake shall find it." Bo
also Luke ix. 23, etc, Luke (xiv. 26) also
introduces the same solemn aphorism in our
Lord's discourse concerning the close of the
Jewish national life. Surely here he is
applying to his own ease the law of the
Divine life which he had shown to be uni-
versal, and of which he was on the point of
giving the crowning and climacterio ex-
pression. He does it with amplifications
and a supply of motives. If life be regarded
as an end in itself; if it be treated as com-
plete when rounded with its own indi-
viduality ; if life shrink from sacrifice, if it
"love itself," and will at all hazards pre-
serve itself; if the natural and instinctive
fear of deatli, and instinct of self-preserva-
tion, become a self-idolatry ; — that life will
"abide alone." If it sacrifice itself for
higher ends than self; if it regard the higher
end as more valuable than itself; if it lose
itself in the object to wliich it is conse-
crated ; if it bo content to " die ; " — it abideth
no longer " alone," but " bringeth forth much
fruit."
Yer. 25. -H« that loves his own life
(^vx4); life used as equivalent to " self," in
that totality of being which, like the life of
the seed-oorn, survives the accident of death
— ^he that loves his own life (idf) is losing >
it; or, perhaps, destroying it, ipso /aeto.
> 'Airo)i\iei is read, with K, B, L, 38, by
Tischendorf, R.T., etc., instead of ftiroXc'ir«
of T.R., with A, D, X, and Dumerous
veiaioBa.
There are ends and objeoti of lore lo much
greater than " tho self," that to keep it by
some act of will and recreant fear is to make
it utterly valueless, is really to destroy its
true vitality. And he that hateth his (^vxii)
life (self) in this world, wherever the greater
claim of Christ and of the Father would be
compromised by loving it, shall veritably
preserve it, viz. the self, unto eternal (^w^)
life ; i.e. to the blessedness of eternal being.
The ij/ux^ is a great possession ; and " what
advantagcth a man if he should gain the
whole world, and lose it ? " But if a man
persists in gaining the world, and forgets
that this earthly exi»tence is not capable of
satisfying the demands or finding a spliere
for the true self, and so makes the earthly
reign or enjoyment of the iiuxh the end of
all striving, — then he miserably fails. So
far it is clear that our Lord is applying a
great principle of the true life to the case
of his own Messianio work and ministry.
He draws, from a law of the superiority of
the Divine life to the fe.ir of deatli and to
the fact of death, u, justification of his own
approaching doom. He can only by dying
live his perfect life, win his greatest triumph,
reap his world-wide harvest.
Ver. 26. — In this verse the Lord brings
the light of heaven down into this deep pa-
radox. He speaks like an anointed King
and great Captain of salvation, who has
(StaKomi) " servants " willing to do hiu bid-
ding. If any man will be my servant, let
him follow me along the line which I am
prepared to take, in the way of sacrifice and
death, which is the true glorification ; and
where I am, there shall also my servant be.
This association of the servant with the
Lord, as the sufficient and the transcendent
motive, pervades the Gospels (cf. ch. xiv. 3
and xvii. 24; oomp. also Luke xxiil 43,
" with me in Paradise ; " and 2 Cor. xii. 2,
4 ; V. 8 ; PhU. i. 23). It is remarkable that
Christ chose the twelve that they should be
"with him" (Mark iii. 14). Theie is no
greater blessidness. Still, the Lord adds.
If any man serve me, him will the Father
honour. For the Father to honour a poor
ohUd of the dust seems almost more than
we can receive. The conception of the
steps by means of which the Lord makes
this possible to his followers and servants
produced in his own self-consciousness one
of those sudden and overwhelming crises
and changes from joy to perturbation, as of
agony to peace and to reconcilement with
the eternal Father's will, whioli prove how
certainly St. John is always portraying the
same Personage, the same transcendent cha-
racter whom the synoptists describe (Luke
xii. 49, 50; comp. Luke xix. 38, 41; Matt
xi. 20, 25 ; xvi. 17, eto., and 21). More than
this, the whole passage that follows is a
«. zo. 1— Sa] TEE QOSPEL AOOOBDU^TQ TO ST. JOHN.
141
Bolemn prelude to that agony of the garden
which the gynoptiata alone lecoid, while they
omit this.
Yen. 27— 80.— (2) The antieipation of
Gelhiemane.
Yer. 27. — ^Now, at this moment, has been
and yet is my sonl troubled (" conourrebat
horror mortis et ardor obedientiie," Bengel).
In ch. xi. 33 we hear that he troubled him self,
and shuddered wrathfully in his "spirit"
(Trvfi/taTi) at the contemplation of all the
evili and ourse of death; now his whole
<tn)X'flt *•«■ hb life centred in its corporeal
environment as a man, the self which the
Son of God had taken up into the Divine
essence, was in depth of agony, preluding
the strong crying and tears to which Heb. v.
7 refers. These perturbations of his soul
and spirit can only be accounted for by the
uniqueness of his Personality, the capacity
for suffering, and the extent to which he
was identifying himself with the sinful
nature with which he had invested himself.
Sin is the sting of death. He had by the
nature of his incarnation become sin for us.
Martyrs, freed from sin, delivered from its
curse and shame and power through him,
face it with calmness and hope ; but there
was infinite space in his breast for all the
curse of it to rain its horrible tempest. He
felt that the hour of his extremest travail
had come upon him. And what shall I
(must I) say 1 What is the regal passion of
my heart? Wbat is the right revelation for
me to make to yon? What is the prayer
for me to offer to the Father? It remains
a great question whether the next utterance
is the primary answer of the question itself,
or whether it continues the interrogation —
whether, «'.«., the Lord lifts up for a moment
the cry of heart-rending grief, Father, tare
me from this Ao»r." or whether he said,
ShaU I say, Father, save me from this hour t
The first view supposesin the firstplace actual
uncertainty and awful bewilderment, and
then a most intense cry (Heb. v. 7) to him
who was able to save him from death. Save
me either from the death itself, or from the
fear and horror which accompanies it(Ijficke,
Meyer, Hengstenherg, and Moulton). It
ncM not be a prayer to leave the world
UBtaved, to sacrifice all the work on which
he had come. We are told by the apostle
(Heb. T. 7) that he was " heard " (iirii t^i
tiiut$tlas) and delivered from human weak-
> Compare the note of Professor Uilligan,
' Besonrection (ri^ our Lord,' and note 48, p.
271, «n this passage. Buttman says that Ik
and iir^ are frequently interchangeable — a
position which Milligau contends. He gives
to iK its strictest meaning, "oat et," and
trnMlatas, "Bring ae ont of thta how"—
" safely throngh and out of this eonftet."
nees which might have rebelled ia the in-
tolerable darkness of that hour. Father, saTS
me from this honr; the equivalent to the
prayer, " If it be possible, let this cup pass
from me," with its granid "nevertheless,"
etc. If this be its meaning, we have a
scene nearly, if not closely, identifiable with
the agony of the garden. TLo correction
which immediately follows augments the
comparison with the scene in Gcthsemane
recorded by the synoptists. The E.T. and
Bevised Yersion have put their note of in-
terrogation after rairiis into the margin, and
not into the text. Ewald, Lan^o, Kling,
Tholuck, Lachmann, aocei)t this punctu-
ation, and Godet regards it as an hypo-
thetical prayer, although he does not place
the interrogation after rairiis. The self-
interrogation of the previous ntterance at
least reveals the presence of such a desire,
but one which vanishes as the mysterious hour
engulfs and wrups him round. If this be
the true interpretation, then the chiuse that
follows must be, ITay, this I cannot bay, for
on account of this very conflict — for this
oause — only to fight this great batllo— I
oame steadily forward to this hour. I can-
not pray to escape from it U, however, we
have the expression of an actual though
momentary prayer, and if we give it the
meaning, " bring me safely through and out
of this hour," it corresponds with the Divine
trust in the Father's love which, in the
extremity of the anguish and desertion, he
yet reveals, and the iwd becomes equiva-
lent to " Nay, this I need not say ; the end
is known" (Westcott). I know that I shall
be delivered, for this cause, vis. that I should
encounter and pass through the hour I eame
into the world, and have reached the final
crisis. This is, to my mind, more satis-
factory; the interrogative prayer gives a
sentimental character to the utterance out
of harmony with the theme. Godet thinks
that the fact that, according to the synoptists,
our Lord in the garden did aotnaUy offer
the prayer which he Aere hesitates to present,
is evidence of the historic character of both
accounts. I differ from him, because the
sublime answer to the prayer here given
would seem to preclude the necessity oF the
final conflict. The circumstance tiiat he
did offer the prayer as interpreted above,
a prayer which was veritably heard, is in
harmony with the narrative of the agony.
Vers. 28, 29. — A heavy thunder-cloud
seems to hang over him; for a moment a
break in the darkness, a rift in the clouds,
presents itself, and, though ke might have
prayed for legions of angels, he did not.
The second Adam knows the issue of the
tremendous trial, and, in full apprdicnsion
of the answer te his deiepest prayer, he cries.
Father, glorify thy Name. The "thy" is
14S
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xn. 1—60.
emphatic. A oontraat is implied between
the eternal glory and the glory of the Christ.
"I am thine; thou art mine ; " "Thy will
be done;" "Not as I will, bat as thou
wilt;" " K this cup cannot pass away from
me except I drink it, thy will be done;"
" Not my will, but thine be done." I bare
my breast for the blow ; I yield my tfivxh
absolutely to thy control I Ood glorifies him-
self in many ways, and here we see the
highest point to which the human can rise.
Oodet calls attention to the extraordinary
mistake made by Colani, who fuunds a
charge against the Gospel itself on the suppo-
sition that these solemn words were, "Father,
glorify my Name." The synoptists tell us
that at the baptism (Matt. iii. 17) and at
the Transfiguration (Matt. xvii. 5) a literal
voice of words was heard from heaven con.
veying intelligible ideas to John the Baptist
and subsequently to Peter, James, and John.
And here the same John (son of Zebedee)
records, not only that such a kind of voice
was repeated on this occasion, but reports
the very words themselves. There came
therefore a voice ont of heaven, taying, I
have both glorified it, and will glorify it
again. These words many of the crowd
round about him, as well as Jesus him-
self, distinctly heard. The multitude that
stood by said, It has thundered; hearing
oidy a voice of thunder. It will not, how-
ever, on that account be fair to this evan-
gelist to say (with Paulus, Lticke, and even
Hengstenberg) that there was no objective
audible voice which any ear beside that of
Jesus could hear, and which none but the
mind of Jesus could interpret. It is not
BufBcient to say " that the thunder and the
voice were identical." Hengstenberg quotes
numerous passages from the Old Testament
where thunder was interpreted to mean the
"voice of Jehovah" (1 Sam. lii. 18; Ps.
xxix. ; Job xixvii. i; Ps. xviii. 13), but
there are numerous passages both in the Old
Testament and in the Gospels and Acts
where an objective voice was heard. Such
voice was at times accompanied by thunder,
but not in the majority of cases. In the
promises made in the garden of Eden, in
the call of Moses and Samuel, and in the
communion that passed between the Lord
and Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Gideon,
Samuel, Solomon, and Elijah, Jehovah spake
in audible words without such auxiliary.
When communications were made to Eli, to
David, to Hezekiab, and others, they were
given by the lips of prophetic men. When
the Law was given to all the tribes of Israel,
the thunder-trumpet was exceeding loud and
lonr, and the people could not bear the
awral experience, so that the Lord was
pleased to speak to Moses only, and lie was
to conmanieate with the people. The case
of Elijah is remarkable because the " still
small voice" is distinguished from the
thunder, etc., which had preceded it. Why
should Hengstenberg have refrained horn
giving these Old Testament facts their
proper weight? The rationalistic view
would make the words spoken to have been
the inference that either Jesus or John drew
&om a clap of thunder, and must conclude
that the crowd, so far as the ojective fact
was concerned, were practically in the right.
The narrative itself recounts a varied appre-
ciation of a distinct and objective fact.
Those who were not alive to any voice from
heaven confounded it with tliunder, lowered
the Divine communication down to an
ordinary natural fact. Others, i.e. " a few
. others," were much nearer to the reality when
they said, An angel hath spoken to him (com-
pare reference to the angelic aid that came
to the Lord in Gethsemane). The voice of
God's plenipotentiary angel speaking in hia
Name, was recognized as a supernatural
communication, though the meaning of it
was not grawped (cf. the voice with which
Jesus spoke to Paul on the way to Damascus).
But we may reasonably suppose that these
Greeks, that the disciples who surrounded
Jesus, that the beloved John, found in the
voice a direct answer to the previous sublime
cry of the Lord The prayer, " Father, glorify
thy Name," received the answer, I have both
glorified it, and will glorify it again; t.«.
In thy work and life hitherto, as Prophet,
Master, Example, as my beloved Son, my
Name has already been glorified in thee, and
now in thy approaching sacrificial agony in
which thou wilt liecome perfect as a Priest-
King, and the Author of eternal salvation,
" I will glorify it again."
Yer, 30. — Jesus answered to the confused
murmur of remark, and said, This voice
hath not oome for my sake, but for your
sakes. This surely establishes, on the autho-
rity of Jesus, the objective character of the
revelation. "It was necessary that you
should hear and know and feel who and
what I am." Ever thinking of others, liviug
in them, he thinks of their spiritual advan-
tage now. Thoma says tliat whereas the
whole scene corresponds with the synoptic
account of Gethsemane, it is idealized on
the basis of the Johannine idea of the
Divine Lamb and the Logos in flesh, and
that Jesus here shows that he needed no
streng^thening, as the objective revelation
was entirely for the sake of others, and not
for his own consolation. This ingenious cri-
ticism of Thoma rests on the unjustifiable
hypothesis that the scene before us did not
precede the agony of the garden, but was a
bare invention of the evangelist, because the
latter ruled that Gethsemane needed "ideali-
zation." Why should not the two scenw
to. xn. 1—50.] THE GOSPEL ACCOBDING TO ST. JOHN.
148
be equally true, TereaUng the fundamental
identity of character and personality, the
one, moreover, preparing for the other? (See
notes on oh. xiz.)
Vers. 31 — 36. — 5. Thejudgmentofthis world.
Ver. 31. — Still more emphatically does
Christ expound the heavenly voice, and vin-
dicate for himself the most solemn position
with reference to the world and its prince.
The " world," or humanity evolving itself to
the highest form of a complicated civilization,
was present to him far more vividly than
when the tempter showed him all the king-
doms of the world and tlie glory of them.
Instead of holding them in royal fee of the
devil, and of compelling tliem to do his bid-
ding, he declares that his hour, which had
come,was an hour of judicial condemnation for
the world. The corruption of the world, the
radical injury done to human nature, starts
out on its beautiful and decorated front lilte
the leprosy did on the face of Naaman. Now
is a judgment of the world. Observe, not ri
Kpiffts. This is compatible with the stato-
ments of oh. iii. 17 — 19, and not inconsistent
with the frequent references in ch. v. to the
" last day." Because John gives prominence
to the great principles of judgment, and
implies that the boolss of remembrance and
condemnation are .written all over indelibly
by the hand of the world itself, there is
no proof that the Lord (in John) says
nothing of the great catastrophic judg-
ments of which the synoptic Cfoapels pre-
serve the prophecy. Our Lord has rather
revealed (according to John) the principles
which make the judgment of the great day
credible. What a man has become at any
epoch of his existence, what a nation is
about at any crisis of its history, whatsoever
act represents the spirit of the whole world,
is in -each case the judgment which God, by
his providence, passes upon him or it. Still
more impressively with a second, Now, he
adds, shall the prince of this world be cast out.
Tlie phrase, " arohon of this world," is a well-
known later Hebraic phrase for " the ruler of
the darkness of this world," tlie shir-dlam
•f the rabbinical books, the angel of death,
to whom was entrusted the fulership of the
world outside of the sacred family. Christ
declares that his own hour, in which the
world aad its prince would seem to be
triumphant, would be the hour when he
should be cast out of earth as he had been
already cast out of heaven. This expulsion
and destruction of the power and works of
the devil was one great end assigned to the
manifestation of the Sou of God (1 John iU.
8). It is important, however, to notice the dif-
ference of tenses. " Now i« the judgment of
this world," — this is the immediate result of
his death ; " Now shall the prince of this
world ha cast out" describes the gradual
victory of tmth, whleh !• punned mole
explicitly in the next verse.
Vers. 32, 33.— And I, if I bo lifted out of (or,
from) the earth, will draw all (men) to myself.
Now this he spake, signifying by what death
he was about to die. "t^adSi has been by
Meyer, as well as many of the Fathers,
referred to the Lord's resurrection and ascen-
sion. The iic T^s 7^s would certainly be in
favour of it, and be a possible rendering if
we hold (with Westcott and others) that
resurrection and uplifting from the earth
involve and presuppose a previous death, or
that John always speaks of Christ's death
as itself a glorious thing, as itself the com-
mencement of the supreme glory of the
Son of man. On the other hand — ^though
this idea is reiterated by the opponents of
the Fourth Gospel — there is nothing in the
New Testament which makes the cross of
Christ in itself a symbol of the exaltation of
Jesus. Moreover, the next verse compels a
closer reference to " the way in which he
was about to die" — a mode of departure
admirably expressed by the term " uplift-
ing." The language of Jesus to Nioodcmns,
in which the same word occurs in describing
the lifting up of the Son of man after the
fashion in which the serpent was uplifted in
the wilderness, confirms this interpretation
of the evangelist, which we have no cUim
to traverse (of. also oh, xviii. 32 ; xxi. 19).
Christ declared that the attraction of the
cross would be mightier- than all the fasci-
nation of the prince of this world. The word
cAKiio-oi, " I vrill draw," is applied elsewhere
(oh. vi. 44) to th e Father's work of grace, which
preveniently prepares men to come to Christ.
In these words we learn that the attraction
of the cross of Christ will prove to be the
mightiest and most sovereign motive ever
brought to bear on the human will, and,
when wielded by the Holy Spirit as a revela-
tion of the matchless love of God, will involve
the most sweeping judicial sentence that can
be pronounced upon the world and its prince.
Inch. xvi. 11 the beliefor the conviction that
the prince of this world has been already
condemned (KCKpiTai) is one of the great
results of the mission of the Comforter.
Ver. 34. — The audience of Jesus on this
occasion has swollen into a vast group. The
few Greeks, with Philip and Andrew, the
other disciples, the smaller circle of sympa-
thetic listeners, the disturbed and feverish
crowd, are all about him, as he claims bj
death itself to judge the world, to win all
men, and cast out the spirit and prince of
the world from his usurped throne. The
multitude then ' answered him. We heard —
' The olv is inserted by Tischendorf (8th
edit.) and K.T., with N, B, L, X. Laob-
mann, Tregelles, and T.B. omit it
lu
THE GOSPEL AOCOEDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xn. 1—50.
receired information by public teaching —
out of the Law that the Christ abideth for
evei. Numeroni passage* may have been
reasonably in their minds — Ps. ex. ; Isa. ix. ;
Bzek. xxiTii. 25; Dan. vii. 13, 14 — in which
the glories of an everlasting kingdom were
predicted. In ver. 23 the Lord had in their
hearing spoken of himself ai " Son of man."
Meyer, by giving the dominant sense of
glorification to the irl/dBa, thinks that the
people must bo contrasting, in pert criticism,
the lowly " Son of man " before them with
the " Sou of man " of Daniel's vision. But
it would be far more probable that the
people accepted Christ's intimation of the
manner of his death, and hence felt the
incongruity of such a Son of man — One who
dies, and therefore lives again — with the
glowing pictures of Daniel or the ' Book of
Henoch.' "The Christ abideth for ever."
And how sayest thou that the Son of man
must be lifted up t Who is this Son of man 1
They did not identify " the Sou of man " with
the Messiah. They probably supposed two
manifestations. They may have doubted, as
John the Baptist did, whether Jesus had ful-
filled the whole conception of the ipv^/ifpos.
It was once more a vague, dull inquiry, " Who
ait thou? " We are still in doubt who thou
art, and how thou canst claim to be the
Christ of OUT prophecies. To be our Christ,
and die, is a contradiction in terms.
Ver. 85. — Christ's reply is introduced with
a simple thtv. Jesus' therefore said to them,
not in answer to their question, but by
taking up a title of dignity that he had
claimed before. He evidently assumes to be
the Light of the world (eh. viii. 12), and
now the time is almost over when they could
■ee its lustre or discern other things, either
themsel ves, or their sini, or this world, or the
next world, by that Light. The time for
further instruction, or remonstrance, or decla-
rations is at an end. The evangelist sums
up, in vers. 41 — 50, the general substance of
our Lord's teaching with reference to him-
self and his disciples and the world which
would not believe; and thus, then, in a
wonderful way, justifies, as it were, the non-
answer to the captious question, " Who is
this Son of man ? " Tet a little while is the
light amongst you. The " little while" of
our Lord's day of ministry was often upon
his lips (ch. vii. 33; xiii. 33; xiv. 19; xvi.
16). Verily to Ids consciousness it must
have been but ■■ tiie twinkling of an eye,
and now it was a very little while even for
his hearers. Based on this solemn fact, he
makes a last public appeal to individuals,
propounding gracious invitation, Divine pro-
mise, solemn warning ; and so he terminated
his public ministry, and vanished from before
them. As far as the memory of Iiis living
words and deeds might inftnsnce them, the
Light, though not among them, might still
shine, and the glory of Pentecost would
renew the appeal. Walk as ye have the
Light ; make progress in the understanding
of self, of duty, of time, of eternity, and act
accordingly. The &s is the reading pre-
ferred to the eas of the T.E. in this and
the following verse by Tisohendorf^ Meyer,
Westcott and Hort, and the Bevisers' text.
Meyer here differs from Godet and others who,
accepting the reading &s, give it, in virtue
of certain passages in the classics, the sense
of quamdiu, and justly maintains the sense
"as," "in the measure that." According
to the light that you see, walk, lest ('/to yu^,
" in order that not") darkness overtake you:
and he that walketh in the darkness knoweth
not whither he goeth; lest the possibility of
seeing the Divine revelation in me be taken
from you, and lest there be taken away &om
you that which you seem to have (of. Jer. xiiL
16). Then, in harmony with the great say-
ings of ch. ix. 4, 5 and xi. 9, "In the night
no man can work;" "In the night, when
men cannot see the light of this world, they
stumble over unseen perils and pitfaUs ; "
so here, he says, in the darkness that will
come upon men from making no use of the
Light of the world, "they will not know
whither they are going," they will find
no work, have no perception of imminent
danger, but, driven on and on by measure-
less force, they will drift over the fathom-
less unknown into infinite and endlese
suspense. When the Light of the world is
spurned, and a godless evolution made to
supply its place, humanity and the world
have no goal set before them; there is no
end at which they aim — no mind or will to
guide the progress of mankind.
Ver. 36. — But he concludes with one more
glorious invitation. As, up to this moment,
you have the Light, believe in the Light;
treat it as light— receive the revelation I
have given you (of. the ninth and eleventh
chapters); "Work while it is called to-day;"
"stumble not;" make no irreparable mis-
take. " Become " — so walk that ye may be-
come yourselves sons of Light, illumined and
luminous. This fine expression is found
in Luke xvi. 8; 1 Thess. v. 5; and, with
alteration of uiol into reKfo, in Epli. v. 8.
This last word, public word, of Jesus, which
was in part accepted by some of his hearers,
as we see from ver. 42, corresponds with the
Beatitudes, and sustains one at least of the
main theses of the prologue: "The Life
was the Light of men." These things spake
Jesus, and departed, and was hidden from
them. TMs utterance records the close of
the Lord's public ministry, and therefore the
solemn termination of the various scenes
and discourses preserved in the synoptie
narrative. The people of his love saw hiai
OH. xn. 1—60.] THE GOSPEL ACOORDINO TO ST. JOHN.
146
no more till he appeared as a criminal in
the bandi of the ofBcers of the Sanhedrin,
on his way to the Prtetorinm. In the silence
of the home at Bethany he probably spent
the last day of his earthly ministry, which
terminated in the marvellous converse at
the Last Supper. "This time it was no
mere cloud which obscured the sun, for to
them the sun itself had set." And now,
through several verses, the evangelist pre-
sents his own reflections on the cause of
the strange paradoxical proceeding which
led "his own" not to receive him.
Vers. 37—43.-6. The rejleetimu of the
evangeliet.
Ver. 37. — ^Though he had done so many
ligns in their presence, yet they beUeved not
on him. (TotraSra is discriminated from
Toiot/TB, Plat., 'Gorgias,' p. 456, o. The
passages oh. vi. 9; xiv. 9; xxi. 11, are
generally held to establish the meaning of
" so many," rather " so great ; " the proof is
not conclusive.) If "so many" be the cor-
rect reading, John is simply implying what
he elsewhere expresses, that a widespread
knowledge was possesseil by him of groups
of miraculous signs, of which herecorded only
seven crucial symbolic specimens ; (1) wine ;
(2) bread; (3) walking on the sea; (4) heal-
ing nobleman's son; (5) healing impotent
man; (6) resurrection of Lazarus; to be
followed by (7) the healing of the ear of
MalchuB, and the resurrection of the Lord
himself, (a) Signs in heaven, earth and
sea ; (6) startling miracles on human nature,
and (c) on dead men, did not compel belief.
The inaccessibility of the people reveals
their mental condition, but no reproach is
thrown upon the method which the Lord
took to reveal bis Divine mission. The
tragic refrain still echoes on, "He came
unto his own, and his own received him
not."
Ver. 38. — ^In order that the words of Isaiah
the prophet might be fulfilled, whioh he
spake, Lord, who believed onr report) or
the message which the prophets bare
delivered — the prediction they made of a
suffering and rejected Christ, of One who
would " sprinkle many nations," and in the
very " travail of his soul see his seed." To
whom was the arm of the Lord revealed 1
It does not mean that no hearts responded
to the appeal, that the voice from heaven
fell on no susceptible ears; but that it is one
of the anomalies of human life tliat man
does seem so insensible to. his own highest
interests. Prophets are always wondering
at the condition of mankind. Even Jesus
marvelled at the unbelief of his hearers.
The \6yos of Isaiah shows that prophets
foresaw the issue of the kind of reception
that a people who had been so faithless to
Jeh*vah'i lesser manifestations would giro
to the most amazing of all his self-dis-
closures. The Iva irXripuef mast not be
explained away, the outline was presented
by Isaiah of the reception which the
favouied but prejudiced and hardened house
of Israel gave to Divine revelations. It
would be filled in by the events which were
then about to be enacted. God's Intuition
of actual facts, his unconditional foreknow-
ledge of all contingent phenomena, do not
necessitate their occurrence so as to deprive
sinners of their guilt; yet when they have
occurred, the causes which produced the
widespread unbelief in the days of Isaiah
were seen to be still at work, and to account
for the strange incomprehensible mystery
that blindness in part had happened to
Israel. God works by law, and works freely
by men and in them, not only foreseeing
the evil and blindness, but positively
punishing sin by blindness, taking away
from a man that which he seemeth to have.
By this means the "altar was built, the
wood and the knife " for the great sacrifice.
The use made of various portions of this
oracle, by the Lord, by evangelists, by the
apostles, by the deacon Philip, by Paul and
Peter, shows that the early Church regarded
it as the detailed description of the character
Buffering, and work of Christ. It became
virtually a portion of the New Testament,
and it was practically treated as such by
Btimabas (o. 5, 'Ep. to Diog.,' o. 49) and
Justin Martyr (1 ' Apol.,' o. 50). The fifty-
third of Isaiah may have been imperfectly
understood by its author, may in his mind
have had this, that, or the other original
reference, and have suffered various Judaic
interpretations. Modern criticism may scoff
at it as a Messianic prophecy. AU this
does not touch the patent fact that nearly
all the writers of the New Testament and
numerous classes in the early Church used it
as descriptive of their idea of Chri8t'q,work.
It thus becomes of priceless value.
Vera. 39, 40. — In these verses, however, a
deeper difflcnlty still is involved. The Sih
toOto , . . 'in leave us no option (see ch. vii.
21, 22) but to translate : Ttoi from this
reason they were unable to believe (see
other illustrations of the usage, cb. v. 18;
viii. 47 ; 1. 17). There was a moral impossi-
bility inherited by them through ages of
rebellion and insensibility to Divine grace,
and through their misuse of Divine revela-
tion. The issue of it was, " they could not
believe." Because Isaiah said again ; i.e. in
anoffier place; illustrative of this great Mes-
sianic oracle and the reception it would meet
with from the nation as a whole. In the
passage which follows we have a translation
whioh does not directly correspond with
either the Hebrew or the LXX. of ba. vi. 9,
10. The prophet is Udden by the Loid ta
14«
THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xn. 1—60.
punish the people for their obdnraoy by blind-
ingtbeiieyes and hBTdening their heart, and
even arresting the conversion and healing
of the covenant people. This same solemn
passage is quoted in four other places in
the New Testament. Perhaps Luke viii. 10
is hardly to be regarded as a citation; a
small portion only of the passage is intro-
duced from the prophet without reference
to him, and this is inverted in order. In
Matt. xiii. 14, 15 there is the nearer approach
to the LXX., which, however, transforms
the piDE' lypE", " to hear, hear ye," into dicop
oKoiffere, "by hearing ye shall hear;" and
similarly with the other clauses, — the im-
perative of God's command to the propliet
being resolved into the future of most
certain accomplishment, and in place of
" Lest they understand with their heart, and
convert, and be [God] heal them," LXX.
reads, " Lest . . . should convert, and I [who
give you the command to deliver such a
message, notwithstauding its results upon
them] heal them." This St. Matthew haa
followed. Mark iv. 12 has given a different
representation again, and, while omitting a
considerable poi-tion of the passage, passes
to the climax, which is put thus : " Lest they
should be converted, and their sin should
be forgiven them," showing that the evan-
gelist, looking to the Hebrew rather tlian to
the LXX., has resolved its meaning into a
dearly related paraphrase. In Acts xxviii.
26, 27 the passage almost verbally follows
the LXX. Here in the remarks of St. John
the whole passage seems independent of the
LXX., and to have resolved the Hebrew
"imperative," addressed to the prophet,
into an awful assurance of Divine agency
in the matter. Instead of "shut their
eyes," Hebrew imperative, or LXX. " their
eyes they closed," iKiiJ-iivaav, LXX., he says,
T€Ti<f>\aKiv, He hath blinded their eyes;
and so with the other terms : He hardened '
their heart; in order that they should not
(lest they should) see with their eyes, and
perceive with their heart, and should turn,
and I should heal them. In liau>imi the
evangelist, returning to the first person,
draws a distinction between the retributive
activity of the pre-existent Christ of the
earlier revelation and the historical Saviour.
There is no slip or negligence. Godet and
Hengstenberg go a long way in making
God the Author of the sin and rejection,
and tlie cause of the impossibility of their
repentance and healing. That which in all
the several quotations of this passage we
learn from Isaiah's oracle is that the un-
• nenApaxev of T.K. is replaced by
i-rdpaaev, by R T. with Tiechendorf (Sth
edit.), Tregelles, Allbrd, and A, B. K also
Uai an emendation of iwnpmriiaay.
forced and wilful rejection of the Divin*
Word is visited by condign withdrawm«nt
of the faculty to receive even more acoessibla
and apprehensible truth. This is the great
law of Divine operation in the nature of all
moral beings. This law is described as a
distinctly foreseen event, and by LXX. ej
an apprehensible and even conspicuous fact,
and it is quoted by St. John as the direct con-
sequence of the Divine activity. He does
not mean to say that, because Isaiah fore-
told this as a Divine reprobation, they,
whether they would or not as individuals,
were fated to die the death of blindness, but
they could not believe, because, on the
principle involved in Isaiah's predictions,
the Divine government had fulfilled itself,
had acted upon its universal law, and in
consequence of vows and acts of wilful dis-
obedience, they had thus fallen into the curse
that belongs to a neglect of the Divine.
" Tliey could not believe." Thus even now
disinclination to God and to righteousness
leads to moral incapacity. Sin is pimished
by its natural consequences : unbelief is
punished by un susceptibility to clearest
evidence; prejudice by blindness; rejection
of Divine love by inability to see it at its
best. How is this natural evolution brought
about? Surely by laws of God. What are
these laws but God's ways of acting with
all moral agents whatever ?
Ver. 11. — These things said Isaiali, be-
cause ' he saw his glory, and he spake of him.
By this reference to the theophany of Isa.
vi. 1, 2 the evangelist here identifies Christ
with the Adonai whom the prophet saw in
his vision, and thus expresses his conception
of the Christ (comp. 1 Cor. x. 4 ; Phil. ii.
6). Because the prophet saw the glory of
Christ, the unutterable majesty of the
" Word of Grod," he delivered, as we know,
this tremendous burden. Few utterances of
the New Testament convey in more startling
form the conviction of the apostles touching
the pre-existence of the Lord, and the iden-
tification of the Divine Personality of the
Chiist, with the highest conception that the
Hebrew prophet entertained of the Almighty
One, of the eternal G^head.
Ver. 42. — ^There are several iUustrations
in this verse that the diction of the evange-
list differs from that which he uses when
recording the words of Christ. Thus S^ws
fieyroi is peculiar to John himself, and thus
is an o(ira{ \ey6iiiyov I but ftevToi occurs five
' 'Ot€, "when," of D, r, A, other nncials
and Fathers, in T.R. and Authorized Ver-
sion, is a correction probably from Srt, whioh
is preferred by Lachmann, Meyer, Tregellei,
Tischendorf (Sth edit.), Westoott and Hort,
B.T., K, B, L, M, X, 1, 33, and nnmeioiia
quotations.
OH. xn. 1—50.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
147
times in the style of John himself (see ch.
iv. 27; vii. 13; xii. 42; xx. 5; ixi. 4), not
once by our Lord. 'Ono\oye!v again is used
four times by the evangelist, and seven
times in the Epistles and Apocalypse, but
never pnt by him into the lips of Jesus.
Kevertheless many of the rulers believed on
him. These words are used, not to mitigate
the charge, but to show that, though indi-
viduals did believe, even among the rulers,
they had not courage to avow their faith.
The instances of Niwidemns and Joseph and
others lie upon the surface. Godet thinks
rather of Gamaliel and the like, " the Eras-
muses of those days." Theirs was, indeed,
an hypocrisy of unbelief, and it is not al-
together banished from the modem world,
and notwithstanding Christ's rejection by the
nation as a nation, individuals saw his glory
and believed. It is still true of municipali-
ties, nations, even Churches, that they reject
Christ, while individuals among them are
moulded by and obedient to the faith. But
by reason of the Pharisees — our Lord's most
deadly enemies, from oh. i. to ch. xii. — ^they
were making no confession— or, achnmiiledg-
ment — of his claims, lest they should he pnt
out of the synagogue; become the excommu-
nicate, fall under, the terrible ban (see ch.
ix. 22). The fear of class exclusion, the
dread of running counter to the current
opinion of the Church or the world, has led
to much of the misery of both.
Ver. 43. — The generalization is given as
» reason, For they loved the glory (Si^a,
very nearly in the original Greek use of the
word, " opinion," •' good reputation ") of men,
very much mora (finep, another New Testa-
ment, Siro| \ey6iuvov, occurring in the narra-
tive portion of John, and a mode in which
the negative force of the ^ is heightened ;
see Meyer, Jelf, p. 779, and English edition
of Winer, p. 549) than the glory of God.
The form of the expressions, "of God" and
"of men," is different from the Traph toS
niyov Beov and vapa itJ^Xav of ch. V. 44,
and the statement li apparently incon-
sistent with the declaration that those in
such a state of mind "could not believe."
Moulton suggests that the glory here
thought of by the apostle was the "glory"
of ver. 41— the glory of the union of the
Bedeemer with his people, the glory of
suffering and death. The reference to Isa.
vl appears to be the true solution. The
glory of God himself in his awful holiness
was of less interest than the glory of the
8anhedrin and the approval of the world.
Alas! this glory is nearer, more obvious,
and has more to do with tangible, sensuous,
advantages, than the Divine approval
Yen. 44 — 50.— 7. Tk» lummation of (he
lupnme tomfivi Mwaen ouir Lord and th«
world. The portion of the ohaptar whiek
follows is regarded by most oommentatsn,
Lficke, Meyer, Godet, Olshausen, and Weit-
cott, as a summary of our Lord's teaching,
as a reiteration by the evangelist of those
salient points of the Lord's ministry which,
while they are the life of the world, are
nevertheless the grounds on whieh blinded
eyes and hardened hearts rejected him.
Vers. 44 — 46 characterize the believer;
vers. 47, 48 emphasize Christ's relation to
the unbeliever; vers. 49, 50 the principle
upon which both deliverances turn and wiU
continue to turn. There are those who
think that these were special private ad-
dresses to the disciples, uttered after onr
Lord (eKpi07i) was hidden, but the word
(^Kf)a{e) "cried aloud," would not then have
been used, as it was used for the most pub-
lic expressions of his doctrine, when given
once for all (here comp. ch. vii. 28, 37, with
Luke xviii. 39). Eeim, De Wette, Baur,
and Hilgenfeld think that, because there is
no fresh departure here, it is proof that all
the discourses of Christ in John are simi-
larly put together with no historical basis.
But if it be so, this differs strangely from all
the rest of our Lord's discourses recorded by
John in that it has no occasion, or persons,
or opportunity to which it seems to fit.
Certain aorists suggest the idea that John
has here given specimens of our Lord's
appeals which had ended in his being re-
jected by the nation as a whole. Lnthardt
takes the view of these words being spoken
iotidem verbis on our Lord's departure, and
with him Hengstenberg also agrees. These
critics suppoB* that they form the closing
words of our Lord's public ministry, delayed
by the intercalary remarks of the evangelist,
and reaUy belong to the close of the thirty-
sixth verse. Though the expressions that
follow are built upon the discourses else-
where uttered, we admit, with Hengstenberg,
that there is no verbal parallel that is
at all dose, and that therefore the evange-
list must not be quoting from what he had
already reported, but giving the substance
of a threefold class of observations found
from one end of the Gospel to the other, and
in words that be had heard the Master naa.
Vers. 44, 45. — Jesu eiied and said. He
that helieveth on w», believeth not on »%
148
THE GOSPEL ACCOKDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xn. 1— 6a
but on him that sent me; and he that
beholdeth me, beholdeth him that sent me.
These words do mot occur before, but in
eveTy fonu our Lord had exalted "him
that sent him." His doctrine or teach-
ing, his purpose in manifestation, the secret
food that sustained him, the Divine pre-
sence that never left him alone, the entire-
background of the mission of his human
will and life into the world, the object of
faith to men as revealed in his humanity,
and that which the spiritual eye ought to
see, nay — ^if the beholder did but know it does
see, constitute an unveiling of the eternal
Father who sent him into the world (see ch. iv.
34; v.36;vi.38:vii. 17,18,29; viii. 28, 42;
z. 38 ; of. also oh. ziv. 1, 9, 24). It becomes,
then, of high value to grasp the truth. We
actually believe in Ood when believing in
him. Hia mission is lost in the glory of God
who appears in him. So far as he is tent,
he was necessarily of lower order and rank
than he who sent him. His humanity began
to be in time; it was generated in the womb
of the Virgin ; it was sanctified and sent into
the world ; and yet through it there was the
higliest revelation of the Father. We can-
not attribute so stupendous a thought to the
evangelist, and at the same time we admit
the portentous singularity and uniqueness
of the consciousness which could thus aver
identity of nature with God and the com-
pleteness of revelation that the Speaker was
making in himself of the Father. ■
Ver. 46. — The revelation of God becomes
the light of the soul and the light of the
world. The evangelist had said, in his pro-
logue, " In him was life," and the Life (the
eternal Logos of life) was "the Light of
men." All true understanding, all piirifying,
gracious influence shed on human affairs,
nature, or destiny, are the it>sue and result of
the Divine Life which, under every dispensa-
tion, has wrought in humanity. Above all,
"the Light that lighteth every man," namely,
that which has always and which ever will
radiate from the life conferred on our hu-
manity by the Logos, the life of God in
mind and conscience, "came into the world"
— came, that is, in a new and more effective
form, came in the radiance of a perfect
human life. The evangelist has sustained
his teaching by quoting the solenm words of
Jesus in cb. iii. 19 ; viii. 12 ; also ch. iz. 5,
where a special narrative of miraculous love
typified both the need in which the human
family, the sacred Israel, and even his own
disciples, stood of light, and of the light
which he could pour upon the sightless eye-
balls. And now the connection of this pas-
sage is — ^Yon could not behold me if light did
n<rt stream forth from me. I have come, and
am com* (tx^Avf a, this has been and is my
kbtdbig jfwpoie; of. eh. t. 43 ; vii. 28} a Light
into the world, and my object has been and
is that whosoever believeth on me — whoso-
ever sees by the inward eye that which I
really am, sees how my life stands related to
the Father, whosoever assents to the new
revelation thus given, even over and above
the " inward light " of the Logos — shonld not
abide in the darkness which enwraps M
souls; for,as said in the prologue, "the Light"
(the archetypal Light) shineth upon the
darkness of human nature, and the <urkness
comprehendeth it not." It should be especi-
ally noticed that in 2 Cor. iv. 6 St. Panl
had grasped and nttered the fulness of this
thought.
Yer. 47. — If any one shall have heard mj
sayings, and have (guarded) kept ' them not.
Here our Lord passes from the effect of his
earthly life, which is light, to that of the
vxyrdt QniiiTo) by which the whole future
of mankind will be affected, and one is re-
minded of the close of the sermon on the
mount, where the condition of that man is
portrayed who hears the \6yovt of Ohrist
and doeth them not, whose destiny will be
determined by the natural course of things
(see Matt. vii. 26, 27). Keep (guard) than
not (see Matt. xix. 20). The "hearing" is
clearly not identical with spiritual accept-
ance, but is restricted to the awful charge
of responsibility that comes upon every man
who simply hears, knows what Christ's
words are, and then " keeps " them not so
as to fulfil their intention. Christ says, I
judge him not. I am not note pronouncing
a sentence upon him ; I am his Saviour ; but
this is his condemnation, that he believes
not, etc. (ch. iii. 17 — 19). Our Lord claimed,
in the sermon on the mount, to be the
Executer of a judgment, and in oh. v. 22 — ^29
he declared that he would be as Son of
man, the final Adjudicator of doom on the
disobedient (cf. Matt, zxv.), and in many
places he made this thought even more
solemn by speaking of himself on that
occasion, not as the comptusionate Saviour,
but the Administrator of an inviolable law,
which cannot be swayed by immediate
emotion, but will effectuate itself on eternal
and unswerving principles. The Law ac-
cuses— the old Law (ch. v. 45) — ^but I judge
him not; for X oame (^XfioK) not to judge,
but to save the world, referring to the In-
carnation in its purport and supreme motive.
Yer. 48. — He that rejeoteth me, and ra-
oeiveth not my sayings (^ij^rci), hath one
that judgeth him— perhaps, that uihich
' The T.E. reads irurTeiaji, with B, F, O,
H, M, S, and many other authorities; but
<pu\diji is the reading of N, A, B, D, K, L,
i, 13, 33, numerous versions, and is preferred
by Tisohendorf (8th edit.), Tiegellei, West.
eott and Hort, Godet, Meyer» and B.T.
OH. 3UI.1— 5a] THE GOSPEL AOOOBDING TO ST. JOHN.
149
judigeCh him — ^th* word Q^iyos) wMoh I
■pake, that will judge Mm at tha last day.
There is no more awful utteraiice than this
(comp. 1 John iv. 17; 2 Cor. v. 10, where
the irresistible power of a searching in-
violable Law is vindicated). How strange
that some critics should, with a view to
disparage the authenticity of the Gospel,
make it appear that there is no reference in
it to judgment to come, or to the last day,
and should deliberately ignore this feature
of the Johannine Gospel 1
Vers. 49, 50. — There is much emphasis to
be laid upon the 3ti, which implies that
our Lord would give a sacred reason for the
tremendous power with which his \6yui
would be invested. The \6yos, the ^rt/io, ii
not simply his; it did not proceed from
himself only, from his humanity, or even
his Divine Sonship alone, but from the
Father which sent me. He stood and spake
always as the Voice of the Eternal One, from
whom he came, with saving powers. He has
given me commandment what I should say,
and what I should speak. The two words
eiira and XaKitaa (dicam and loquar, Vul-
gate), though Heugstenberg says it is
frivolous to distinguish, are supposed by
Meyer, Westcott, and Godet, to discriminate
matter and form, as Godet says, " What I
should say, and how I should say it." My
words and their manner and opportunity
and tone are all of them the outcome of
the Father's 4pro\ii. It certainly is in-
credible that John could have put these
words into the lips of Jesus. They are no
mere summary. They are set down with
awful sincerity as having burned them-
selves into his memory. But the Lord
added, "I may be rejected and my words
spurned, and yet they may go on as appari-
tors of judgment, but however that may be,
and I know (o?Sa) that hii commandment, his
commission to me, is life eternal — ^is so now "
(of. oh. iil. 36; xvii. 8; 1 John t. 12, 13>
" The Law is ordained unto life," said Paul,
and " the goodnesi of God leadeth ns onto
repentance." The depth of thii snblime
experience goes down and back into the
eternal oounsels. The things which thera-
fore I ipeak (am speaking even at this
moment), even as the Father has said unto
me, BO I speak. " In rejecting me and my
words, men reject and insult the Father.
His word they dare to renounce, as solemn
and unalterable as the word spoken on
Sinai They not only reject me, but they
count themselves unworthy of eternal life.
They not only spurn Law, but love." Tlnu,
at the conclusion of the public ministry, the
evangelist sets forth, in a few burning words,
the theme of the prologue, so far as it ii
realized in the offer of a full revelation of
the Logos to the world in human flesh.
This Logos found adequate utterancs
through the human life and lips of Jesus.
"The Father has been ao amply revealed
tliat the non-believer and rejecter, who
hears and does not keep my sayings, is dis<
believing and rejecting him." These potent
words, and this wondbrt'ul conclusion of the
entire record of the public ministry of Jesus,
is the appropriate summary of teachings
which were now brought to a close. With-
out any exact parallels, they breathe the
spirit of the whole teaching, they supply
the basis of the prologue. It is, however,
clear that the style is different from the
prologue, and from the reflection of the
evangelist in previous verses. Just as the
whole Gospel is a series of recollections
which form from their own intrinsic glory
and truth a sacred inimitable whole, so
this tpuHegiv/m is » brief etangelium in
evangelio — a gathering up of the whole in
the narrow compass of a few precious lines.
Though "the hour" has come, it waits.
The comparison between this method of the
evangelist and that of th« apocalyptist is
Tery impressive.
H0MILETIC8.
Vers. 1 — ^11. — The tapper at Bethany. While the hostility of the J«ws grows day by
day, the devotion of our Lord's friends visibly increases.
I. The time or the supper. "Six days before the Passover." 1. The most
probahle opinion is that it took place on the day after the Jewish tahbatk. 2. The edict
of the authorities at Jerusalem respecting Jesus had no deterrent effect upon hi» friends
at Bethany. This feast is their answer to it.
IL The place op the supper. 1. It was, as we learn from the other evangelists,
hdd in the house of Simon the leper. Probably he had been healed by Jesus, and gave
the feast as a sign of his gratitude and love. 2. The guests were Jesus and his aposite* ;
llaxtha, who gave her personal service ; Mary, whose extraordinary act showed equal
faith and love ; and Lazarus, whose very presence glorified our Lord.
III. The act of Mart. " Then took Mary a pound of ointment of pure nard, Tery
costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair." 1. CWAef
tmmgelists mention thai the anointed hit head ; that, howaver, was a wmmtm emattesy.
loO THB GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. an. 1— Btt
Marjr'g act was an extraordinary mark of honour, for she anmnted Ui feet as well as
his head. 2. Her act was a virtwd consecration of Jesus to a Divine work, involving
death. 3. No apostle had ever, perhaps, sacrificed so much upon the Lord at Mary,
for her offering was " very costly." A loving heart judges no offering too preaous for
Christ.
IV. ThK HYPOORinOAL RBMON8TBAN0K OF JUDAS ISOABIOT. "Why WaS UOt tMs
perfume sold for two hundred pence, and the price given to the poor?" 1. It was
undoubtedly a large sum to expend for such a purpose. Says Mark (xiv. 5), " It might
have been sold for more than three hundred pence," a sum equal to the support of a work-
inp; man during a whole year. 2, The complaint of Judas was echoed by the other apostles.
" And they were angry at her " (Mark). How ready even good men are at times to
respond to the suggestions of selfish but plausible men I 3. The objection of Judas to
Mary's profusion was dictated in no degree by a genuine rega/rdfor the poor. " Now he
said this, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and kept the bag,
and took what was put in it." (1) Judas thought it would have been a wiser act for
Mary to entrust the value of this costly offering to his keeping. (2) It would have
given him a fresh opportunity of purloining from the common stock. (3) Mark how
a covetous heart grudges everything to Christ. (4) Mark the false motive that
prompted the remonstrance. How common is the tendency to undervalue a generous
act through envy or selfishness 1 (a) He had no compassion for the poor. (6) The
poor always had their share of the common fund provided for the apostles (ch. xiii. 29)
v. OuE Lord's vindication of Mary's devoteditess. " Let her alone : against
the day of my burial hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you; but
me ye have not always." 1. Mary utters not a word in her own vindication. 2. Jetut
vindicates her act, as having relation to his approaching buritU. (1) It was usual to
make such preparations for the grave. (2) Her act showed that she believed in his
approaching death. In this respect Mary saw further than the apostles themselves.
3. Faith honours a crucified as well as an ascended Lord. 4. The act of Mary now
begun was completed by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathsca. (Ch. lix. 40.) 5. Tltere
is a proper season for the honour or love to be shoum to those dear to us. (1) There will
never be wanting the poor to receive the tokens of a kindly heart. "For the poor
shall never cease out of the land " (Deut. xv. 11). (2) Jesus in his human life was
soon to disappear from the world.
VI. The ouRiosmr of the Jews coNCERNma Jesus. " Much people of the Jews
therefore knew that he was there : and they came not for Jesus' sake only, but that they
might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead." 1. The miradet he had
laroughtprofoundly interested the people in the Person of our Lord. 2. It wot curiosity
rather than conscience that led to the desire to see Lazarus as wM as Jesas. Cariosity,
however, is lawful and rijht when it leads to a serious inquiry into the facts.
VII. The fresh act or violence contemplated by the chief priests. " Now
the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus to death also." 1. The sacrifice
of one life often leads to the sa/yrijice of more. Yet what injury had Lazarus done?
2. The idea of the authorities was to destroy the living evidence of a most remarkdbU
miracle. 3. The cause of the bloody design was the effects of the miracle in adding to the
number of Christ's converts. " Because many of the Jews went away, and believed on
Jesus." (1) They not only withdrew from the communion of Judaism and the juris-
diction of the chief priests, (2) but became true disciples of Jesus. Nothing so enrages
the enemies of Christ as the enlargement of his kingdom.
Vers. 12 — 19. — I%e triumphal entry into Jerusalem. On the day after the feast at
Bethany, Jesus entered the city under circumstances of unusual public enthusiasm.
I. Consider the persons who accorded to hih this public hanifebtation of
FAVOUR. " On the next day a great crowd of people that were come to the feast, when
they heard that Jesus was come to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees, and went
forth to him, and cried, Husanna : Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the
Name of the Lord." 1. They were not Jews of Jerusalem, who were almost entirely
hostile to Jesus, but Galileeans who had come up to observe the Passover. These people
were far more receptive of truth than the people directly under the guidance of uie
religiona chiefs of the nation. 2. The palm branches were emMematie if trWrn^
OH. xn, 1— 6a] THE GOSPEL ACCORDlNa TO ST. JOHN. 161
ttreugth, and Joy. 8. Hie exdamation of the people, which it taken from Pi. exviU,, wot
a recognition of the Messiahship of Jesus.
II. CONBIDEB OUB LoBD's EESPONSB TO THE BALUTATI0N8 OF THB PEOPLE. " JesUS
haviDg found a young ass, sat thereon ; as it is written. Fear not, daughter of Zion :
behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt." 1. The action wan a Messianic sign
of hwmility. The ass is ag despised in the East as in the "West. The entry of Jesus
upon it set forth the essentially spiritual aspect of his Kingship. 2. 2%« quotation from
ancient prophecy might assure the Jews that this King would be no tyrant. 3. Yet the
true import of the sign was not directly understood even hy the disciples. " Now the
disciples understood not these things at the time." (1) The disciples were often " slow
of heart " to believe all that the prophets had spoken. (2) But, in the light of our
Lord's ascension, they saw the import of his action, and understood the part which
they themselves had contributed to it.
ni. The explanation of this demonstbation. "The multitude therefore that
was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave, and raised him from the dead,
bare him witness ; and for this cause also the multitude met him, because they had
heard that he had done this miracle." Both the Jews of Jerusalem and the strangers
bore witness to the miracle which led to the demonstration It shows how profound
was the impression made by the miracle.
IV. The effect of the dbmonstbation on the Phaeisebs. " Whereupon tho
Pharisees said among themselves, You see that you prevail nothing ; behold, the whole
world is gone away after him." 1. TWs is the language of weak and irresolute despair.
2. They seem to bktme each other for the frustration of their plans. 3. They evidently
deem that the time is past for mere half-measures, and are prepared to adopt the more
energetic and extreme measures suggested by Caiaphas.
Vers. 20 — 36. — The interview of the Chreekswith Christ. This is the only incident
recorded between tho entry into Jerusalem and the institution of the Lord's Supper.
I. The siqnificance of this interview. " And there were certain Greeks among
them that carae up to worship at the feast." 1. They were not Gentiles, hut proselytes
of the gate, of Gentile extraction, who had been admitted to JeuHsh privileges. They
came to the Passover as reverent and earnest worshippers. 2. They probably belonged
to one of the Greek cities of Decapolis, which were full of Greeks. These cities were on
the other side of the sea of Galilee. Thus we understand their application to Philip of
Betbsaida in the first instance. 3. It is significant that Philip and Andrew were the
only disciples whose names are of Oreek origin. 4. The request of the Greeks was for
a private conversation with Jesus on religious subjects. " We would see Jesus." 5. It
is significant that these Greeks should bring our Lord into relation with the Gentile
world at the end, as the Magi from the East did at the beginning. 6. It is still more
significant that these proselytes of the Gentiles should be so anxious to see .Tesits at a time
when the Pharisees were taking steps for his destruction in a spirit of the deepest hate.
7. The interview was readily conceded, after the two disciples consulted cautiously with
one another about the matter, as they must have remembered our Lord's words, " I am
not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
II. Odb Lobd'b answeb to the application of the Gbeekb. It is, in substance,
that the extension of the gospel to the Gentiles was conditioned by his death. 1. The
presence of the Greeks suggests the thought of tlie scattered sheep for whose gathering the
Shepherd must lay down his life. (Ch. x. 16 — 19.) Jesus sees already "the other sheep "
as ready to be gathered into the fold. (1) His language implies that the hour of his
Passion was at hand. " The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified." (2)
It implies that the conversion of the Greeks would be a chief feature in his glorification.
(3) It implies that his human nature would be exalted. It is as the Beprcsentative of
humanity that Jesus is to be glorified. 2. Jesus states the condition of his commum-
eating blessing to the Gentiles. " Except a com of wheat fall into the earth and die, it
abideth alone : but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." (1) The principle here
stated is true of all life. The particle of grain seems to be dead, but there is lodged in
it the possibility of a manifold life. The seed by dying is united to the life that
quickens all seeds. (2) The principle is illustrated in the life of Christ (a) Hit
death took him out of the loneliness of his unapproachable glory an<L eonneoted him
16a THE OOSPBL ACCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xn. 1— 5^
with ^« whole race of nutn. Throngh his death a new life went forth to millioiu.
(5) If he had not died, he would have heen confined to one spot of earth, and the
Spirit'i influences would have been confined to his own Person. But by his death the
Spirit became uniyenally diffused. (3) The principle is illustrated in Christian life,
(a) Sin isolates the sinner. (6) But when lie " dies unto sin and lives unlo God," he
is delivered from solitude. He is no longer alone. He is the member of a heavenly
family. 3. Jesus atserti his oton subjection to that fundamental law which he so often
applied to his disciples. "He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth
his life in this world shall keep it in life etemaL' (1) There is a love of this mere
physical life that imperils the higher life. If Jesuh had not died, he would not have
been glorified. His life would have been sterile. (2) There is a reward involved in the
sacrifice of the present life in the cause of God. 4. The claims of disoipleship. (1)
The Lord's service implies a close following of the Master. " If any man serve me,
let him follow me." They must obey his doctrine and imitate his example. (2)
Faithful service will be rewarded by the servant being eternally associated in glory
with the Master. "And where I am, there also shall my servant be." (3) The
Father will crown with dignity those who serve his Son in a holy obedience. " If any
man serve me, him will my Father honour." 6. Jesus is deeply moved at the prospect
of his approaching sorrows. " Now is my soul troubled ; and what shall I say ? Father,
save me out of this hour ; but for this cause came I to this hour. Father, glorify thy
Name." (1) The shock had already come. John does not mention the agony of Geth-
semane, but it is really true. The very words of that scene occur here. (2) There is
one element of perplexity implied in this deep trouble. "What shall I say?" The
thought of deliverance was present to the mind, but not admitted. The prayer which
would have delivered him would have been the ruin of the world. (3) The prayer
actually offered was not for deliverance from death, but for deliverance out of death, as
the word signifies in the original. It is a prayer to be brought safely out of the conflict.
(4) The real design of this suffering was that he might win a victory over sin and
death. " But for this cause came I to this hour." (5) His exemption from suffering
would have been inconsistent with the glory of God. "Father, glorify thou me."
6. 2%e Father's approval of the Son's consecration. " Then came there a voice from
heaven : I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." (1) It was a real articulate
voice, not a mere sound of thunder, though the multitude may not have imderstood the
words uttered from heaven. (2) The glorification past referred to the voices at his
baptism and his transfiguration, in^which the Father's character was revealed along with
his own Sonship. (3) The glorification in the future would follow from the universal
proclamation of the gospel to a sinful world. 7. Jesus explains what is involved in the
glorification of the Father's Name by himself. " This voice came not because of me,
but for your sakes." It was designed to convince the people of the true purport of his
mission. (1) It was for the judgment of the world. " Now is the judgment of this
world." ^e cross would disclose the moral condition of man, and reveal the secrets of
hU hearts ; and, above all, their attitude toward Christ. (2) It was for the casting out
of Satan. " Now shall the prince of this world be cast out." (a) Satan is a usurper,
and thus the "god of this world," "the spirit that worketh in the children of dis-
obedience." (6) It is natural that the judgment of the world should be followed by
the casting out of its ruler, (c) Christ, by his death, will deliver men fi'om the dominion
(rf Satan and the slavery of sin. (3) It was for the accession of the true Sovo'eign
to his kingdom. " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto
me." (a) He refers here to the manner of his death. He is to be lifted up on the
cross ; yet he points likewise to the ascension which is to follow his death. He will
thus be freed from all earthly ties, and placed in immediate relation to the whole world
of man, that he may become " Lord of all " (Bom. x. 12). (6) The effect of his death
and ascension. " I will draw all men unto me." (a) He is himself the Centre of the
world's attraction. (0) He will attract, but not force, men into saving relationship
with himself. The language implies that men are at a distance, and f^enated fi^>m
him. " Draw me, welwUl run after thee." There is a marvellous drawing power in th«
lifled-up Bedeemer. (7) He will draw all men unto himself. Not only Jews, but
Gentiles. The words cannot signify that all men will be saved, for there are many
already loat, and there will be many at the last day to whom he will say, " Depart
OH. xn. 1— 6a] THE GOSPEL AOCOEDING TO ST. JOHN. 168
from me, ye workers of iniquity." 8. The popular miaappreheniion of our Lord'* mean'
ing. "The people answered him. We have heard out of the Law that Christ abideth
for ever: and how sayest thou. The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son
of man?" (1) THie question implied that they understood their own Scriptures. Tet
they had no true insist into their meaning, for they imagined the Messiah woul I be
a temporal prince who would deliver them from Roman bondage. (2) They could not
reconcile their idea of the Messiah with the idea of his death and his transportation
from earth, for earth was to be the scene of the achievemeats of their Messiah. 9.
The last appeal of Jeiui to the Jews. " Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk
while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you." (1) It is an appeal to the Jews
to use their opportunities while the light was among them, and not to trifle wi'th their
destinies by captious and idle objections. (2) The words of Jesus imply that the last
hour of Israelite opportunity was at hand. He would be but " a little time " with
them. (3) They imply that progress heavenward was still possible and necessary, for
the darkness had not yet descended. (4) The way to become children of light is to
believe in the light. " While we h»ve the light, believe in the light, that ye may be
the children of light." (a) Believers become like Christ by believing in him. (6) They
will become " light-bearers " (Phil. iL 15) to the world in proportion as they receive of
the light of life. 10. Our LorcPs farewell. " These things spake Jesus, and departed,
and did hide himself from them." Jesus had no other answer to give, and here closed
bis ministry to the Jews. " He then retired, and did not reappear on the morrow.
This time it was no mere cloud which obscured th« lun, but the sun itself had set."
Vers. 37 — 41. — The causes of Jeioish unbelief. The evangelist now turns to the
remarkable failure of the Messiah's work in Israel, and proceeds to account for it.
L Tbe imBELiEF OF THB Jews WAS iNEXonsABLE. " But though he had dune so
many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him." 1. It is implied thai Jtaus
did many more miracles them the seven recorded in this Oospel. 2. 2%« miracles were
dime " before them" so as to leave them without this excuse of ignorance. 3. Um
imperfect tense of the verb, " believed," emphasizes the persistence of their v/nbdief.
II. Theib ukbeliep was peedioted. "That the saying of Bsaias the prophet
might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report ? and to whom
hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?" 1. The wihelief of the large body of the
Jewish nation was clearly foreseen centuries before the advent of Christ, as well as their
disregard of the evidence of his miracles. " The arm of the Lord." 2. Let not ministers
be surprised that their gospel is neglected or refused, for their Master encountered a
similar disappointment. 3. Tet the prediction was not the cause of Jewish unbelief.
III. The teue cause of theib unbelief. "Therefore they could not believe,
because that Isaiah said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart;
that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, [and be
converted, and I should heal them." 1. Ood in judgment gave them over to hardness
of heart. It is a fixed law that power disused destroys itsehf. Thus the persistent dis-
regard for religion makes it more difficult to obey or to believe. The callous heart is
the effect of wilful unbelief. 2. What an obstacle it would have been to a pure spiritual
Christianity if the Jews had been received by Christ on their oum conditions of a carnal
and legod Pha/riseeisml 3. The a/postle does' not attempt to explain or reconcile the
mystery of Ood^i sovereignty amd man's responsibility, but simply accepts the two facta
as standing each on its own impregnable foundation.
IV. This pbediotion exfbesslt bbfeebed to Chbibt. " These things said Isaiah,
when he saw his glory, and spake of him." 1. The glory wcu that of the pre-incarnat«
Word of Ood. 2. "Hie suprime Deity cf Cfhrist is here implied.
Vers. 42, 43. — A movement Ohristumrd among the chief rulers. The unbelief ot tha
Jews was neither total nor final.
I. The adhesion or mant ohikf bulebs. " Nevertheless among the chief rulers
also many believed on him." 1. Some of them, like Nicodemus and Joseph of ArimathoBa,
were true bdieveri. 2. Others, probMy, were inwardly persuaded that he was tht
Messiah, but could not bring themselves to an open discipleship. The causes were two-
fold. (1) The fear of excommunication. " But because of the Phariseea th«y did not
154 THE GOSPEL ACCOBDma TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xn. 1—50.
confess him, lost they should be put out of the synagogue." (a) This proves at cmce
ttie crushing tyranny exercised by Christ's most determined foes, and (6) the reality of
the decree already mentioned (ch. ix. 22). (2) The fear of a loss of reputation. " For
they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." This fear has often been
B powerful obstacle to the profession of reli^on. Yet confession is necessary to salvation
(Rom. X. 10).
Vers. 44 — 50. — The retponmbilitUt attaching to Jewith wnhelUf. The evangelist now
takes a retrospective glance at the unbelief of Judaism. What follows is but a summary
of our Lord's past teaching.
I. Mark by conteast the position of thb BEtiBVEB. "He that believeth on
me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent rae. And he that seeth me seeth him
that sent me." 1. The believer recognizes Jesus as the Messiah sent by the Father, as the
Revelation of the Father's love and mercy and righteousness. The Jew, therefore, who
believed in Christ did not believe in man, but in God. 2. Ee recognizes the doctrine of
Jesus aa the dear manifestation of the Father's mind. " I am come a Light into the
world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness." Thus the believer
becomes a son of light.
IL Mask thb position op the unbeliever. " And if any man hear my words, and
keep them not, I judge him not : for I came not to judge the world, but io save the
world." 1. Thefate of those who reject Ghrlsfs Word. It is judgment. 2. Tlie Judge
is not Christ, though he is to be the final Judge; but he will then only apply the rule of
the Word to each life. The Law, in the nature of things, is the accuser.
in. Mark the importance which Jesus attaches to the word of judgment.
" For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father who sent me has himself commanded
me what I should say, and how I should say it." 1. His teaching, as to matter, is from
the Father. Its essential principle is "life everlasting." (1) It tells of life; (2) it
offers life ; (3) it is " spirit and life." 2. His teaching, as to its variety of form, is from
the Father. Thus the message of mercy comes to man with every equipment of true
wisdom, and bears the very accent of Heaven in its utterance.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Ver. 3. — ITie odorous offering. The fact that three of the evangelists have recorded
this interesting incident, proves how deep was the impression it made upon the minds
of Christ's followers and friends. We recognize in Mary's gift —
L An evidence op grateful love. Mary had many reasons for regarding Jesus
with affectionate thankfulness. To him she was indebted for many precious lessons in
spiritual knowledge. Sitting at his feet, she had imbibed his incomparable teaching.
To him she was indebted for a brother restored to life and home. That she appreciated
what JesuB had done for her is abundantly apparent from her conduct on this occasion.
And her love is a rebuke to the cold-heartedness with which many of our Savioui-'s
professed disciples regard him to whom they owe every privilege in the present, and
every prospect for the future.
II. An instance op Christ-like self-sacrifice. Although the circumstances of
the family of Bethany may be presumed to have been easy, still the costly gift of
perfumed unguent here described was the fruit of self-denial. Mary did not offer a
common gift, did not give of her superfluity, did not part with what cost her little or
nothing. Our offerings to Christ's cause too seldom in this respect resemble hers. But
if we give our hearts to Jesus, it will be natural in us to render to him offerings which
shall be meet expressions of our consecration, to serve him with our best.
IIL The willingness op Jesus to accept the offering op a friend. One of
our Lord's disciples looked with cold disapproval upon this act of ardent love, grudging
• gift evidently costly but not, in his view, evidently useful. To Jesus himself the
tribute was welcome, for it was the sincere and genuine tribute of affection. Christ had,
and has, a human heart ; and he can understand and sympathize with the disposition
which is not satisfied unless treasure can be poured out at bis feet. He found a meaning
m the gift deeper than any of which the giver was conscious. He saw in the perfumed
OH. xn. 1—60.] THE GOSPEL AOCOBOING TO ST. JOHN. 165
unguent the offering for his embalming, for he knew that his death and burial were at
hand. They who bring to the Lord Christ any gift which the heart dictates and the
judgment approves, need not fear lest he should repulse them. Since he seeks and
desires their love, it must needs gratify him to receive its genuine expression, whatever
form it may assume. It may be said that this is to take a somewhat simple and child-
like Tiew of religion. Be it so; still the language and conduct of Christ here recorded
assure us that it is a view which the Lord himself approves. — T.
Ver. 21. — The desire to see Jesut. The wish of these Greek-speaking Gentiles, who
(being proselytes to the faith of Israel) had come to Jerusalem to take part in the sacred
festival, is a wish not to be explained with certainty. How far they were animated by
mere curiosity, how far by intelligent interest and spiritual yearning, we cannot say.
But the language in which they expressed their desire is not only beautiful in its
simplicity, it ii susceptible of appropriation by all those who have felt their need of the
Saviour.
L What pbomptb thk oebibs to see Jebus ? To answer this question we must
consider : 1. The spiritual impulse. Man is so made as that he desires " to see good,"
and that, if his soul be really awakened to newness of life, lie desires to see the highest
and the purest good. They who have seen many earthly objects and persons have come
to understand that all which this world can give is in its very nature unsatisfying.
If sought as the supremely excellent, worldly good cannot fail to disappoint. Thus
there remains an aspiration which is unquenched, and, so far as earthly streams are
concerned, is unquenchable. But we must consider: 2. The attractiveness of Chri'st.
The Greeks had heard something, perhaps much, of Jesus of Nazareth ; in any case
they had heard enough to induce them to seek a personal interview and acquaintance
with the great Prophet. When the gospel is published, and the spiritual charms of the
Saviour set forth, he is portrayed before men's eyes as the " chief among ten thousand, . . .
the altogether lovely." To hear of him " with the hearing of the ear " is, where there
is any susceptibility to spiritual excellence and beauty, to desire closer knowledge and
fellowship. Thus the preaching of Christ is designed to lead to the very application
made by these inquiring Greeks.
II. What ib involved in the desire to bee Jesus ? 1. A longing for acquaint-
ance with the personal, historical. Divine Saviour. They who ask to see Jesus imply
by their request that there is " one Jesus " who may be known ; not a fiction of the
imagination, but a real and living Being, who may be approached and studied. 2. A
readiness of faith to find in Jesus all that he declares himself to he. The desire in
question is not merely for speculative satisfaction ; it is for spiritual enrichment. The
soul hopes to see in him a mighty Saviour and a gracious Friend. 3. An earnestness,
candour, and teachableness of spirit, such as become those who have nothing when
they draw near to One who has all.
Ur. How DOES Jesus beoard the desire to see him? 1. He is willing to he
sought. Never during his ministry did he hide himself from those who really wished
to have an interview with him. He was ever accessible to the needy, to the suffering
and sorrowful, to the sinful and penitent. 2. He is ready to befriend and bless and
save. Do men ask to see Jesus ? his answer is, " Look unto me, and he ye saved."
Do men timidly approach Jesus ? he encourages them by saying, " Come unto me,
and I will give you rest."
IV. To WHAT issues MAT this DESIRE LEAD? 1, It may lead to the actiou to which
the soul is encouraged by the Saviour, i.e. to true spiritual approach to himself. 2. It
may then lead to the enjoyment of the blessings which, through the knowledge and
fellowship of the Lord Jesus, may be experienced by the soul that sees the Saviour
with the gaze and vision of true faith. The eyes of the understanding being opened,
the illumined nature looks upon the Lord ; and to look upon him is to live.
V. What may Christ's Church do to satisfy this desire? The Greeks came
to the disciples, and the disciples introduced the strangers to the Lord. They themselves
could give no satisfaction to the inquirers, but they could lead them to him in whom
such satisfaction was to be found. Thus those who themselves have seen Jesus, and
who know him, may point to him whom they know and love, and may say in the hear-
ing of otheiB, " Behold the Lamb I "— T.
15« THK GOSPEL ACCOEDINO TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xn. 1—60.
Ver. 23. — The hour of glory. Our Saviour was " a Light to lighten the Gentiles," as
well aa " the Qlory of God's people Israel." It is remarkable that on the several occasions
upon which Jesus was brought into contact with Gentiles, such contact was suggestive
of the wide and far-reaching consequences of his mission to mankind. The faith of the
centurion prompted the prediction, " Many shall come from the East and from the
West, and shall sit down in the kinndom of God." When the Samaritans believed,
the Lord saw that the fields were already ripe unto the harvest. The inquiry of certain
Greeks gave rise to Christ's prediction, " I will draw all men unto myself." As at
Christ's birth the wise men came from the East to his cradle, so before his deatli the
Greeks came from the West unto his cross.
L There was ik the histobt of Iumandel a crisis of siTFFERiNa. 1. This was a
fixed, a certain, an expected hour. If our Lord's birth was in " the fulness of time," it
is reasonable to believe the same to have been the case with his death. . Hitherto Jesus
had said, " My hour is not yet come ; " henceforth Jlis language was, " My hour is at
hand, is near, is come." He was prepared for it, and for all it might bring. 2. This
was a solemn and momentous hour. There are great and memorable hours in the
history of nations — ^as when a great act passes the legislature ; when a mighty revolution
is accomplished ; when slavery ceases ; when, after a long war, peace is concluded ; when
some momentous decision upon national policy is formed. So this approaching hour in
the Saviour's life was that for which all others bad prepared, which had been foretold,
expected, and waited for. 3. This was the hour of the apparent success of Christ's foes.
The conspiracy was successful ; the innocent was condemned ; seemingly the work of
Christ was brought to a close and proved a failure. 4. This was the hour of humiliation
and of woe. Jesus alone could fully appreciate the magnitude of the crisis, the mys-
terious import of the great transaction. It was the hour of sacrifice and of redemption.
IL This obisib of suffebino was to Christ's peophbtio mind a crisis of oloby.
He saw not as man sees. Satan appeared victorious ; Christ's enemies seemed to have
succeeded in their malignant schemes ; his disciples and friends seemed overwhelmed
with consternation and despair. Bat Jesus looked beyond the cruel cross to the
immortal crown. 1. The hour was at hand when Jesus should receive his personal
glorification, as the Son of man. As the Word, the Son of Gk>d, this exalted Being had
enjoyed glory with the Father before the world was. But now his humanity was to
be glorified. He loved to call himself the Son of man ; in this capacity he was about
to be raised to immortal majesty. 2. His glory was to be shown as the accepted of the
Father in his resurrection from the dead. God raised him from the dead, and gave him
glory. In his ascension Jesus Christ was " received up into glory." There was evident
humiliation in the cross, and as evident glory in his exaltation to the throne. 3. Elis
official glory was to be displayed in his kingship and dominion. In heaven he was to
receive the homage both of angels and of glorified men ; upon earth he was to extend, by
his Spirit and by his Word, the empire he had founded by his death. 4. Christ's truest
glory was to consist in the salvation of multitudes of the human race by means of his
sacrific* and intercession. The highest glory of an earthly monarch consists in the
number and loyalty of his subjects. No earthly king has ever exercised a sway so
wide, so beneficent, so enduring, as that of Christ. The kingdoms of this world are to
become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ. All foes shall be put beneath his
feet. The inclusion of Jews and Gentiles in the " one new humanity " is a triumph of
Christ's spiritual kingship. On his head are many crowns. To an enlightened and
spiritual mind there is no proof of royal majesty secured by sacrificial love so con-
vincing as this — the subjugation of human hearts and lives to his moral authority,
whose " kingdom is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost," — T.
Ver. 24. — Death andfruit/idneas. The principle here stated, and applied by Christ
to himself, is one ordained by the Creator of the moral universe. The only true enrich-
ment is through giving, the only true gain is through loss, the only true victory is
through ' Buffering and humiliation, the only true life is through death. The earth
yields a harvest when the grain is entrusted to its keeping, even when the Egyptian
husbandman casts his bread upon the waters. And the Son of God saw clearly that he -
must die and be buried, in order that he might become to mankind the aooiee •!
spiritual and eternal life.
tm. xn. 1— BO.] THE GJOSPEL AOCOEDING TO ST. JOHN. 167
I. The life of the wobld's spiritual beed. Imagination can see in an acorn all
which may arise from it — an oak, a ship, a navy ; for the acorn has a life-germ which is
capable of increase and multiplication. Imagination can see in a handful of seed-corn
carried to a distant isle, a nation's food. So in one Person, the speaker of these words,
there lay — ^though only Omniscience could clearly foresee this — the spiritual hopes of a
whole race. Jesus himself knew that this was so, and foresaw and foretold the results
of his obedience unto death. In the coming of these Greeks he discerned the earnest
of a glorious future ; and the prospect of approaching suffering and of future yictory
stirred and troubled his soul with a mighty emotion. The explanation of this marvel-
lous potency is to be found in the fact that Christ was Life — the Life of men. His Divine
nature, his great vocation, his faultless character, his gracious ministry, his spiritual
power, his unrivalled love, his incomparable sacrifice, are all signs of the possession by
him of a wonderful life. Only a divinely commissioned and qualified Being could
become the world's Life. Because he was the Son of God, it was possible for him to
bring to this human race what none other could confer — spiritual vitality and fruitfulness.
The claim which Jesus made may have seemed to an observer of his ministry incre-
dible or even presumptuous. Yet as a tiny seed may produce a majestic tree, because
in the seed is a germ of life, so in the lowly Nazarene was the promise of a new and
blessed life for this humanity. " I am come," said he, " that they may have life, and
may have it abundantly." Such sayings, from his lips, were the simple, literal truth.
IL The dissolution of the wobld's spiBiTnAL seed. To one unacquainted with
the mystery of growth, it must seem that the strnngest use to which a seed could be put
is to bury it in the ground. Death is the unlikeliest road to life. Yet experience teaches
us that dissolution is necessary to reproduction. The substance of the grain dissolves,
and nourishes and protects the living germ, which by means of warmth and moisture
puts forth the signs of life, grows and develops into a corn-plant or a tree. Had not
the seed been planted, it would have remained by itself alone and unfruitful. The law
obtains in the moral realm. Our race gains its best of knowledge, experience, progress,
happiness, virtue, not from the prosperous and the peaceful, but from those whose life
is a life of toil, endurance, patience in suffering, and sacrifice. The world ii infinitely
indebted to its confessors, its martyrs, its much-enduring heroes. The highest exem-
plification of this law is to be found in the sacrifice of the world's Eedeemer. His life
of labour and weariness was closed by a death of shame and anguish. He gave up his
body to the cross and to the tnmb. His whole life was a death unto self, unto the
world ; and he did not shrink from that mortality which is the common lot of man.
This death did not come upon him by accident ; he several times distinctly foretold it — ^it
was part of his plan. He is not to be numbered among the many who might have been
spiritual forces for highest good, but who remained fruitless because they dared not die.
The ignominious cross has ever been a stumbling-block to many; but to multitudes,
spiritually enlightened, and touched in the heart by his Spirit, it has been the supreme
revelation of God. The cross and the grave are to the unspiritual an offence ; but to
Christians they are a glory and a joy, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Via
erueis, via Ittcis. Christ's body did not indeed see corruption ; yet his life's close was
an exact correspondence to the dissolution of the seed. A bystander might naturally
have said, " Here is the end of the professions and the work of Jesus 1 " But God's
ways are not our ways.
HI. The febtilitt of the woeld'b spiBrniAL seed. One grain of wheat, if sown,
'and its produce resown, may in time produce a vast, all but incalculable crop. One
gram seems thrown away, but millions are gathered and garnered. Much fruit rewards
the laith of the husbandman. Our Lord teaches us that, in the spiritual realm, a
similar result follows a similar process. He knew that he was about to die ; but he
kuew also that his death should be rich in spiritual &uit. The immediate results
verified his prediction. In a short space of time after our Lord's death, the number of
his diKiples was not merely increased, it was multiplied. The &uit borne upon the
day of Pentecost was the firstfruit of a rich, abundant harvest. Kot only in the
Jewish world, but among the Gentiles also, it was speedily manifest that Jesus had
not died in vain Israel had conspired to kill him ; but he became the Saviour of the
true Israel — the Israel of God. The Romans had put him to death ; but in a few genera-
tions the Soman empire acknowledged his supremacy. The world had cast him out :
158 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xu. 1—50.
but the world was saved by him. The history of Christendom is the story of one long
harvest — a harvest yielded by the spiritual seed which was sown on Calvary. The
future has yet to reveal the vastness of the work which Christ has wrought. He shall
draw all men unto himself. " Many shall come from the East and from the West." A
great multitude, whom no man can number, shall join in the grateful praise and
reverent adoration of heaven.
Pbaotioal lessons. 1. Our indebtedness to Christ. 2. Our identification with
Christ. 3. Our hope in Christ.— T.
Ver. 26. — Serviot and reward. In both parts of this declaration made by our Lord,
there is a condescension to our human ignorance and imperfection. The Master makes
use of language drawn from human relations and human experiences.
I. What Christ ebquires. 1. Service. This is not equivalent to bondage, but to
personal ministration. It is a just and helpful view to take of the Christian life, to
regard it as consisting of a personal attendance upon the Lord Jesus, and a reverent
ind affectionate obedience to him. A Saviour he is; but he is also the kindest and the
best of Masters. The twelve felt this, and their life was a practical acknowledgment of
it, both during the Lord's ministry and more especially after his departure. The
Greeks, whose coming, suggested this language, may have cherished some desire and
hope of being admitted into the number of Christ's servants. It is the highest ambi-
tion any man can cherish to be counted an adherent, a retainer, a minister, of Jesus.
2. Following. This involves : (1) Obedience to Christ's commands. His people obey
him from love, but still they do obey him. (2) Conformity to his character. He not
only says, " Do what I hid you 1 " but, " Be what I am 1" (3) Endurance of the trials
incident to his service. It is for Christ's people to bear their Leader's cross.
II. What Christ peomises. It is observable that Jesus addresses to his followers
no promise of worldly or carnal advantage, snch as Mohammed, for example, made use of
to allure and inspire his adherents. Jesus invited men to become his, even when he
saw the cross before his eyes. There was sublimity in such an invitation given in
such an hour. And as the service to which he invited men was not without its perils,
so the recompense he offered was unworldly and spiritual. 1. His own fellowship and
society. They who know and appreciate Christ deem it the highest and purest happi-
ness to be " with " him, to share his conflict, to hear his encouraging voice, to partici-
pate in the glory of his victory. 2. The honour of the Father. The honour which
men seek from their fellow-men is often inadequate, often misplaced, often pernicious.
There are no such disadvantages attaching to the Divine Father's approbation. It is
indeed well with him " whom the Lord commendeth." What blighter prospect can
there be than this, " Then shall every man have praise of God " ? — ^T.
Vers. 27, 28. — The sotU-confliet of Ghriat Only now and again do we observe the
Saviour's regard turned inwardly upon himself, upon his own feelings and anticipations.
Usually his thoughts and his speech concerned others. But in this passage of hii
ministry he gives us an insight into his inmost heart.
I. The obisis or this conflict. The approach of the Greeks marks " the beginning
»f the end." Now the Son of man began to feel by anticipation the burden of the
cross. Opposition and persecutior were at hand. He was about to tread the winepress
alone. Pain, humiliation, sorrow, oeath, were close upon him. The " hour " wnich he
had long foreseen was now nearly marked upon the dial of his life ; it was the hoar ol
his enemies' power and of the prince of darkness.
II. Thk ohabaotbb of this conflict. 1. On the one side was personal feeling,
which expressed itself in the cry, so human, so touching, so sincere, " Father, save me
from this hour 1 " This was the voice of human weakness, to be repeated afterwards
in the form, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from mel" This shrinking from all
thkt was involved in the sacrifice was real. Ou: Lord's human nature was reluctant
to endure the anguish of Gethsemane, the agony of Golgotha. 2. On the other side
was the perception that all the past experience of his humanitvy led up to just this
distresafi^ burden, the pressure of which be was now beginning to feel. He had con-
tented to live in order that he might consent to die. The Inptism of sorrow must
•rerwhelm him, the bitter cup must be drained to the dregs, in order that his ministry
OH. xn. 1—60.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDmG TO ST. JOHN. 168
might be complete. The Incarnation itself contemplated, and Tirtnally included, the
lacrifioe. The past would prove to have been end^ired in vain, if the future should be
evaded ; and the life of the Saviour, with the cross left out, if such a conception be
possible, would be all but powerless in the spiritual history of humanity. 3. Hence
the distraction of mind evinced in the exclamation, "What shall I say?" The two
wishes were inconsistent with each other. With which of them should the deliberate
and decisive resolve identify itself?
in. Thb deoisivk obt of the conflict. The issue of the struggle within the
Saviour's Spirit was apparent when he uttered the exclamation, the prayer, " Father,
glorify thy Name 1 " For this revealed the fact that Jesus was turning away from him-
self and from his own feelings, and was turning to his Father. He was sinking the
consideration of himself and his sufferings in a filial regard to his Father's honour, to
the Divine purposes which underlay the whole of his mission. God was exalted in the
completion of the Mediator's work, Jesus learned obedience, and displayed obedience,
in the things which he suffered. Our salvation was assured when the decision was
reached, when the cry was uttered, when the Father's glory, by its dazzling brightness,
its burning radiance, consumed all beside.
lY. The olose of the conflict. The solemnity and grandeur of the crisis is shown
by the audible interposition with which the Father responded to the cry of his beloved,
chosen Son. 1. The voice from heaven was a reminder. How the Father had glorified
his Son we know from the record of what took place at the baptism and at the Trans-
figuration. But to the spiritually enlightened and discerning there had been apparent,
aU through our Saviour's mioistry, a moral glory which was hidden from the thought-
less world. 2. The voice from heaven was a j)ro»i(se. The further glory of the Father in
his Son was to be manifested in all the events to follow the perfect obedience unto the
death of the cross. Especially in the resurrection of Clirist did Ctod " give him glory."
The Ascension, the marvels of Pentecost, the signs accompanying the preaching of the
gospel, were evidences that the Divine purposes were in course of fulfilment. The
whole dispensation of grace is "rather" — i.e. in a superior measure and degree — "rather
glorious." The establishment of the kingdoin of God among men, the introduction of
a new and higher life into our humanit}', thie salvation of untold myriads of sinners,
the peopling of heaven with the redeemed from every nation, — these are signs that the
Lord has seen of the travail of his soul and is satisfied, that the purposes of the Father
are accomplished, that the glory of the Father is secured. — T.
Ver. 32. — Divine attraction. The shadow of the cross lay athwart the path of Jesus.
His soul was troubled, for the hour was come. The grain of wheat was about to fall
into the soil, and there to die. Yet our Saviour looked beyond the near to the distant
future. He knew that, though the hour was come, it was the hour in which God should
be glorified ; that though the seed should die, it should bear much fruit; that though
he himself was about to be lifted up from the earth, he should draw all men unto
himself.
L Who was he who looked fobwabd to a pbospkot so globiods ? This must be
asked, because the words used are such as from ordinary lips might naturally be deemed
but vain boasting. How often have conquerors hoped to subdue the world, thinkers to
convert iill mankina to their opinions, preachers and promulgators of religious systems
to win the empire over the hearts of the race 1 Experience has dispell^ many such
illusions ; and we are slow to accept claims to universal dominion. Who, then, was he
who uttered this confident expectation — that all men should be drawn to him ? To all
outward appearance a peasant, a teacher, a healer, a reformer, a benefactor of his fellow-
men. What prospect was there of one in such a position realizing a hope so vast ?
And how, if he was about to be crucified, could he find the cross a means to such an
end ? The thing seemed incredible, even to his own adherents and friends. If Jesus had
been a mere man, although a saint or a prophet, such language would have been egotism.
But Jesus knew the purpose of the Father, and felt within him the consciousness
of power to achieve a work so great. And the events which followed — the Besurrectiop
snd Ascension, and especially the Pentecostal outpouring — opened the eyes of his dis-
ciples to the glory of their Master's Person, the power of his Spirit, the certainty of the
prospect he beheld.
1«C THK GOSPEL ACCORDIN© TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xn. 1— 6a
n. What was the oonditiom of thk kxbboisb op this snPKRHtrMAN power ? The
expression, " lifting up," as applied by Jesus to himself, is interpreted for us by the
evangelist. Used three times, it denotes, in each instance, the manner of Christ's death,
the lifting up upon the cross. This was, indeed, to be followed by the lifting up to tha
throne of empire and of glory. As a Saviour, Jesus was crucified; as a Divine Saviour,
he was exalted. The wisdom of Gtod, the power of God, were to be displayed 'in this
triumph of humiliation, suffering, and death.
III. What was the nature, the action, of this atthaotivb power ? It is very
significant that the " drawing " which Jesus exercised displayed itself even whilst he
hung upon the tree. The multitude gathered around ; and if the soldiers viewed the
scene with indifference, there were women who watched and wept, and there wera
among the people those who smote their breasts in sorrow and in fear. But we have to
notice, not the curiosity or the natural emotions excited by the spectacle of one suffer-
ing crucifixion, but the spiritual attraction of Calvary. The incomparable love and
pity manifested by the Crucified possess a mysterious charm. It is the Shepherd
smitten for the flock he came to save, it is the Friend laying down his life for his
friends, who exercises this Divine magnetism. They who discern in the Lord's suffer-
ings and death the appointed means of man's redemption, who know that " with his
stripes we are healed," can understand how a spiritual force emanates from the cross as
gravitation from a central sun. Man's nature is such as to be affected by the exhibition
on Christ's part of love stronger than death, of compassion worthy of a God. That the
sacrifice of our Kedeemer had its bearing upon the government of God — this is clearly
taught in Scripture. But here our Lord lays stress npon its bearing upon the heart of
man, upon human society and human prospects.
IV. Whither dobs the obuoified One draw those whom his inpluenob appbots?
The suffering, the glorified Redeemer draws men away from sinful affections and sinfal
courses ; he draws them v/nto safety, peace, and life. But it is observable that Christ
declares his purpose to draw them " unto himself," i.e. to enjoy his fellowship, to parti-
cipate in his character. A personal power draws men to a personal Saviour, Friend,
and Lord. Men are drawn by the cross, not to Christianity, but to Christ.
V. What is thb range op this attraction ? Jesus is a universal Saviour. He
proposes and promises to draw all men unto himself. The firstfruits of this harvest
were yielded whilst he still hung upon the tree. The conversion of the dying male-
factor, the enlightenment of the centurion, were an earnest of greater victories. It wag
the intention of Christ to save friends and foes, Jews and Gentiles. And the facts of
history are a proof of the extent to which this intention has already been fulfilled. The
idolater has forsaken his " gods many ; " the Jewish rabbi has abandoned confidence
in the " letter," and has learned to rejoice in " the Spirit ; " the philosopher has found
the wisdom of God better than the wisdom of this world. Human beings of all grades
have felt and yielded to the Divine attraction of the cross. The young and the old, the
profligate and the ascetic, the tempted, the aged, and the dying, are day by day being
drawn unto the heart of Immanuel. The marvels of Pentecost were an omen of a new
life for all nations of mankind. The apostles themselves witnessed enough to convince;
them of the truth of their Master's words, the depth of their Master's insight, the
vastness of their Master's prophetic view. Looking back, and looking around, we learn
to look forward with an inspiring confidence to the realization of a promise so benevo-
lent and so glorious as this from the lips of him who was about to die. — T.
Ver. 34. — The Son of man. Perplexity and inquiry mingle in this question whioi.
the Jews were prompted to put, when they heard the language in which Jesus claimed
authority in his death to gathe.' mankind around himself.
I. The designation applied to Jesus. The expression, " Son of man," was familiar
to the Jews. 1. In the Old Testament it was used as equivalent to " man." It is
applied in the Book of Ezekiel to that prophet himself, in about eighty passages. Then
is one passage in the Book of Daniel in which the Messiah is introduced as " like a Son
of man." 2. In the New Testament the expression occurs eighty-two times, and in
iJmost all instances it is used by Jesus of himself. It is found in all four Gospels.
Here only in the Gospels is it used by others of our Lord, and as if it were desired ,to
imderstaad th« fiill meaning of the phrase. Stephen, when threatened with the martyr's
«M. XII. 1—60.] THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN. 161
dMth, made nie of this appellation, which ihows that it yna well known and current
•mong .the early Christians. The same is apparent from its employment by John in
the Apocalypse, when describing the ascended Christ. 3. There are passages from
which it would seem that " Son of man " was regarded as almost equivalent to " Son
of God." Thus in Peter's great confession, in' answer to Christ's inquiry (see Matt.
XTi. 13 — 16). And again in Caiaphas's interpretation of our Lord's language (see Luke
xzii. 69, 70;. 4. To the Christian the designation is suggestive of great and distinc-
tively CSuistian doctrines. The Son of man is to him incarnate Deity, and yet Deity in
participation with our nature, in priestly fellowship with our life, in human sympathy
with our feelings, in humiliation and sacrifice. And on the other hand, the Son of
man assures us that he is our Representative above, our Mediator and Friend, our Lord
and Judge.
II. The question asked ooNOEENiNa Jesus. " Who is this Son of man ? " 1. It !;i
a question which is prompted by our acquaintance with the facts of Christ's ministr^
The reoord of what Jesus did, suffered, and said, is the most amazing record in the
history of humanity. Is it possible, seriously and thoughtfully, to make acquaintance
with the facts of his life, death, and resurrection, without being urged to the inquiry,
"Who is this?" 2. It is a question upon the answer to which great issues depend
Was Jesus an impostor, or a fanatic, or an altogether mythical personage? Upon
many questions we can afford to suspend our judgment ; but not upon this. It makes
all the difference to the world, it makes all the difference to ourselves, whether or not
Jesus be the Saviour from sin, and the Lord of righteousness and life. 3. It is •
question which admits but of one reply. Reason and conscience alike are satisfied, and
can find rest, when the assurance is ^ven that the Son of man is Son of God. — T.
Ver. 36. — Light on the path. The occasion of this admonition is intelligible enough.
The Jews were naturally perplexed at Jesus' saying (ver. 32) concerning his approach-
ing death, and the mysterious power which in and after his death he should exeicise
over men. No wonder that they asked who this Son of man could be. Jesus did not
want to discourage them from this inquiry as one of great speculative interest ; truth,
especially upon the highest themes, must be reverently and earnestly sought Tet it
was the desire of Jesus that the Jews should remember the practical bearing of his
language. His ministry among them was a probation to those who were brought into
contact with him. Some used that probation aright ; many misused it. Now that
the light shone, it was for those favoured with its shining to walk by its celestial
guidance.
I. An mjUNOTiON. 1. What is the light in which we are directed to walk?
Undoubtedly the spiritual light shed upon the world by Christ and his gospel — ^the
light which is Divine, glorious, unsetting, and sufficient for the illumination of all
men. This is the clear light of knowledge, the pvae light of holiness, the bright light
of joy, the welcome light of counsel and of safety. 2. What is it to walk, having the
light? It is in the first place to accept the true and Divine light in preference to fiilse,
delusive lights of earth. Then to be practically guided by it so as to escape the errors
and follies and sins into which men are prone to be misled. Then to learn by experience
so to love the light as to partake its very nature, and so to become the children of the
light.
IL A WARNING. "That darkness overtake you not." A traveller in s lonely
desert or a dangerous country is anxious to travel by daylight, and to reach his halt-
ing-place or his destination before nightfall. Making use of this similitude, our Lord
enjoins all who value his counsel to speed their onward way, lest, if they be slothful
and inattentive to Divine guidance, they he overtaken by the night of judgment and
destruction. The darkness to be dreaded is the darkness of spiritual insensibility. The
soul that shuns the light learns to hate the light. And such a moral failure to use
aright the precious advantages conferred involves the privation of privilege. Thus the
unfaithful is brought into tlie darkness of Divine displeasure and death. How the
warning of Christ was fulfilled in the experience of Israel as a nation, history has
recorded. The destruction of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the once favoured nation,
show that "darkness overtook" them. No more solemn warning exists against
negl^ence and unfaithfulness. — ^T.
MHH.— U. U
IM TBB GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. lam. xn. 1— 6a
Ver. 36. — "Son* of Ught" This remarkable expresBion occum four timea in the
New Testament. In Lnke xvi. 8 the Lord Jesus contrasts with the children of thii
generation the sons of light. In this passage he holds out the prospect before those
who believe on the Light that they will become sons of light. Paul, in Eph. v. 8,
admonishes Christians to walk as children of light, and in 1 Thess. v. 6 assures Christiana
thftt they are all sons of light. The designation is instructive and appropriate as
indicating —
L Theib origin ; foe the God of lioht is their Father. God is Light ; he it
the Author of natural light, for he first said, " Let there be light : and there was light."
He too " hath shined into our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of
QoA in the face of Jesus Christ."
IL ThBIB ILIiUMINATION } FOB ChRIST BY THE HoLT SplBIT ENLIGHTENS THBMi In
the forty-sixth verse it is recorded that Jesus said, " I am come a Light into the world,
that whosoever believeth on me may not abide in the darkness." Not only d les Christ
as the Light of the world shine upon us in spiritual glory ; but the Holy Spirit illunainea
the inner nature by opening the eyes of the understanding to perceive the truth and
grace of heaven.
in. Theib ohaeacteb ; FOR THEY ABE LIGHT IN THE LoBD. Christians possess the
light of knowledge, distinguishing their state from the darkness of ignorance; the light
of holiness, by which their condition contrasts with that of those who love and do the
works of darkness ; the light of Jiappiness and spiritual joy, for they are delivered from
the gloom of despondency and of fear.
IT. Theib calling and work ; fob their mission is to shine upon a BENiaBXEO
w(wu>,
" Heaven doth with ns as we with torchei do-
Not light them for themselvei."
It is distinctive of true Christians that they not only receive the light, but diffuse it
abroad. They thus adorn their profession, become the agents in the salvation of others,
and glorify their Qoi.
V. Their final goal and home ; fob thet ark frepabing fob and hastening
wnto the heaven of light. There is a sense in which this present state is the night,
which is far spent ; the day is at hand. The fulness of light is where God is in hit
glory, and where he purposes that his people shall be with him, and see his face. The
wospeet before the sons of light is none other than " the inheritance of the saints in
Mght."— T.
Vers. 44, 45. — IZ7l« knowledge of the Eternal through Christ. The world's great
want is to believe in God. Men believe in power, in wealth, in pleasure, in prosperity,
in science; that is to say, they believe that such things are desirable and attainable,
and worth trying and toiliQg and suffering for. These are prized, and therefore sought.
They are more or less good. Yet they cannot satisfy, they cannot bless, man ; for he
has a spiritual and imperishable nature, for which aU earthly things are not enough,
which they cannot meet and satisfy. Tet multitudes of men have found nothing better.
Some believe that the good things of this world are man's highest good, and strive to
bring down their souls to this level. Others know that this cannot be, and are most
unhappy, because they are strangers to aught that is hijiher and better; because they
are not convinced of their own spirituality and Immortality ; because they do not feel
assured that there is in the universe a Being greater, holier, and more blessed than
they are. It is the childish fashion of the day to doubt all save what is often a most
doubtful kind of knowledge — the knowledge which we have by sense. What men
chiefly need is to believe in a Being who is both in and above all things seen and
temporal ; who administers and governs all ; who is ever revealing himself in all things,
and to all his intelligent creation ; who has purposes, and purposes of wisdom and of
love, towards all his children in every ^ilace. In a word, what they need is to
kelieve in Gk)d. This is faith, and faith is the essence of religion. Faith in a living
Person, conscious and moral; not in an impersonal intelligence (whatever that may be)
inferior to ourselves ; but in a Father in heaven, in whom is every moral excellence
Thick m admiie la onr Mlow-men, only in measure exceeding oar iaiagination and
OH. zn. 1— CO.] TEE GOSPEL ACOOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. 163
indeed altogether beyond measure. If men live, as millions do, without this faith,
they live below the possibilities of their nature and calling. It is this faith that giTM
to the human heart peace, strength, and hope ; and to the human life and lot meaning,
stability, and grandeur. Without it, man is not truly man ; with it, he is a son oi
God himself. Yet this faith is not easy to any of us ; to multitudes it is, in their state,
barely possible, perhaps not possible at all, God knows this, and pities our infirmity.
Heuce his interposition on our behalf, his revelation of himself to our ignorant,
necessitous, and helpless souls. His mercy, bis compassion, his Fatherly counsel, have
provided for this emergency. The supreme manifestation of himself is not in lifeless
matter or in living forms, is not even in the universal reason and conscience of man-
kind. He has come imto us, and spoken in our hearing, and made himself known to
our spirits, in the Person of hit Son. In him he appeals to us, summoning and
inviting us to faith. No longer is he hidden from our sight, no longer distant from our
heart.
I. Chbist'b FBEsraroK AMOKG HEN IS THE FBESENOE OF Gob. This, indeed, is the
meaning of the incarnation of our Lord. God's works we see on every side, proofs of
" his eternal power and Godhead" — witnesses without which he has never left himself.
But God himself no man hath seen at any time. Yet he would have \m know him ;
not only know something about him, but know himself. Hence " the Word became
flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth," He is " the Image of the invisible God," " the
Brightness of his glory, and the express Image of his Person." Christ was conscious of
this relation, and both assumed and declared it. Nowhere in language more definite
and simple than here : " He that seeth me seeth him that sent me." What wants were
met in this manifestation 1 One fancies the exiled Hebrew, panting forth his heart't
deep want, exclaiming in religious fervour, "My heart and ray flesh crieth out foi
the living God! When shall I come and appear before God?" Some glimpse of Uf
majesty and his grace the devout psalmist might hope to gain in the temple, which was
the scene of his presence, his service, and his praise. But what language would th»t
ardent spirit have found to express its wondering gratitude, could the vision of Immanuel
have flashed upon it? One fancies the Athenian philosophers, "seeking the Lord, if
haply they might feel after him and find him;" the Athenian poet, by a str«tch of
imagination and in a rapture of natural piety, rising to the conviction, " We are also
his offspring." But what satisfaction, what joy, would have come to such hearts,
yearning for the unknown God, had the Divine Man come to them, with the declaration
of marvellous simplicity and grace, " He that hath seen me hath seen the Father " I
But this was a revelation, not only for saints and prophets, for sages and (ot poets, but
for all mankind. When the husbandman hailed the rising sun, and the seaman gazed
upon the steadfast pole-star, this question must have arisen — Is this the handiwork of
God? When the father looked upon the lifeless form of his beloved child, what thought
could soothe and temper the bitterness of his bereavement and his woe, except his
confidence in the supreme Father's care and love ? And when the old man came to die,
what could light up the dark future into which he was hastening, save the uncreated
light which comes from the unseen? In their manifold questionings and doubts,
sorrows, infirmities, and fears, men have looked above, and we do not say they have
not received some tokens of Divine sympathy and love ; they have " cried unto God
with their voice," and he has heard and succoured them. But how dim has been their
vision I How faint their faith! How inarticulate the response which has reached them
from afar I They would fain have believed ; from many a sonl went up the eager and
intense inquiry, "Who is he, that I might believe ? " Nothing did they so deeply desire
as to see him, who is the Author of all being and the Arbiter of all destinies ; but as
they strained their vision, it was as those peering into the scarcely penetraUe twilight,
with eyes sufTused with tears. Who can by searching find out Gk>d, w know the
Almighty to perfection? Why this want was at once awakened, and allowed to remain
so long unsatisfied, we cannot tell. It is one of those mysteries upon which eternity
may shed some light ; for time has little to yield. It is enough for ua tiiat " in the
fulness of the time God sent forth his Son," that this Son of Gkid is the ene Object of
human belief, the Centre attracting the gaze of all eyes, and the love mai rurerence of
all hearts. In human form, through human life and death, with humaa voice Qo^
\6i THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BT, JOHN. [oh. xu. 1— fitt
the anknown, makes himself known to us ; God, the unseen, makes himself Tiiible to
ui. For we can believe on Christ, our Friend, our Brother ; we can behold him, th«
human Immanuel. We greet him as he comes to us from heaven ; we listen to him
as he speaks to us in earthly language. For us the problem is solved, the chasm is
bridged, the impossible is achieved; as Jesus says, " He that believeth on me, believeth
not on me, but on him that sent me. And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me."
Some persons have found it hard to believe that " God was manifest in the flesh." But
it seems far harder to believe that God was not in Christ, that Christ was not "God
with us." It seems hard to imagine how otherwise we could be brought to realize
the unspeakable nearness of our heavenly Father, how otherwise we could lo>>k into
his face, recognize his voice, love him and delight in him. God is in nature; but
can it be said, "He that believeth in physical law, that seeth material glory, believes in
and beholds the Father above"? He spake by the prophets ; but could Moses assert,
or Elijah, "He that seeth me seeth him that sent me"? The incongruity must strike
every mind; such language from human lips would send a shock through every
Christian heart. There are good men living now ; will the best of them stand up before
the world, and, claiming to come Trom God, declare, " He that seeth me seeth him that
sent me"? But how naturally do such words come from Jesus of Nazareth! How
simple 1 How free from exaggeration and assumption ! And how justly and confidently
do many hearts rest in his Divine, his welcome, his precious, his authoritative assurance,
" He that hath seen me hath seen the Father " I *
II. Christ's wosns abe the wobds of Qt)D. This is indeed the meaniug of the
ministry of Jesus, as a ministry of teaching. In the context this truth is brought out
with special distinciuess and power. " I have not," says the great Teacher, " spoken
of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commamiment, what I should
say, and what I should speak. . . . Whatsoever I speak, therefore, even as the Father
said unto me, so I speak." It is true that all human language is imperfect, and that,
if it is not capable of expressing all the thoughts, and especially all the feelings of men,
it is not reasonable to expect that it shall utter in completeness the mind of the infinite
God. This objection is brought by some against a revelation in words — against the
Bible itself. But it is no valid objection. Because the most high and eternal God
cannot make himself fully known to man, inasmuch as no means by which he can
communicate can do other than partake of human imperfection, ihall he therefore
refuse to commune with us at all? His fatherly pity will not consent to this. He
" spake to the fathers by the prophets," and " in these last days he has spoken to lu
by his Son." And what words they are in which our Lord has addressed us 1 Who
can believe them without believing the Father, who sent as Messenger his own
honoured and beloved Son ? He is indeed " the Word," being, in his own feultless
Person and sacred ministry, the very speech of the Divine mind, appealing to humanity
with the summons, " He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." His words were true.
Of himself he could speak as " a Man who telleth you the truth." The unbeliever may
come to believe his words, and so to believe in himself; the Christian believei in him,
and therefore receives his utterances with an unquestioning faith. On the highest
themes, on themes of the deepest and most imperishable interest for man, Christ has
spoken ; and his words are final, never to be questioned, never to be disproved. His
words are words of power. As he himself declared, " The words which I speak unto
you, they are spirit, and they are life." His words are immortal. " Heaven and earth,"
said he, " shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." His words are more
than human. The ofBcers were conscious of the authority of his teaching, when they
returned and said, " Never man spake like this Man 1 "
III. Chbist's love IB THE LOVE OF GoD. This is the meaning of the ministry of
Jesus as a display of character and disposition, as a constant extension to men of
healing, pardon, grace, and help. Our Saviour struck the key-note of his ministry in
the woros he addressed to Nicodemus : " God sent not his Son into the world to con-
demn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." The worst evils
which men suffer they inflict upun themselves ; the greatest blessings which they
experience are given them by God. How could men be convinced that Gbd is ■
Saviour? The best answer to this question iS the fact that they have been so convinced
bj tha mission and the ministry of Christ. As he " went about doing good; " as " hf
ea. xa. 1— 6a] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST, JOHN. IM
healed sU manner of BickneiB and disease among the people ; " as he pronounced to the
contrite and believing sinner the gracious words, " Be of good cheer ; thy sins be
forgiren thee I " — men felt, as they bad never felt before, that God was visiting and
redeeming his people. Human sorrow awakened the response of Divine sympathy,
and human sin the response of Divine clemency and forgiveness. It was not the timely
Vfut casual interposition of a human friend; it was the one typical eternal intervention
of a God. The ministry of our Redeemer in Jud»a and in Galilee was the outward
and visible sign of the unchanging pity of our Father's heart. It was " the acceptable
year of the Lord," but it was a year that has no end. In Christ, the God of all grace
is for ever addressing mankind in the language of an unfailing gospel, and is saying,
" Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." " Herein is love, not
that we loved God, but that God loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation foi
our eins."
IV, Christ's salvation is thb salvation of God. This is the meaning of
Immanuel's death and sacrifice. What it is wished especially to draw from this passage,
as eluciHating redemption and salvation, is this — that in the cross of Christ we do not
so much behold Christ reconciling us unto God, as God in Christ reconciling us unto
himself. The gospel is the setting forth and publication in time of the great truth
and reality of eternity — that God is a just God and a Saviour. To believe in Christ
is to believe in God's pwposes of mercy ; God's method of mercy ; God's promisi
of mercy. What follows from the truths now stated? How do they practically
affect us ?
V. Thb acoeptanob ob e^jbction of Christ ib thb acobptano* ob bejeotion of
God. These words were uttered at the close of our Lord's public ministry in Jerusalem,
probably on the Wednesday of the Passion week. On the whole, Christ's teaching had
met with unbelief and hostility. Pharisees and Sadducees had been rather silenced
than convinced. Many of the chief rulers, indeed, believed on Jesus, yet they had not
the courage and honesty to confess him. In this very chapter, whilst we read that
"many believed" on Jesus, we are informed of others that " they believed not on him."
It is clear that there was general interest in Christ's teaching and claims ; but that
those who acknowledged the Prophet of Nazareth as the Messiah were few and timid,
whilst his opponents were bold and bitter and determined. It was the very crisis of
our Lord's ministry. His " hour was come." The cycle of his public teaching and
beneficence was complete. He had now only to lay down his life, and thus to carry
out his fore-announced intentions, and to finish the work his Father had given him
to do. And these words and those which follow are Christ's final testimony to the
Jews. He sums up in a brief compass the truth concerning himself, and then the
practical bearing of that truth upon his hearers. He has come from God. He has
come, with Divine authority, as the world's Light, and as the world's Saviour. He has
come with everlasting life in his hands, as Heaven's choicest gift. Yet he sees around
him, not only those who hear, believe, and receive him, but those also who reject him
It is not for him to judge ; for he has come to save. But judgment awaits the imbeliever
And what is the witness which the compassionate Saviour bears as his last solemn
message to mankind ? How does he bring home to their souls the awful responsibility
of association with him, of enjoying a day of Divine visitation? He does this in ihu
sublime statement, in which he identities himself with the Father from whom he
came. No one can disbelieve and reject him, can close the eye to his glory, without
in so doing rejecting God, turning away from the sight of God, and stopping the ear
against the voice of God. This was, and is, a truth at which men may well tremble.
Here we are brought face to face with the great probation, the great alternative, of
human life aqd destiny. Only those who are thoughtless or hardened can think of
this truth without the deepest seriousness and solemnity. It may justly be said to
men, " You have been so framed by the Divine Maker of all that you must either
accept or reject him. In either case it must be your act, and you must be answerable
for it. And there is no third course open to you; for not to acknowledge, honour, and
trust the Christ of Gt>d, to be indifferent to him and to his salvation, — this is to spurn
the most sacred privilege, to neglect the most precious opportunity with which God
himself can favour you. It is to shut the eyes to the light of heaven ; it is to diir
believe and to reject the eternal God himself." — T.
16« THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xn. 1— 6a
Vers. 3 — 8. — The immortaJ Jox </ ointment. We have here —
L The offebino of love. " Then took Mary," etc. 1, 2%<» offering of lov* it
made to its Object. Jesus was the Object of Mary's supreme lore, and him she now
anoints. We may look at her act as : (1) An expression of her profound perBondl
esteem. Esteem for his character, his life, and his Person. (2) An expression of her
profound gratitude. Gratitude for many acts of kindness, for many words of Divine
wisdom, comfort, and guidance, and especially for his matchless miracle of power and
friendship in the restoration to life of a dear brother. (3) An expression of her pro-
found homage and submission. She anoints Jesus as the Sovereign of her heart,
the King of her soul, the Lord of her life, the Messiah of the nation, and the Saviour of
men. Inward love will ever find an outward expression. 2. This offering of love some-
what cm-responds with the hve it expresses. Think of this ointment, the offering of
Mary's love. (1) Think of its mudity. It was most precious and genuine ; the best
that could be found even in the East, the land of delightful perfumes. (2) Think of
its costliness. It was very costly. According to Judas's valuation (and who knew
better ?) it was worth " three hundred pence " — about £10 of our money. (3) Think oi
its quantity. " A pound." A pound of many things would not be much, but a pound
of this genuine and costly ointment was a large quantity. But it was not too genuine
in quality, too costly in value, and not too much in quantity, to satisfy the loving
impulses of Mary's heart. Doubtless there was a tear of love trembling in her eye
at the time, because the offering was not worthy of her affections, and especially not
worthy of their supreme Object. 3. This offering of love was made in a very suitable
and interesting manner. (1) It was deliberately made. Whether the ointment was
originally bought for the purpose of anointing Jesus or for private use cannot be decided.
The latter supposition adds value to the offering. In any way, it was either deliberately
bought, or preserved and appropriated as an offering of love to Jesus. It was not an
accident or an impulse of the moment. (2) It was mos< heartily made. " She took a
pound," etc., or, according to another account, " she brake the box." Some think that
all was not used. If so, it is strange that Judas did not propose to sell the remainder.
This supposition is rather against tlie narratives, and certainly against the genius of
genuine and burning, love. A heart broken with love for its object naturally breaks
the box over his head. (3) It was most self-oblivioutly and gracefvJly made. " She
wiped his feet with her hair." Self-oblivious, forgetful of the laws of etiquette, unmind-
ful of the presence of those around her, and not having a towel at hand, not one at least
in her esteem worthy of the occasion, she so wiped those feet, at which she so often sat,
with the long tresses of her hair — an act of tender womanly kindness, unsurpassed
in the richest records of romance and the finest fancies of poetry. Love often rises
above the rules of social etiquette, and dares to be original and natural, and conse-
quently most pleasing and attractive. What a picture we have here of the offering of
simple and ardent love 1 Never feet had a softer towel, and never a towel had worthier
feet to wipe than those of him who went about doing good.
II. The objection of avaeigb. 1. It came from an unexpected quarter. " Then
saith one of his disciples," etc. One would think that any token of love to the Master
would be hailed by the disciples with satisfaction and joy ; but it was not so. It came
from one of them, but our surprise is lessened when we are told that this disciple was
no other than the betrayer. 2. /( was most indignant. (1) It commenced within.
The soul of Judas took fire, his passions were all ablaze, and this was to some extent
contagious. (2) It soon found outward expression. In angry looks, in disapproving
gestures, in condemnatory whispers, and at last it thundered forth in the betrayer's
question, " Why," etc. 1 (3) The mouthpiece of the question was its originator. Judas
was the originator as well as the mouthpiece of this foul objection. The l^reakingof the
box broke his heart. The sweet perfume of the ointment stank in his nostrils, and
burnt in his soul, and broke out in burning indignation. The other disci^es were but
his innocent victims. 3. It was most plausible. (1) It was apparently em itnprofitaile
act. Christ was not better after than he was before it was performed. (2) An unpro-
AUMe aetata great expense. Three hundred pence were wasted to no purpose. (3)
Ther« was «t]worthy eauu f»r tahioh tA« money might have been appropricUed—the ever
worthy and crying oaose «f the needy poor. What cravings of hunger might be satU-
iwd with what wa* lyent iMrely t» please a woman's whim I What » (taring and m
OH. Mt 1.-60.] THE GOSPEL ACCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. 167
unpardonable offence was the whole affair I The objection is most plausible, and worthy
of a benevolent phUanthropist. We are not surprised that it moved the other innocent
disciples into indignation, and emboldened the traitor to make it with confidence of
being justified in the eyes of his Master. 4. It was most false and selfish. "This he
said, not," etc. The objection in itself is natural, but as coming from Judas it was most
selfish and insincere. When he said the poor he really meant himself. In this fair
garb of philanthropy lurked the vile demon of sordid gain and selfish avarice. It is
one of the mysteries of iniquity that it can speak the language of holiness. Avarice can
utter the sentiments of benevolence. "All is not gold that glitters." Judas valued the
ointment more highly than he valued his Master. The former he would not sell under
three hundred pence, but sold the latter for thirty pieces of silver. His nature was
miserably false and selfish. This act.of love ripened and revealed his character. The
loss of the ointment hurried him to sell his Master. Thus we have the stench of avarice '
in the same room as the perfume of love.
IIL The defence of Jesus. " Then said Jesus," etc. This defence is addressed, not
to Judas but to the other disciples. Jesus could now scarcely hope to extinguish the
fire which was raging in Judas's soul, but could stop it from damaging other premises.
In his defence : 1. A sound advice is given. "Let her alone." There is implied here:
(1) The goodness of the deed. This is expressed by another evangelist. Jesus could not
• tolerate evil, not even let it alone. (2) His sympathy with the performer. Her feelings
were hurt, and he at once stood between innocence and the foul tongue of slander,
and between love and the cold touch of avarice. (3) The proper conduct of the disciples,
" Let her alone." When we cannot understand and agree with our brethren in their
way of manifesting their love to the Saviour, our duty is clearly to let them alone.
Between them and him : 2. Lovii offering is explained. (1) As having a reference to
his death and hurial. "Against the day of my burying," etc. How far the death of
Christ was understood and believed by Mary we cannot say. However, it is evident
that she was now inspired by love to perform on him an act which he looked upon as a
befitting preparation for his burial. (2) As having a symbolic reference to his resur-
rection. The symbolic language of the offering rhymed with that of prophecy con-
cerning him, " that his soul should not be left in hell," etc. (3) As having a symbolic
reference to the henefit of his death and his sovereignty over men. He was anointed as
their King. She brake the box on Jesus. Jesus brake the box of Divine love on
Calvary. " The house was filled," etc. The world will be filled with the odour of his
sacrifice — ^the infinite sacrifice of Divine love. Mary did what the nation ought to do, and
what the world has been gradually doing ever since. She was partly unconscious of what
she did. Love to Jesus is often blind, blinded by its own dazzle — especially by the
dazzle of its glorious Object; but its instincts and its intuitions are very strong,
correct, deep, and far-reaching. Jesus can see in the offerings of love more than the
offerers themselves. They may often ask, " When saw we thee an hungered," etc. ? but
he answers, " Inasmuch," etc. (4) As leing made to the proper Object. To him, and
not to the poor. For : (a) In any act of kindness to him the poor were recognized.
Who was poorer than he ? And yet he was the poor man's Friend. When love pours
the ointment on him, it shall return to them with interest. Whatever is done to the
poor, Jesus counts as done to him ; would not they willingly now return the compli-
ment? (6) Opportunities to serve the poor were many and permanent. "The poor
ye have always," etc. (c) Opportunities to honour Jesus personally were few and brief.
He was a Pilgrim in the land, only just passed by. Any act of personal kindness to
him must be done at once or never, (ft) When the claims of the poo" come into collision
with those of Jesus, the former must give way. While their claims are fully admitted,
his are supreme. They are to be ever helped, but he is to be anointed King of the
heart and enthroned in the affections. The claims of the poor and those of Jesus can
never come into collision but by the cunning opposition of avarice, or the thoughtless
blunders of friendship. (6) As being made in time. The offerings of genuine and
ardent love are never after the time ; they are often before, as in this case. Mary
performed an act of kindness to her living Saviour. Many mourn over the gravei
of those they worried in life ; but Mary anointed her living Lord. She was deter-
mined that he should taste the sweets of himian kindness and smell the perfume of
Itoman love and homage ere he passed away, and, being inspired with the thought
168 THE GOSPEL ACCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xn. 1—60
that this might be the last opportunity, she poured the ointment on his sacred head
and feet.
Lebsoks. 1. No genuine offering of love to Christ cam be a locute. It was not so in
this case. To Mary it was a most delightful exercise ; to the disciples a most important
lesson ; to Christ a most gratifying deed ; to the world a most beneficial teaching. It
was only waste to him who was the son of waste. 2. Those who mardfest self-sacrifio-
ing love to Christ must ever expect opposition. Opposition even from quarters they
would least expect. There is a Judas in most societies, and avarice is eternally opposed
to benevolence, and selfishness to love. 3. Any oljfection to the offerings of love, however
plausible, should ever be regarded with suspicion. Avarice can often argue better than
benevolence. Benevolence is often too timid to defend itself, but is bold enough to
break the box of ointment. Let it do this, and Jesus will ultimately and successfully
defend it. The offerings of love are more than a match for all the objections of avarice ;
the latter petrify, and are increasingly obnoxious ; while the former are increasingly
odorous and sweet — they fill the bouse and the soul of Jesus with their sweet odour.
Avarice never yet found an object worthy of its generosity. It is ever shifting. An
offering which has the preponderating appearance of love, listen to no objection against
it. If you cannot heartily commend, let it alone. 4. We can well afford the objection of
others if we have the approval of Jesus. What need had Mary to care after Jesus said, " Let
her alone," etc. ? 5. Those who are in responsible positions should be on their gumrd. Office
tests, forms, and reveals character. The " bag " is a tree of life or death to all who have
to do with it. How many can trace their ruin to a bag ? Judas can do so. He began
to take what was in it ; little thinking that what he took from the bag was small
compared with what the bag took from him — took his sotil. The bag was the greatest
thief; but Judas was the responsible one, 6. Rather than be too hard upon Judas, let
us humbly and prayerfully examine owrsdves. We are also men. The most courteous
opponent Judas ever met was Jesus. Instead of meeting his selfish objection in the
scathing language it justly deserved, he met it with peculiar mildness. Judas has
suffered most from himself and his family. The celebrated Judas of history has been a
scapegoat for many modem ones. Their denunciations of him have been only a cover
to do the same, and something even worse. — B. T.
Vers. 9 — 11. — Jesius and his enemies. Note here —
L The attbaction of Jbsub. " Much people of the Jews," etc 1. He was attrao-
tive in his work. In the sick h^ had healed, the blind to whom he had given sight,
and the dead he bad restored to life, especially in his last miracle on Lazarus. In this
he manifested : (1) His complete mastery over death. Death had done its work com-
pletely ; decomposition and corruption had set in. Lazarus had been in bis grave for
fi>ur days. The mastery of Jesus over death was complete in the miracle, (2) His
complete mastery over Itfe. This was the secret of his mastery over death, because he
possessed all the resources and energies of life. As the Prince of life alone he could be
the Master of death. Death will only yield to almighty life. (3) His unguestionable
Divine power and mission. If this would not prove the Divinity of his Person and
mission, no act of power ever could. It had this effect on all who were open to con-
viction. The supernatural and the Divine brought to counteract the forces of nature
are ever attractive. They were pre-eminently so in this instance. 2. Ifit work was
attractive in him. Lazarus restored to life was his immediate and undeniable work,
and Lazarus was attractive, and the people came, " not for Jesus' sake only, but that
they might see Lazarus also," etc. Lazarus was attractive : (1) As the subject of the most
wonderful changes. From life to death, and from death back to life again ; and all the
changes had taken place in a ihort period of time. He had only just returned from the
land of death, A most wonderful phenomenon I (2) As tht subject of supposed gtrangt
experiences of life and death and restoration. His experience, perhaps, could not be
related. All to him was like a pleasant dream of flitting beauty — broken music
and delightful sensations which could scarcely be reproduced in human language but
in very general and indefinite terms. He was only a babe four days old in the spirit-
life. The first thing, probably, he could distinctly remember was to hear the voice of
Jesus say, "Lazarus, come forth 1 " Many questions were doubtless put to him on the
■nbject of his strange experiences, but nothing is recorded oalj ■■, IwTing OzperieniMd
•H.zn.1— 60.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. l«t
■uch diepensfttions, he attracted many. (3) Ab the living monument of the most
wonderful power — the power of Jesus of Nazwreth. They came to see Lazarus also, but
he was attractive on account of what Jesus had done to him. He had many monu-
meutB, but this was his masterpiece, and from it every reflective and earnest mind would
turn with reverence and awe to the. great Artist. 3. He was very attractive at this
time. (1) He attracted very many people. " Much people of the Jews," etc. They
came to know where he was. The miracle of Bethany had stirred up Jerusalem. He
could not be hid. His fame now blazed with pecular brilliancy. (2) He attracted
many in spite of difficulties. There was much popular prejudice and unbelief. He had
the bitterest opposition of the leading spirits of the nation ; wealth, learning, power, and
authority in Church and state were against him. Every obstacle to the flow of the
populace to him was placed in their way, but in spite of all, Bethany mightily attracted
Jerusalem in those days. (3) He attracted many to faith. " Many of the Jews
believed on him." To attract attention, curiosity, general interest, and personal pre-
sence and attendance was but little to him, after all. Many came to Jesus, but believed
not on him ; they admired and even believed the work, but not on the Worker ; but he
attracted many to real faith — faith which was spiritual and lasting.
II. The opposition op his fobs. " The chief priests," etc. 1. Their opposition was
really to Jesus. (1) They opposed JesuS in Lazarus. The Master in the disciple ;
the great Operator in his work. They had nothing personally against Lazarus; but
thought that they could not so effectively strike Jesus as through him. He became
the target of their hatred. This is not the first time, and certainly not the last, Jesus
is persecuted in his followers, and his followers persecuted on his account. (2) They
opposed Lazarus because he was a loss to them. Because on his account many of the
Jews went away — left them. The miracle of which Lazarus was the living monument
attracted many from them. Their ranks were quickly thinned, and their reputation on
the wane. This enraged their anger against Lazarus. (3) They opposed Lazarus
because he was a gain to Jesus. Mauy on his account left them and believed on Jesus.
This, after all, was the sting of his offence. They could bear their own loss better than
his gain ; their own ebb than his flow. They would rather backsliding adherents should
take any direction than this. This was a mortal offence. In connection with Jesus
Lazarus had become intolerable. 2. Their opposition was most wicked and cruel. (1)
It involved murder. The taking away of life. This was the bitter end. They could
go no further. They had no right to this. Life is sacred. (2) It involved wilful
murder. " They consulted how," etc. Anyhow, only let Lazarus be put to death. It
was not the impulse of the moment, the outburst of passion, but the deliberate and
■ united act of the will. " They consulted," etc. (3) It was the wilful murder of the
innocent. Jesus was innocent ; but if to perform miracles and attract the people con-
stituted real guUt, he was guilty. But what had Lazarus done? Was it an offence to
be raised from the dead and breathe the old air, mix with old acquaintances, and enjoy
the old life once more ? True, he was a most genuine and dear friend of Jesus ; but a
most quiet and undemonstrative one, much beloved by his nation in life and mourned
in death. In a sense he was the passive monument of a most benevolent and Divine
power. And what could he help that his miraculous restoration engendered faith in
Jesus ? Blind and cruel bigotry could scarcely select a more innocent victim, nor con-
template a more wicked deed. 3. Their opposition was increasingly wicked and cruel.
(1) The death of Jesus was already determined. His life was already doomed as far as
the Jewish authorities were concerned. There was a reward already offered for his
capture. (2) The death of Lazarus was now contemplated. Lazarus was the first con-
templated martyr for Jesus on record. We have no proof that they carried out their
purpose ; probably not. They had Jesus, and this satisfied them for the time, and
Lazarus escaped. (3) One sin leads to another. Sin generates and multiplies very fast.
The determination to murder Jesus led to the determination to murder Lazarus. (4)
The capacity to do the greater involves the capacity to do the less. If they can put
Jesus to death, they can easily put Lazarus. The violent death of Jesus made the
violent death of his follower a comparatively easy matter. 4. Their opposition was
most foolish. Reason was off its throne. For : (1) The death of Lazarus could not
undo the miracle and its results. The miracle by this time was an established and an
admitted Cut. It had in a sense gone from <Jesu8 and Lazarus and was a publie
no THE GOSPEL iCCOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xn. 1— BO.
property, and, whatever would become of them, the miracle would still remain. It
was well known to these authorities, and there is no attempt to deny it, but a most
foolish attempt to destroy it. (2) The death of Lazarus could not prevent the per-
formance of another miracle. It is foolish to attempt to dry the stream while the
fountain is still springing. It was foolish to put Lazarus to death whilst Christ
was still aliye. They could not send his spirit so far to the invisible world that
his voice could not reach and recall it. They could not hope to mangle his body to
such an extent that the chemistry of his Divine power could not reunite it. He
could cause Lazarus to appear before them and scare them, till they would be only
too glad to let him alone. (3) Lazarus was not the only monument of Christ's Divine
power. He had hosts of them throughout the whole country. The destruction of all
these monuments would involve such a massacre as would be beyond their power and
authority to perpetrate. Their opposition was foolish. 5. Their oppoaition was piti-
ably futile. (1) Physical death cannot destroy Divine life and energy. (2) Physical
death cannot destroy Divine purposes. They flow on like a mighty river, increasing in
magnitude and force, and sweeping every opposition before them. The futile devices of
priests and stratagems of Pharisees are seen carried away on its crested and sweeping
flood. (3) Physical death cannot destroy spiritual principles, but rather increase and
intensify them. Faith, hope, and love can thrive in chains, feed on flames, and leap
with life, even in death. If Lazarus were put to death and fell a martyr to these
priests and never again return, thousands would leap to life from his grave and feed
upon his ashes. The futility of physical opposition to truth was aptly expressed by
the Pharisees, when some of that sect said, " Perceive ye not," etc. ? 6. ITieir opposi-
tion came from an unexpected quarter. " The chief priests." (1) They were in tlte
best position to examine the genuineness of the miracle and understand its meaning.
As a class they were educated and highly piivileged. They were the leaders of religious
thought, and one would naturally expect that they had sufBcient philosophical insight
and integrity, apart from their religious position, to inquire into such a strange pheno-
menon and accept its plain and inevitable teaching. (2) They should he the foremost
to accept the claims of Jesus, see in him the promised Messiah, the fulfilment of pro-
phecy, and the substance of all sacrifice — the Lamb of God. (3) What ought to breed
faith bred in them murder. The reason which led others to believe in Jesus, led them
to hate and oppose him. The miracle of life revived in them the vilest passions for death.
What stronger proots of Christ's Divinity and Divine commission could they wish or
have? How could faith be satisfied better than by an outward sign? And yet the
reason for faith they want to destroy, and the light of faith they want to extinguish ;
the monument of faith they want to overthrow, and the object of faith they want to
murder. AVhat moral depravity and blindness does this reveal !
Lessons. 1. Tlie leaders of the people have often been the bitterest opponents of truth
and progress. They have opposed every true reform, and instead of leading the people
to the light, they have stood between the people and it, and have attempted to extin-
guish it. 2. If the leaders of the people are so opposed to truth, what can be expected of
the people themselves. 3. When they will not lead the people, the people should lead them
and help themselves. 4. All people, learned and unlearned, rid* a/nd poor, have a true
Leader in Jesus. — ^B. T.
Vers. 27 — 30. — Through trouble to triwm/ph. I. Jesus in trouble. He was not a
stranger to trouble, but this was a special one. 1. Trouble arising from a vivid reali-
zation of his approaching death and sufferings. They already oast their awful shadows
upon his pm'e soul. The unparalleled tragedy of his death, with all its sinfulness on
the part of his foes, and all its cruelties, agonies, and shame, was now acted in his soul,
and it caused him to shudder. He was far from being a coward, but quite so far from
being a heartless Stoic. He was courageous, but human ; most heroic, but still most
sensitive. 2. Trouble arising from the immediate effect of his death on others. The
Gentiles were already knocking at his door for admission ; but the opening of the door
involved bis death and the rejection of that people whom he came to savo. The more
remote joy of his death was hushed in its immediate effects upon his own nation.
This judgment which his death involved troubled him. 3. TroiXle which affected hit
whole ruUure. " Now is my soul troubled," eto. The soul here represents bis whol«
«.xii.l-60.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST. JOHN. 171
human nature, of which it is the Ughest and most important part, and most capabl«
of refined and spiritual sufierings, and even his flesh quivered at the prospect of such
treatment at the hands of those from whom he expected and deserved kindness.
There is a close connection between the soul and the body — sympathy between them.
Suffering is contagious.
II. Jesus in pbatee. 1. It was a prayer in trouble, and trovhle tent Mm natwraUy
to his Fatherybr succour. Inward and outward trouble naturally drives the devoted
soul to God. It had this effect on Jesus now. And who could approach God with such
confidence and certainty of success as he ? He had not brought the trouble upon him-
self, but bore it for others in accordance with the eternal will. 2. It was a prayer in
which he found it difficult to express himself. "What shall I say?" This difficulty
arose : (1) Prom the trouhled state of his soul. When a man is in great trouble, accurate
expression to God or man is difficult. It will be inaccurate, or he must pause and ask,
"What shall I say?" (2) From a severe conflict ietween the flesh and the spirit.
Jesus was thoroughly human, and was now young and in the bloom of life, and also
innocent and pure. In him the claims of life and the terrors of death would be natur-
ally great. There was a severe conflict between the weakness of the flesh and the
readiness of the spirit ; and the natural prayer of the former would be, " Father, save me
from this hour," etc. (3) Prom the conflict between the possibility of escape, and the law
<^ obedience in his heart. The possibility and advantages of escape were now doubtless
presented to his mind — one of the last temptations of the prince of this world. The
temptation in the wilderness was not the only one he encountered. It was only the
introduction. He was tempted through life. His own power and superiority were
used as instruments of temptation. The possibility and present advantages of escape were
presented to him to the last; and, if such a consideration triumphed, his natural prayer
would he, " Father, save me," etc. (4) The ruling principles of his soul immediately
triumpM. The question," " Shall I say, Father, save me from this hour?" The
loyalty of his soul immediately answered, " No, I shall not say that, because for this
cause came I to this hour." Such a prayer would be a contradiction to his whole spirit
and history before and after the incarnation ; would be against the very purpose of bis
coming, which was well known to him ; would be a victory for the enemy. But his
loyalty triumphed, and the prince of this world was cast out. 3. It is a prayer, the
burden of which is his Father's glory. " Glorify thyself." This implies : (1) An intense
desire that his Father should be glorified. This is the prayer of his soul and the soul of
his prayer, and the affectionate cry of his agonies, that the Divine power, wisdom,
goodness, justice mercy, and love, should be crowned, and the reputation of the Divine
name should be advanced. (2) An intense desire that his Father should be glorified in
him — in his life and death ; that he should be the medium of his glorification ; that in
his incarnate life and death his Father's glory should be increased here and everywhere.
(3) A sdf-sacrifieing submission to his Fathei't will. He is entirely lost in the Divine
will. His prayer is not, " Father, save me," but " Glorify thyself." In what is coming
never mind me; take care of thy Name. He would not be saved at any risk to the
Divine Name. He offerij himself a willing Sacrifice on the altar of his Father's glory.
Selfishness is conquered, and love is all ablaze. (4) The highest note of devotion.
" Glorify thy Name." This, as uttered by our Lord, is the highest note of human
devotion, the climax of human worship, and the sweetest music of self-sacrifice.
IIL The fbateb or Jesus answered. 1. The answer is full and direct. " I
have both," etc. We have here the glorification of the Divine Name in Jesus. (1) In
relation to the pott, "I have," etc. His past life and work had been in the highest
degree acceptable and efiioient, and satisfactory to the Divine Being, and served the
highest interests of the Divine nature. (2) In relation to the future. " And will," etc.
Jesus's past is only an earnest of even a brighter future. In him the Divine Name will
be ever glorious, the Divine glory will ever shine, and the Divine attributes blaze with
special and increasing brilliancy. In him the Divine nature will reach its liighest and
brightest manifestations. 2. The answer was immediate. " There came a voice," etc.
There was no delay. The prayer went up in agony, and immediately came back in
glory. Jesus was near heaven when on earth, and heaven was near him, and ever re^idy
to respond. Heaven is ever near and responsive to the prayers of earnest faith. 3. Th*
OMiMT uof wudAU. "A voice," etc The prayer went up in a voice, and in a yoio«
172 THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINO TO BT. JOHN. [oh. xn. 1— 6U
•
the UBwer returned. Thii was the third time Heaven spoke audibly respecting Christ —
at his baptism, transfiguration, and now at his Passion. (1) All heard it. "The
giople who stood by and heard." It was loud enough for all to hear. This is like
eaven ; when it speaka, it speaks in clear and mighty tones. When the material
heayen speaks, it olten speaks in storms and thunders. (2) A few only understood it.
To the majority it was a mere sound like thunder. To some it suggested the broken
articulations of an angel, whilst to the disciples, and perhaps tnauy others, it was the
very voice of God. John fully understood it, and copied its Divine meaning, and
handed it down to us. Only those who have ears to hear can hear and understand
what the Spirit siuth. John had a good ear for the Divine voice. What seems to us
only thunder may be the immediate voice of God. 4. The answer wot audiHUfov the
sake of others. Jesus required no voice from Heaven. He understood tlie language
and thoughts of Heaven intuitively. Christ was not dependent upon the human voice
as a medium of revelation. He knew what was in man ; he was conscious of what was
in God. God spoke in him ; but man requires a voice, and Heaven supplied it now.
(1) As a public testimony to the life and death of Christ. (2) As a test and confir-
mation of faith. (3) As a Divine indication of the special importance of the how which
included the Passion of Christ. Its importance to earth, to heaven, to the Gentiles, to
Jesus, to the Father, «nd to the universe. — B. T.
Ver. 32. — ITie saving influence of Christ. Notice it —
I. In some of its chabaotebistio featubes. 1. It it t?u inflttence of the greatest
Person. " And I," etc. To know something about influence, let us ask who influences 7
(1) The Son of Ood. .The eternal Word, who was in the beginning with God, and is
Grod. Thus the source of the influence is Divine, infinite, and exhaustless. (2) The
Son of God in hitman nature. The eternal Word manifested in the flesh, assumed the
nature he came to save, and in that nature taught men by precept and exam pie, and
manifested before them the most powerful and fascinating attributes of the Divine and
human, in a beautiful combination, and led them on to their highest destiny. (3)
The Son of God in personal contact with the human race, with a full knowledge of, and
an intense sympathy with their spiritual wants, inspired with the purpose of salvation,
and a passionate desire to advance their spiritual welfare. Thus the fallen human
nature is brought again within the moral attraction of the Divine. 2. The influence of
the greatest Person, having made the greatest samflce. " And I, if I he lifted up." The
incarnate Word laid down his life as a sacrifice for sin. This sacrifice is infinite, perfect,
and matchless. (1) It is the manifestation of the greatest love. Divine love for the
salvation and happiness of the fallen human family. The tongues of men and angels
together could not set forth the greatness of the Divine love so eloquently as the Divine
sacrifice offered on Calvary. If it be asked how great is God's love towards fallen man,
the most expressive answer is in the words of the evangelist, " God so loved," etc. (2)
It removes all difficulties to reconciliation with Qod. In it all Divine claims are satis-
fied, and human enmity slain, and the mightiest hindrances to Divine attraction are
removed. (3) It furnishes the most powerful motives to reconciliation. In the light of
this saciifice sin appears most hateful, its consequences most disastrous, while virtue
appears most charming, and God most attractive. As an instrument it is calculated in
the highest degree to arouse the conscience in condemnation of sin, to melt the heart,
to bend the will, and to attract the whole nature from sin to holiness, from the king-
dom of darkness to that of light. The supreme and all-conquering motive furnished by
it is God's love. (4) It procures the most powerful helps to reconciliation. The Holy
Spirit, with all his influences, gifts, and blessings. All that man requires in order to
return to God is furnished through Christ and the sacrifice of his blood. 3. Hie
influence <f the greatest person in the most advantageous position. The lifting up from
the earth refers to the consequent exaltation as well as to the crucifixion. (1) A posi-
tion of the most complete triumph, a triumph achieved under the most disadvantageous
circuiBstances, 0:1 a cross, achieved over the mightiest foes of God and man, and
achieved on behalf of God and man. Man now has only a conquered foe to eacounter.
(2) A position of the highest honour and glory. Glory won through shame, life pro-
cured by death, the glory of victory and self-sacrifice. If he acMeved so much on
a eroaa, wh»t can he not do luder a crown ? (3) A position of the greatest authwity
OH. xn. 1—60.] THE 60SPBL AOCOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. 17»
tmd power. Authority and power native and acquired. *■ All power is given me," ete.
All the realm of spiritual forces, good and bad, is under his controL 4. The imAumet
of the greatest Person exercised in the most efficient way. " I will draw," etc. Man ia
to be drawn, not driven. The saving influence of Ohrist is voluntary, not compulsory ;
it is moral and spiritual, influences man through his mental and spiritual nature, and
binds the heart and will with the cords of love, and gently draws thera Godwards.
II. In its aLORions triumph. This we see if we consider : 1. The object* cf itt
attraction. In order to estimate the drawing power of any influence, let us consider
who are drawn, and from what. (1) The greatest sinners sunk in the deepest sin. (2)
Inspired with the deadliest enmity against God and virtue. (3) Backed up hy the
mightiest spiritual opponents of Qod and virtue. But in spite of all, " I will draw,"
etc. 2. The completeness (f the drawing, " Unto me," etc. (1) TSnio faith in Aota.
(2) Unto his character and likeness. (3) Unto his position and society. The drawing
will be most complete; hence the glory of the influence — ^his triumph. 3. The extensive-
ness of the attraction. " All men," etc. Jews and Gentiles? More than these. We
shall not, in the presence of the cross of our Lord, venture to limit this phrase, but let
it tell its simple but grand tale of the glorious triumph of saving grace through Chiist,
(1) This extensive idea is in perfect harmony with human need. All have gone astray
from God, and require to be drawn to him. The greater the want, the greater the
mercy. (2) It is in perfect harmony with the Divine will. " Who willeth that n«
man should perish, but that all should turn," etc. (3) It is in perfect harmony with
the infinitude of the sacrifice. Is it not naturally adapted to draw, and does it not
deserve to be universally successful ? (4) It is in perfect harmony with otir highest
notion of the supreme Being as a Qod of infinite love. (5) It is in perfect harmony
with many other expressions of ffocPs revealed will. (6) It is in perfect harmony with
our highest notions of the ultimate glory of Qod. 4. The certainty of ihe attraction.
This lies : (1) In the Divine purpose. (2) In the Divine provision, (3) In the Divine
promise. ' Jesus has not promised to do more than he has purposed, is willing, and
fuUy able to do.
LzssoNS. 1. What the foes of Jesus thought would punish him, w<u the very thing to
advance his interests. They said, " Crucify him, and his influence will be at an end."
He said, " Crucify me, and I will draw," etc. 2. Time and eternity are on the tide of
Christ, and also the superior power of Divine principles. Truth is more powerful than
error, good than evil, and the attractions of Jesus mightier than the evil one. Let Ohrist
have time, and his promise will be fulfilled, and Divine love triumphant. 3. It is
better for the sinner to yield now than to battle with Divine love. It would be far better
for the prodigal to return soon after leaving his father's house^ than after experiencing
the keenest pangs of hunger. Return he did at last. — B. T.
Vers. 44 — 50. — Ghrisfs farewell sermon to thepuhlie. Xotice —
I. The hissiok of Christ in relation to faith. 1. Faith in the Bon involves
faith in the Father. " He that believeth on me, believeth not on me [only]." (1)
Christ reveals the Father as the supreme Object of faith. The Son as yet was a
Bevealer of the Father as the supreme Object of faith. (2) His mission naturally and
directly led faith to the Father. (3) Faith in him was as yet a stepping-stone to faith
in the Father, The introduction — the first resting-place of faith on her upward flight
to the Supreme. There would be a time when Christ would be revealed as the special
Object of faith ; but now the Father is revealed as such, and the Bevealer keeps in the
background. (4) Yet faith in Christ involves /otVA tn the Father. No one can believe in
Christ without believing in the Father. There is such an essential and ofScial connection
between the Sender and the Sent that faith in one involves faith in the other. When
faith embraces the Son it finds the Father. 2. A spiritual vision of Christ involves
a spiritual vision of the Father, "He that seeth me," etc. (1) Christ is the expr«M
Image of his Person, (2) The express Befiection of his character and attributes. (3)
The express Revelation of his will and purposes. 3. Faith in Christ alone made fuU
faith in the Father possMe. (1) Knowledge is essential to faith. We must know Gh>d
to some extent before we can exercise an intelligent faith in him. Indeed, appropriated
knowledge is faith. " This is life," etc. (2) Christ sixmefuUy revealed Ooi to mon-
leind, and furnished them with knowledge concerning him. " I am come a Light into th«
174 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xn. 1—80,
world." (3) Faith in Christ, as the Light, alone can restilt in faith in the Object which
it revedU. " That whosoever believeth on me," etc. The enjoyment of light can alone
save us from darkness, and bring us face to face with the objects around us. The enjoy-
ment of Christ by faith aloue can bring us to enjoy the Father.
II. Thk mission of Christ in bblation to unbelief. 1. Unbelief develops itself
in two ways. (1) In attentive hearing hut non-ohservunce. (Ver. 47.) (2), Entire
r^ection. (Ver. 48.) 2. Both these classes incur judgment. (1) Not directly by Christ.
" I judge him not." (2) The primary purpose of Christ s mission was not judgment.
(3) Its prima/ry pwrpose was salvation. 3. Tlie unbeliever^ s judge is Christ's message.
" The Word that I spake," etc. (1) Judgment is the secondary result of Chrisfs Word.
Its primary and natural result is eternal life. Man turns it into judgment by rejection.
When it fails to save on account of unbelief it judges and condenin<. (2) The judgment
of the Word is partly present. " He hath," etc. Now the unbeliever is condemned by
his own reason and conscience, and in the light of the Word he is self-condemned.
(3) It is more suitable that the Word should judge now than if Christ were to do so. He
could not directly judge and save at thu same time. But his Word must condemn
when it fails to benefit (4) The Jinal and full judgment of the Word mil be in the
future. " At the last day," etc. Then the judgment by the Word will be published,
and reach its finality. The Word, like Christ, is unchangeable. The rejected Word
will judge. It will be the same at the last day as now, and will deliver its final
verdict.
III. The mission of Chbist in belation to HiMSELf AND THE Fatheb. 1. His
mission was purely Divine. (1) It was not self-derived. " I have not spoken of
myself," etc. This in his case would be an impossibility, for he and the Father are
one. (2) It was not a mixture of the human and the Divine. (3) It was purely the
will of the Father. 2. Eis mission was minutely defined. (1 ) It was embodied in a
Divine command. (Ver. 49.) (2) Il^As comma.nd. embraced the minutest' details of his
mission. " What I should say and speak," etc. (3) This command was ever present to
him in his inward consciousness, written as a law in his heart. It was the inspiration
of every thought and the burden of every word. It was, in fact, a part of himself.
3. His mission was fully understood by him. " And I know," etc. (1) Understood in
its natural results. " Life everlasting." (2) Understood in its awful importance. The
fate of the huiuan family hung on his message. (3) Understood most absolutely. "I
know." It is not " I think or believe." 4. His mission was most faithfully discharged.
(1) Without any additions. (2) Without any deductions. (3) With the most devoted
fidelity. With regard to its substance and spirit, it was discharged with the greatcbt
care. There was no partiahty for favours, no evasions on account of frowns, no
pandering to taste, no finhing for praise ; there was no attempt to please any one but his
Father.
IV. The mission of Christ in belation to its last public notes. 1. There
was intense earnestness. " He cried," and why ? (1) There was great danger. Judgment
was at hanil. (2) There was a slight possibility to avert it. There was a little inter-
vening time. It was brief, but must be used, and his message must be published. (3)
U was his last opportunity. His farewell sermon to the public. 2. A special effort is
made. " He cried." (1) He was intensely desirous to gain hearing and attention. (2)
tie was intensely desirous to be understood. (3) He was intensely desirous to be believed.
Hence he did what was unusual for him — "he cried ; " and the ministry to this day is
the echo of that cry of Jesus. — B. T.
Vers. 1 — 8. — A good work wrought in season. When Jesus lay, a helpless Infiknt, in
the manger at Bethlehem, there came strangers from the East and poured rich offerings
lit his feet — gold and frankincense and myrrh ; and now that he was about to leave the
world, an unexpected act of homage was done to him, not indeed by a stranger, but by
a gentle and unobtrusive disciple. The occasion was this. Our Lord, weary with his
foumey from the country beyond Jordan, his last long earthly journey, was resting the
■at sabbath of his earthly life at his favourite Bethany. There they made him a
supper, and the disciples were present, and Martha was in waiting, and Lazarus, as
might be expected, was a noted guest. It was then that Mary took her pound of
ointment of spikenard, very costly — we may well suppose the most precious thing which
OH. xn. 1— 60.J THE GOSPEL ACCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. 1T»
«he possessed — and poured it on Jesus' feet as he reclined at the banquet, and wiped
his feet with her hair. The evangelist takes care to note that " the house was filled
with the odoui' of the ointment," and it has been beautifully said that " the Church,
which is the house of God, still smells the fragrance of that woman's spikenard ; " foi
how wonderfully have the words of Jesus, which we may borrow from another Gospel,
been fulfilled, " Verily I say uuto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached
throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be told for a memorial
of her " 1 And how does the consciousness of his own Divine authority burst forth in
these words of Jesus 1 Who else was ever certain that by a limple word he could
make an action memorable till the end of time ? Consider^
I. The motives of Mary's act op homaoe. One of them at least lies on the
surface. Jesus had not been in Bethany since he raised Lazarus from the dead ; and
when Mary saw her brother sitting at the same table '^ith him who turned her moum-
ing into joy, could any gift be too great or precious to express her gratitude?
" Her eyes are homes of silent prayer.
Nor other thought her mind admits :
But he was dead, and there he sits ;
And he that brought him back is there."
TUs was eno Jgh ; but there was a deeper obligation still. It was not in Tain that
Mary herself had sat at Jesus' feet and heard his Word. She knew that he was th4
Christ, the Saviour of the world. He had come to deliver her and all believers from
a deeper darkness than that of the tomb, and a death more terrible than the death of
the body. Gentle and amiable as she was, she could not receive the gift of eternal
life without "dying unto sin;" and who can doubt that it was with a contrite and
forgiven heart that she poured her precious ointment on the feet of Jesus? This gave
the alabaster box its highest value. " The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit." But
once more. Had Mary the impression that so fitting an opportunity of testifying her
gratitu(ie to the Bedeemer might never occur again? She was not called, like his dis-
ciples, to follow him firom place to place as he went about preaching the kingdom, and
the visits of Jesus to Bethany were necessarily few in number. Slie could not, indeed,
have foreseen all that was coming so soon — the conspiracy, the betrayal, the cross of
agony and shame. She could not have known that on the very next sabbath hei
beloved Master would be lying cold and still in Joseph's sepulchre. But, on the othei
hand, Jesus had spoken again and again to his disciples of his approaching death and
departure to the Father. They indeed were incredulous ; but some report of his words
would reach Mary's ears. An undefined presentiment that her Master was not to be
long upon earth may well have arisen in her mind, and all the more eagerly would she
seize the present opportunity of doing him honour. Hence " she did what she could."
IL The qeneral MnsMUB. While the house was filled with the odour of the
ointment, a murmur of dissatisfaction arose. It came first firom the lips of the traitor.
"Why was this ointment not sold for tiiree hundred pence [about £10], and given to
the poor ? and this he said, not that he cared for the poor ; but because he was a thief,"
etc. This picture of the son of perdition is almost too painful to dwell upon. His
blindness to the moral loveliness of Mary's action. His vexation at losing an imagined
chance of plunder. His avarice, his jealousy ; and, worst of all, his mask so readily
assumed of zeal for the cause of the poor I So ripe was he for Satan's last temptation,
that the next thing we read of him is his stealing away to the priests at Jerusalem to
bargain with them about his Master's blood, and sell his own soul. " When lust hath
conceived, it bringeth forth sin : and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."
But while Judas stood alone in his covetousness and hypocrisy, we learn from the
Gospel of Matthew that others joined him in his censure of Mary of Bethany. The
disciples said, " To what purpose is this waste ? " Their common thought was, " This
sacrifice is too great, too costly for the occasion. The spikenard is of great price.
Sorely it would have been better to bestow its value on the poor. To spend it on an
eranescent fragrance is extravagance and waste." Here pause for a momenta Are we
certain that, had we ourselves been present, we might not have joined in the rising
muimur? At all events, how often has the spirit of the censure broken out afresh?
It i* not so long ago einoe the Churches of our own country awoke to the duty <4
178 THK GOSPEL ACCOEDINQ TO ST. JOHN. [oa. xii. 1— 50
preaching Christ to the heathen world. But missions are costly things, and often the;
produce but little visible fruit for many days. They seem to spend their fragrance on
the desert air. And how long and loud was this complaint I — " ' To what purpose is this
waste?' Might not the money and labour of Christian people be better bestowed'
Are there not poor at home to bs fed and clothed ? and are there not home-heathen to
be taught? Let such duties as these be exhausted before thinking of 'the region)
beyond.' " No I Utility is one standard of action ; but both in the serrioe of God and
man it is far from being the only standard.
IIL The tebdict of Jesus. " Let her alone : agunst the day of my burial hath she
kept this." Instead of directly rebuking the disciple, he contents himself with vindi-
cating her whom they were wounding with their words. But there is more in his words
than meets the ear. " Let her alone," he seems to say to Judas, " for there is nothing in
common between her and you, between a child of light and a child of darkness. And let
her alone, ye unthinking disciples. Allow her gratitude to flow unchecked in the channel
which it has worn for itself. Why trouble ye the woman at such a moment as this ?
She hath done what she could, and she hath done more than any of you are aware of,
for my hour is near at hand. If ye saw her do this on the day of my burial, would ye
say to her then, ' To what purpose is this waste ?' Would ye think then of balancing
the claims of common chanty against the claims of unbounded gratitude? But since
she has come beforehand with her offering, it is all the more precious in my sight. She
•lone has grasped the thought that my earthly ministry is drawing to a close. The
poor ye have always with you ; she alone has laid it to heart that me ye have not
always." ITius Judas was silenced, and the disciples were overawed, and Mary was com-
forted, and the poor were not forgotten. What lessons are taught by this episode in
the gospel history? In its outward form and substance the act of Mary can never be
repeated. It stands alone. A few days came and went, and never again was Jesus
to be indebted to the sons of men for a place where to lay his head ; never again were
his feet to be wearied with the hot and dusty paths of this world. Henceforth those
who knew Christ in his humiliation were to know him so no more ; and we need not say
that to idolize his empty sepulchre, or to pray towards it as some do, or, sivddest of all,
to waste the blood of Christ^ian nations in fighting for its possession, is at best to seek
the living among the dead. "Hearts on highl" wag the watchword of the ancient
Church. " Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more ; death hath no more
dominion over him." 1. But ask yourselves — Have you anything of Mary's spirit in
your hearts — the spirit of love and gratitude to the Redeemer? Where that spirit exists it
will tend to difiiise itself over the ordinary duties and charities of life, so that what you
do you will "do heartily as to the Lord, and not unto man." But more than this. It
is of the nature of love to be ingenious and original in its ways of expressing itself,
and opportunities will sometimes occur of honouring Christ in ways which no one
could prescribe to you — it may be in supporting his cause, it may be in showing kind-
ness to his people; and these you will think it a privilege to embrace simply for his
sake. Nothing was further from Mary's thoughts than the fame which followed her
action ; any such calculation of consequences would have spoiled the sacrifice. And so
it will ever be with the good works that spring from love to Christ. The impulse
which inspires them comes from within, and not from the world without. Hence they
will evermore be spontaneous and free, and yet all the more, in the apostle's language,
they will be as " the odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing to
God." 2. When you witness any act of sell-sacrifice in a great or good cause, beware
of the spirit of jealousy and detraction. Let a work be ever so good, it is always pos-
sible to find fault with it on one ground or another — to call generosity extravagance, and
zeal ostentation. Ah I there is a kind of criticism which sees some mote in the most
honest eye, some vein of selfishness in the kindest heart, which is quick to detect
unworthy motives, and " vaimteth itself " in its own acuteness in so doing. Verily
this wisdom cometh not from above, and yet how strangely congenial it is to our fallen
nature 1 It was in a moment of hallowed enthusiasm that Mary poured her spikenard on
Jesus' feet ; but even Jesus' disciples murmured till the Master stamped the offering
with the broad seal of his approbation, and called it " a good work" 1 3. We do no dis-
honour to the affecting words, " Me ye have not always," if we allow them to suggest
to ua the homely counsel, " Be kind to jour friends while you have them." Are thare
OH. m. 1—60.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO BT. JOHN. 177
not lome wbo haye nearer, dearer elaima on you than all others 7 It may he an aged
parent, a brother or a Bister, or one cloier to you still. Providence marks out that
person for your special sympathy, for a tenderness to which the rest of the world has
no claim. Bo what you can for that friend. The tie may any day be broken, and
only the memory of it remain. See that no negligence or impatience on your part may
yet tinge that memory with self-reproach. " The poor ye have always with you," but
no kindness to the outside world will atone for the neglect of personal claims. There
are those who will not be with you always. Christ seems to say to you, " Bemember
them."— G. B.
Vers. 24, 25. — Mori Janua vitw. " Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn
of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone," etc. These words belong to
the day of Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem — the day of palms. Amidst
the general enthusiasm, certain Greeks, who had come up to worship at the least, asked
the Apostle Philip to obtain for them a private interview with Jesus. Philip con-
sulted with Andrew, and the two together laid the request before their Master. Our
Lord was deeply moved — his reply even thrills with emotion; and why was this?
Here were representatives of the great Gentile world waiting for him, seeking after him,
ready, it woidd appear, to enter his kingdom. But not till he had been rejected by his
own, not till he had been glori/itd by his death and resurrection, could he open his arms
to receive them. Hence he regarded the request of the Greeks as a sign that the
crisis of his course was at hand ; not that he needed such a sign, but he hailed it and
welcomed it as it came, even while his " soul was troubled " as he looked through the
vista which opened up between him and the joy set before him. " The hour is come,"
etc. (ver. 23). For Christ's way to glory was through death. Yet a few days, and his
own disciples and the inquiring Greeks, and all who loved and admired him, would be
appalled by the dread spectacle on Calvary. How, then, was our Lord to speak of what
was coming in the presence of the people who surrounded him ? How should he fore-
shadow the glory of his cross and the everlasting fruitfulness of his precious death and
burial ? He chose to do so in words dark indeed and mysterious at the moment they
were uttered, but which would cling to the memories of those who loved him, and
which were soon to be explained for them and for all mankind.
L Our Lord's first saying is this, that his death and besubbbotiom havb a fkb-
FBTTTAL EMBLEM IN THE KIHODOM OF KATUBE. " ExCept a COm of wheat fall intO
the ground and die," etc. This language is, of course, popular and familiar (for it takes
no notice of the invisible germ in such a seed that does not die). But plainly a grain
of wheat must cease to be a grain, it must undergo a death-like change, a death-like
transformation, before it springs np and bears its appointed fruit. Suppose one such
seed carried to some region of the earth, if such there be, where wheat is still unknown ;
let it be kept and treasvu'ed up as a precious thing, and year after year it abides alone,
perfect in itself but fruitless for mankind. But let the same seed fall into the ground—
" taste cold and darkness and oblivion there," and ere long it will enter on a higher
life and bear fruit and multiply itself, and in after years it may be said that all the
harvests of the land sprang from that single seed. With the words, " Verily, verily ! "
with a twice-repeated " Amen 1 " our Lord applies to himself this mystery of nature.
In hire was treasured up the life of the world-^" the bread of God that cometh down
from heaven." But only by the sacrifice of himself could he impart this life to others.
Without death his ministry would have remained unfulfilled for its highest ends. His
bright and beautiful example taken by itself would have founded no kingdom. Had
he abode on earth on some mount of transfiguration, and then been translated like
Enoch, so that he should not see death, then, like a golden grain of wheat, he would have
remained alone, without a ransomed Church on earth or a triumphant Church in heaven.
But such was not the object of his mission. His heart was set on bearing much fruit,
and even now he foresaw the harvest. Looking down the stream of time and abroad
on the great world, he saw the Churches of the- Gentiles, each with its company of
believers springing into life through his death and resurrection, and spreading in wider
and still wider circles in the regions beyond. In crowded cities and in quiet villages,
in far-off lands and in the islands of the sea, they shoald be found. And as in nature
the fruit ever resembles the seed, so it is in the kingdom of grace. Christ's spiritual
JOHX. — ^n. V
178 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN lOh. xn. 1— Ctt
oflspring must needs bear his image and likeness. This was the L^rvest that filled our
Lord's field of vision — a great multitude, which no man can number, each one of them
washed by his blood and sanctified by his Spirit. This was the joy that he set before
him when he endured the cross and despised the shame. Dyi^ig, he should rise again,
and hear much fruit.
II. Our Lord's second saying is this, that his death and keburbeotios havi
A PERPETUAL LESSON IN THE KINGDOM OF OBAOE. (Ver. 25.) " He that loveth his
life shall lose it ; but he that hateth his life," etc. Now, no doubt when we read these
words, we naturally think first of all of the noble army of martyrs, each of whom
added his dying " Amen 1 " to them. We cannot forget that in many ages and in
many lands certain of Ghrist'i disciples have been called literally to drink bis cup and
to be baptized with bis baptism, sealing with their own blood their testimony to his ca\ise.
This they did on the faith of his promise, believing that where Christ is there shall also
his servants be. And we may well remember, too, how fruitful tbeir example has been.
The blood of the martyrs has been called, from early times, the seed of the Church.
Not in vain did they lay down their lives. " Feat not, brother Ridley," said Latimer, on
the way to the stake ; " we shall this day light a candle in England which will never be
put out." But this sharp paradox is not merely a watchword for the forlorn hope of the
army of the faith. In one form or another it was repeatedly on Jesus' lips, addressed
too, as it is here, to all bis disciples. Its meaning is this — " The life that is hoarded up
for selfish ends must needs be a lost and barren one ; and it is only hating such a life
that we can bring forth fruit for God and eternity." But even thus explained this is
a hard saying. For what is the kind of life which Christ's disciples are forbidden to
love ? Surely our Lord does more than condemn a life of vicious indulgence and wild
extravagance, or of grasping greed and oppression. It needs no paradox to impress on
us that such a career is self-ruiued and thrown away. No! he is speaking more widely
and sweepingly of a life of self-seeking and self-pleasing — such a life, in fact, as is
natural to us all. We need no one to teach us how to lead it. The spirit of the
present world fosters it and feeds it, and even natural conscience offers all too feeble
a protest against it. The self-centred enjoyment of an earthly portion seems to the
multitude the one thing needful, and their posterity approve their sayings. You all
know the parable wliich describes this favourite type of happiness and success — the busy
prosperous worldling who heaped up treasure for himself, and was not rich towards
Qod; and many of you may remember Tennyson's poem founded on th« parable —
" I built my soul a lordly pleasure-house,
Wherein at ease for aye to dwell ;
I said, ' O soul, make merry and carouse.
Deal soul, for all is well.' "
Ah 1 inch a life may be stained by no crimes ; it may be enriched by intellectual culture
. and adorned with the spoils of art, but yet, weighed in the balances of Heaven, it is found
wanting. He that loveth such a life as this is losing it ; and when it is all spent and gone
an awful voice will say to him who made it his portion and idol, "Thou fooll" But
this is not the life of Christ's disciples. In coming to him they renounce it at the first ;
in following him they learn to mortify it day by day. They must hate it as a soldier
would hate the life purchased by cowardice before the enemy, or as a patriot would
hate the life bought by treason to his country; and lest they should forget this, our Lord
puts it more sternly before them in those words of his. And where shall we find the
motive — the deep secret of this "great renunciation"? I reply — In the death and
resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. For while that accepted sacrifice of his stands
sublimely alone as an atonement for the sins of the world, it has at the same time
a wondrous transforming influence on all who come to him by faith. The " mind of
Christ " is given to them by God's Holy Spirit. The love of Christ constrains them.
In view of him who died for their sins, their old self-seeking life loses its attraction;
in view of him who rose again and lives for evermore, they see before them what is far
better — a life which has God for its Cenlre, and love for its ruling principle, and eternity
for its boundless horizon. Ah 1 this is the true life of man, the chief end of his
creation ; and while it was partly revealed under the old covenant, when there was a
cloud on the mercy-seat and a veil on the holy of hnlief*, we may say with the higheit
OH. XII. 1—50.] THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINa TO ST. JOHN 17«
truth that it was manifested in Christ Jesus, and brought to light in the gospeL " The
life was manifested, and we have seen it."
Afflioation. Now, this great lesson of Christ's appearance among us ia one which
Christians are never done with in this world. 1. Beware of forgetting it in the dag of
prosperity. When projects succeed, and riches increase, " and men are praising thee
hecause thou doest well unto thyself," remember that your true life consists not in the
abundance of the things that you possess, but in receiving Christ's fulness and being
inspired by his Spirit. How shall you be preserved from abusing the kindness of Provi-
dence, and from wasting and spoiling God's common gifts and mercies? Where shall
yon find a perpetual motive to being rich in good works, patient in service, unwearied
in well-doing ? Think of your Master and of what he has done for you. No doubt
you are softened into gratitude and love when you meet with others at his table, and
take into your hands the memorials of his body and blood. But these emotions, if they
are true, will ripen into deep principles within you. Think what an example he has left,
that you should follow in his steps. He was certainly no ascetic like John the Baptist,
dwelling in a lone wilderness estranged from social life and the companionship of
friends. But " even Christ pleased not himself." Wherever he went some blessing
felL The aim he kept in view was not his own ease nor his own glory, but the will of
him that sent him. Oh 1 put on the Lord Jesus Christ if you would spend and be
spent in the service of God and man. 2. Eememher this lesson in the day of sifting
trial. You are by no means called to invent crosses for yourselves, or perversely over-
step God's providential path in quest of them. But there are times in the life of every
disciple when the plain path of obedience is hard. Christ may call you to forego for
his sake some friendship, some advantageous opening, and you may think this a cruel
sacrifice. His voice may simimon you to leave your quiet nest of coveted repose, and
spend time and sympathy on ungrateful peuple and amidst uncongenial scenes. Unbe-
lief whispers that you will only labour in vain, and spend your strength for nought.
Why impoverish your life for such uncertain returns? Why scatter precious seed in
such unpromising soU ? Yet think again what a world it was to which he came, and
how poor you would be without him ; and listen to his own words, " If any man serve
me, let him follow me, and where I am there also shall my servant be." — G. B.
Ver. 3. — A sister's expression of gratitude. What a remarkable company was here
gathered together! 1. Jesus, within about a week of his death, and distinctly appre>
bending what was before him. 2. His host, Simon th^ leper, not mentioned here, but
mentioned by Matthew and Mark — a man who, in all probability, had his own occasion
of gratitude to Jesus. 3. Lazarus, just brought back from the grave, and in company
with Jesus, who was going down to it. 4. Martha and Mary. 5. The disciples. So
the company was neither a small nor a commonplace one, and in its midst there was
done a deed which Jesus said should be told as a memorial of the doer wherever the
gospel was preached.
I. Maet had the vbet stbongest reason fob Domo SOMETHING. No doubt Mary
had done all she could in the way of words. But just because words are so easy and
inadequate, the real grateful heart wants to do something in addition. Araunah offered
David a place for an altar, and oxen for burnt offerings ; but the king replied in a way
that was kingly and right : " I will not offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of
that which doth cost me nothing." And so Mary seems to have said, " I will not offer
to my Master and Benefactor thank offerings which cost me nothing." The occasion,
the raising of a brother from the dead, certainly was not beyond the deed. And we
too have occasion for something great in the way of thank offering to Jesus. Doing
nothing>.or next to nothing, for Jesus, we give a pretty clear proof that Jesus has not
been allowed to do his great work for us. Mary had yet a richer thank offering to
make for a greater service. Jesus had to bring back Mary herself from another death,
even her own death in trespasses and sins, and in due time she would learn to present
her own self a living sacrifice, a reasonable service.
IL Thb fault found with Mabt's thanksoivino. Judas, it is very plain, looked
upon Mary's act as one that had robbed him of a fine chance of thievish gain. But at
this time the disciples had not found him out. We read in Matthew, that the other
disaples had indication, and said, " To what purpose in this waste ? " Judas waa
180 THE GOSPEL ACCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. [ch. xii. 1— CO
doubtless the leader, and the otherg readily chimed in. As it has been said, " Censure
infects like a plague." Nor must we look only at the positive fault-finding. If no
fault had been found, still there would have been lack of appreciation. The absence of
blame is not the presence of praise. It was peculiarly a woman's way of showing
gratitude. It took a Being like Jesus, who understands all the movements of the heart,
in woman as in man, to appreciate the gift and act of grateful Mary. Eren Martha
woijd hardly understand Mary, though it was not an occasion for her to say anything.
m. Mabt finds a uiohtt Dbfbnoeb nr Jesus. " The Lord God is a Sun and
Shield." Jesus had risen.a true Sun of quenchless light,on the dark, dark night of Mary*i
•orrow — a night that seemed without a single star ; and now he comes as a Sliield, to
shelter her from the darts of an aTaricious foe. Mary did her best, according to know-
ledge and opportunity. Jesus cared very little for the fragrant spikenard in itself ;
the perfume from a thousand gardens is his. The fragrance was not in the gift, but in
the giving. And who can tell but what Mary was really helping the poor ? If she
spent three hundred pence and more with the growers and makers of spikenard, that
would help to prevent them getting poor. It is better to do this than help the poor
when they are poor. But Mary was also doing more than she knew. The deep impulse
of love was also aa impulse from above. Jesus indicates how we are to show our grati-
tude. Judas helped him to the hint. We can do nothing for Jesus according to the
flesh. Gratitude to Jesus is now to be service to men. The One that could be anointed
went firom the earth long ago ; but the One that can be served and pleased in ■
thousand ways is here still. — Y.
Vers. 12 — ^16. — The triumphal entry, L What fbkoedbd this tbiumphal xntst.
All the Galilaean and other ministries outside of Jerusalem must have contributed to
this enthusiastic demonstration. It is often taken as an illustration of popular fickle-
ness that the multitude said " Hosanna I " one day, and the nezt day, " Crucily him I *
But it is very doubtful if the component elements of the multitude were the same.
Those who cried " Hosanna I " were people who had seen Jesus do wonderful works in
their own cities and villages. Some of them, doubtless, had known in their own persons
his healing power. More still would have occasion to be thankful and happy for mercies
vouchsafed to their relatives. Those whom Jesus blessed directly and indirectly during
his ministry of flesh and blood must have been indeed % multitude. To them the
kingdom of God had indeed come in power, and they had the best right to expect still
greater and deeper manifestations when things were ripe for them.
IL The expectations of the people. They had i)een blessed individually. Now
they wanted to be blessed as a people, nationally, collectively. Praise and prayer
would be combined in their " Hosanna I" They would welcome Jesus as already a royal
Yictor, and at the same time signify their belief that he had greater victories yet in
store.
IIL Jesub acoeptino the HONoim. Jesus was now doing what he had declined to
do in ch. vii. 6. His time had fully come — the time of crisis and publicity. The time
had come for Jesus to take to him his great power and reign. Therefore, though he
knew well how deluded the people were as to the true nature of his mission, yet he
accepted their homage and jubilation as directed toward the right Person, and offered at
the right time. Not, of course, that Jesus cared for this exhibition in itself. His true
joy and satisfaction were clearly from purer sources than the applause of the multi-
tudes. But this triumphal procession was symbolical of that glad, triumphant attitude
which the true people of Jesus are ever able to maintain. The kingdom of God in
Christ is ever coming ; and the multitudes who watch and acclaim its growth are ever
swelling in numbers, and uttering louder and heartier shouts of welcome. What Jesus
has done, truly measured, may well make us confident of his resources for the mighty
work that has yet to be done. — Y.
Ver. 24. — The fruitfvUnest of the dying Jestu, These words come very abruptly Into
the narrative. But looking carefully into all the circumstances, the fitness of the word*
Is soon seen. If these Greeks had come earlier, and come into Galilee in the thick of
the Galilaean ministry, Jesus would have said, " Let them come and welcome. They
shall see the works of the Christ in great abundanoe." But they have oome Just too
«K.zn.l— 6a] THE QOSP]^ AJDOOBMSQ TO ST. JOHK. ]»
late. Jesus has done his last great work is the body acoording to the flesh — ha kai
raised Lazarus from the dead. These Greeks bar* come a little too late for one sat of
experiences, and a little too soon for another. Any day up to the time of sowing the
seed you may see it ; but when sown, you must wait to see the seed in the glory m the
fruit that comes from it.
L Sbasonb ween the wobsb abk bpboiallt BUOOESTiyn. 1. Sowing-time. 2.
Beaping-time. There might ha an ecclesiastical calendar according to the order of
nature. Jesus would have us think specially of his death at the sowing-time, when
the corns of wheat are being scattered abroad over so much of the surface of God's
earth. What an immense quantity of grain finds its way into the soil the wide world
OTerl And every one sowing, and every one who sees the sowing, is invited to consider
that most wondrous of all seed-corns laid away in the soil when Jesus breathed his
last natural breath. And as to natural emblems and reminders of the resurrection,
there is a long time in which to study them. The moment we see the delicate blades
timidly peeping above the surface, then the word comes to our hearts that Jesus also
rose from the dead ; and then at last, when, instead of the seed that was sown, we
behold the stalk with its himdredfold, why, we are helped to feel what a difference there
is between Jesus in the days of his flesh and Jesus according to his resurrection from
the dead.
II. Wb must look as closblt as fossiblb at tkb words. The more closely, the
more encouraging and inspiring they will be. Put a com of wheat away in a drawer.
Leave it for twelve montlis, and then look. It is there still, abiding alone. But put
that com of wheat into a flower-pot. Let it grow till it is ripe, and then you have a
great company of grains of wheat exactly similar to the one you sowed. This indicates
just what Jesus wants as the greatest result of his presence among men. He wanted
to see countless multitudes with a spirit and a character like his own — ^holy as he was
holy, loving as he was loving, and becoming fit for the glory to which he himself was
going. During the days of his flesh, he remained like the unsown corn of wheat, alone.
He produced nothing like himself. People would not say of his disciples when they
met them, "What good, holy, lovable men these aral" How could anybody say that
of them, seeing that not long before their Master's death they were wrangling which
should be the greatest? But what a difference when Jesus has died and risen again!
Jesus no longer abides alone. He is truly the Firstborn among many brethren. If we
be true Christians at all, we are more like Christ than we are to those of our fellow-
men who are not Christians. Jesus sees great differences where we see great resem-
blances, and vice versd. It is demanded of all the children of the heavenly Father that
they should be fruitful, and to this end they are to be as branches in the vine. And he
who is peculiarly the Son of the Father sets the example, that makes our fruitfulness
possible. The risen Saviour himself brings forth much fruit. A handful of corn has
been sown in the earth on the top of the mountains, and the fruit thereof shakes like
LebanuQ. There is a double resurrection. Not only did Jesus rise again in his own
proper personality ; he has also risen again in that great multitude concerning every one
of whom this is true, " I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." There is no way of
making Christians except through the Spirit of the living Christ working in them. A
stalk of wheat cannot be got save by sowing the seed from which it is to spring. And
BO, too, Jesus himself must be the principle in U8 of a new, a holy, and an eternal
Ufe.— T.
Ver. 28. — The Father glorifying his Nam«. L The debire op Jbbtjs fob hib
Father's oloby. Jesus did not seek that the eyes of men should be fixed in admira-
tion on him. With powers such as never belonged to any other being of flesh and
blood, he never used them for his own advancement among men. The pleasures of
human ambition and human fame were far from his heart. No one truly glorifies Jesui
unleijs he glorifies the Father of Jesus. Jesus was glad to find men drawn to him in
ever-increasing numbers; he would be glad to find such as these Greeks who had
just been inquiring for him ; but all the time he felt how there was another Kame and
another power to which human attention needed to be increasingly directed. The name
of Jesus had been already made glorious after a fashion; men had made it glorious.
They talked about Jesus ; no name would be better known through the land than hiij
182 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oH.xn.1— 6a
bat all the time Jesus felt that he was gotting the fame which was only his in part. I<
was right and serriceable that men should talk of him ; but that talk would only lead
into delusion and disappointment unless they could talk of his Father also.
II. The effobts of Jesds to glokify his Fathbb. How he kept the Name of his
Father before his disciples ! He talked of the Father as of One with whom he was in
constant and most familiar connection. But men could not see the Father as they
could see Jesus, and hence the Father-Name remained but a name. And thus we
have this strange fact to notice, that whereas Jesus came to reveal the Father, he rather
seemed at first to hide him. The fact was that Jesus hid the revelation of the Father
for a while in himself, just as the revelation of the full-developed plaut is hidden in
the seed. Jesus had to speak of things which his audience understood not as yet;
but those same things would by-and-by be unveiled, and not only unveiled, but the
brightest light of heaven would be cast upon them.
HI. The Father glorifying his Name. The hour was impending when 'Jesus
would appear to the natural man utterly weak, shorn of his habitual strengtli and
resources, just as Samson was when he lost his looks. Many a one would be puzzled
to reconcile the Jesus, so mighty in doing wonderful works in Galilee, with the' Jesus
seemingly so helpless in the hands of his enemies at Jerusalem. But eclipse is not the
same thing as ilestruction. Jesus went into obscurity for a little while that the glory
of the Father might more distinctly appear. When Jesus breathed his last, the Father
got the opportunity, to be fully used, of glorifying his Name. And then the Church
entered fully upon its privilege, and was permitted to behold the Father glorifying
himself in the Son, and the Son correspondently glorified in the Father. — ^Y.
Ver. 32. — TJie all-cUtracting Jesu$. I. The aims and hopes of Jesus different
FROM THOSE TO WHOM HE SPOKE. Those who questioned and criticized him cared for
no country but their own. Not that they were ignorant of other countries, for they
went to live in them, but they still kept communion and close touch with Jerusalem.
The Jew liked to make money out of the Gentile, and so he would go and live in the
Gentile city, but it never seemed to strike him that the God of the Jew was God also
of the Gentile, and that the Christ for whom the Jew waited was needed by the Gentile
just as much. But Jesus, being himself the Christ, longed inexpressibly for the hour
when he should begin to draw all men to himself. Even in the days of his flesh he
began to draw the Gentiles. For even as Jews went to dwell in Gentile lands, so
Gentiles, came to dwell in the Jewish land ; and when Jesus went about doing good,
humanity in all its pressing need overleaped the bounds of nationality, and came to him
for help.
IL OuB Aius AND HOPES ABE ALSO DIFFERENT. Most part of men Certainly do not
care to be drawn to Jesus. Jesns is interested in everybody, while our deep, underlying
desire is to get as many people as possible interested in us. We are mightily grieved
if other people do not think almost as much about tis as we do about ourselves. But
it is not quite so much a matter of course to be interested in other people. And to be
interested in Jesus, to set ourselves in real sober earnest to find out all we caa about
him, may strike us as an eminently unpractical thing.
in. Look at this drawing power in the exercise of it. 1. The purpose oi
Jesus is clear. He made that abundantly plain while he lived under the conditions
of ordinary humanity. The times of retirement and avoidance of men were only
exceptional. The miracles of Jesus were advertisements in the best sense of the word.
His wondrous works were things that people talked about, and were meant to hive this
effect. 2. The motive also is clear. All were to be drawn, because of the need of all.
We all need Jesus, just as every growing plant in the field needs the sunshine and the
rain. As none can live the natural life without air and food, so none can live the higher
life without Jesus. We can never be what we were meant to be, until Jesus the Christ
is using us for himself. We are like unlighted candles, and Jesus alone can light us.
The glory of a candle is in its burning, and the glory of a human being is in his shining
Christianity. We ourselves feel the paramount claim of need upon us, and shall Jesus
not feel it? 3. The means must be noticed. Drawing, not driving. The only
effectual compulsion is that of love. We must be drawn because we cannot help it.
So long as we prefer self-indulgence, eaae, mere drifting, we shall not be drawn. Wa
BH. xn. 1— 60.J THE GOSPEL ACCORDINO TO ST. JOHN. 184
must come within the circle of which Jesus is the Centre. Then shall we •▼•r tend
more and more toward that Centre. — Y.
Ver. 36. — A warning to the traveller, L A hint that hb is makino no prooress.
We are in this life like travellers, who have so much of their journey to do in so many
hours. There is ample time if only they will keep steadily on, remembet^ng that the
sun does not stop, waiting on their convenience and their- indolence. While these Jews
were disputing, doubting, and deferring, their opportunities were slipning away. Thoy
talked as if their decision affected Jesus rather than themselves, as if the validity of
his position depended on their assent, whereas it was the validity of their own position
that came in questicjn. Jesus was the Christ ; he needed not to discuss that point
among men, save as discussion made it clearer to them. And if men in their perversity
chose to deny that Jesus was the Christ, assuredly they would get no other. We have
to come to Jesus at last. We may think we have light among us, but if that light b«
darkness, then how great will that darkness be. We may be moving, but mere move-
ment is not progress. Tear after year finds no advance; we are older, that is all; but
nothing nearer to the reward and crown of all true work.
II. What mdst happen where the light of Jesus is truly used. That light
is not merely to exhibit what would otherwise be dark and hidden. Light comes
that we may use our eyes, but use of eyes leads to use of hands and also use of feet.
Th'j word of Jesus here must be compared with his similar word in ch. ix., where he
says, " The night cometh, when no man can work." The light of Jesus is given to ua
that we may make safe and speedy progress in all the activities of life. Thus we mska
the very best that can be made out of life's short opportunities. — Y.
Vers. 42, 43. — Believing yet not ean/esiing. Here we have one of the mighty
hindrances, one that explains a very great deal indeed, to the full acceptance }f Jesus
as Lord and Christ. Between the bold Iwlievers and the open unbelievers there is
a very large class, which cannot but believe, yet will by no means avow its belief.
Human beings are not so stupid and insensible in the presence of Jesus as they often
seem to be. None can see better the fallacies and follies of unbelief, but they lack the
courage and self-denial which turn belief into a full and profitable act. Such were many
of the chief rulers of Jerusalem after the resurrection of Lazarus.
I. What they did. They believed, but did not confess. If they confessed not,
how did John know their belief? We find the answer in a very common experience ;
people will say things in private which you never can get them to utter in public. The
now numerous companions of Jesus would be in constant communication with the out-
side world. Thus they knew how there was really a great deal of secret admission that
Jesus was the Christ. And this is just what we might expect. If Jesus did these
things he is reported to have done, with ample means for knowing it by multitudes of
people, then certainly many must have been convinced, whatever they did with their
convictions. We are never to estimate the lodgment Jesus has in the minds of men
just by the number who confess him. Many feel in their hearts that Jesus is right.
They know that if only they were brave and resolute, and counted truth as dear a
treasure as human heart can hold, then they would come out and be on his side. Those
who know they ought to be Christians, and yet are not, must be very many indeed.
XL Why they did it. John goes into the whole matter, right down to the bottom
of it. There is the reason people themselves would be ready to give, and there is also
the real reason deep underneath the surface. People would be quite willing to admit
that they dare not risk being put out of the synagogue. To express it in modern
language, they would be excommunicated. They would be shut out from certain
religious privileges. The doorkeepers of the temple would have orders to turn them
away. The Pharisees knew what they were doing when they sent out word that if any
man confessed Jesus to be the Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. Though
they could not stop people from believing, they might stop them from confessing.
Nothing considerable has ever been done for Jesus without stirring up a nest of hornets.
But John knows there is a deeper reason than the fear of excommunication. Our
attitude to Jesus is determined as much by what we love as by what we fear. Tho84
wko believed and did confess were drawn to Jans hj an irresistible a£fectioi>- Th«
184
THE GOSPEL AOOOBDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xm. 1—88.
eame excomrannication hnng over them, but it did not deter. The disciples might
not yet have come to the perfect love that casts out fear; but they knew this much—
that faithful fellowahip with Jesus was a pearl of great price, worthy to be l?ept, though
in the keeping all visible possessions and temporal interests had to be surrendered.
Love, not fear, must rule in onr hearts, if we are to keep faithful to Jesus. Jesus him*
self was always above the threatenings of men, and he must lift his followers to' the
ssme elevation. When we really love Jesus, nothing can separate him from our Iov&
Threats operating powerfully upon the man of this world never move the Ohristiaa.
III. The besults of this smothebed confession. Some present gain, but an
incomparable future loss. The evil day has only been put off, to be more evil than ever.
What most who hear the gospel need is courage and decision. Anrt those who do
confess had better look into things, and make sure that their confession is grouj'r'ed in
reality. It must not be a mere external and temporary consequence from the grt^ i.iou8
nature of mankind. We never can know the abiding gain without being ready for the
passing loia. — Y.
EXPOSITION.
OHAFTKB Xni.
rV. Thb Final MANmsTXTioNS tw Wobd
AND Action or thk Looos Inoabnate,
EXPRESSTNO ITSBU ABSOLVTELT AND TO
THE Uttbhuost as Lovb. (Oh. xiii. —
xxi.)
In two division* —
A. The inner glorification of the Chriat in
the pre$enee of those who received and be-
lieved on him.
*,* The Logos incarnate as life, light,
love, and sacrifice, lavishing all his grace
npon his own (eh. xiii. — xvii.).
B. The outer glorification of the Chritt
in his Passion and resurrection,
%• The fully manifested love laying
down life that he might take it again, and
lift these disciples into vital union with
the risen life (ch. xviii. — xxi.).
A. The Inneb Globifioation of Fbbfbot
Love.
Vers. 1 — 17. — 1. Love in humiliation.
Ver. 1. — Now before the Feast of the Pass-
over; a phrase far more applicable to the
lS-14th of Nisan than to the 14-15th,
even though the Lord was desiring then to
eat the Passover with a great desire before
he BuffLTed; therefore "before" tlie Pas-
sion, which would coincide with it. This
supplies a chronological note, which is not
exhausted by the niysterioui and pathetic
act wliich is described, but embraces the
entire communion of soul with his disciples,
and with the Father in tliuir presence, de-
tailed in oh. xiii. — xvii. Commentators have
differed greatly as to the reference of this
phrase — whether to the tiS^is, as Eling and
Lnthardt, or to the &yair'li<ras, ai Wieseler
ftod Tholuck; both these interpretations
limit the meaning of the passage. Christ's
knowledge that his honr was oobm wm not
kept from him till that moment, nor was
his love to his own disciples limited or
qualified by the advent of the Passover.
It is far bettor, with Westcott, Oodet, Meyer,
and Lange, to take the phrase, vph Si t^i
ioprrjs, with the principal verb, iiyiirriaa'.
This becomes more obvious if c» rcAos be
taken, as it generally is taken, in Greek, to
mean " unto the uttermost," " absolutely,"
" perfectly." Godet and Liicke add to the
idea of ayairdu here the manifestation, or
proof, of the intensity and tenderness of the
Divmelore. Meyer doubts this signification
of ayairiia. The whole of the intervening
sentence is in apposition with the subject
of the sentence. The evangelist was eye-
witness of the manner and look of his Lord,
and ventured to say what was passing in
his mind. He was justified by what fol-
lowed, and threw back into the spirit of
this strange and solemn action the account
which the Lord afterwards gave of himself.
Throughout the whole passage we detect
the extraordinary blending of Divine and
human of which John was the witness.
Jesus knowing (as he did know) that the
hour was ' come — an hour for which he had
been long waiting, and to whicli frequent
reference has been made. The crisis has
arrived, the breach with the authorities wag
final, the disciples themselves were trem-
bling in doubt, the great law had been ut-
tered, the glorification of the Son of man
must now be accomplished by departure
rather than by longer ministry, by death
rather than by universal acclaim — ^that — tva
here notes the Divine purpose, or what is
not infrequently introduced by tva, " the
contemplated result" (see Canon Evans on
' Tisohendorf (8th edit), B.T., and West-
oott and Hort read ^\eev, with K, A, B, K,
L, M, in place of A^iAuAcv tf T.B. and hter
unoiaJa.
OH. xm. J— 38.] THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN.
186
" tlie use of Tea in the New TeEtament," Hx-
positor, vol. iii. 2iid seiiea) — ^he, Jesus, the Son
of man, should depart out of thia world (this
is one theme of the following discoiiTBe, one
of its key-notes, oh. xiv. 12 ; ivi. 28 ; xvii.
11, and many other passages) unto the
Father. If so, death was not an ending of
life, but a departure to the Father — a coming
into closer and more intimate relations and
communion with the Father than was pos-
■ihle, even for him, in this sinful and evil
world. Frequently the demonstrative pro-
noun is used to designate this transitory,
perilous, sad state of being. Further, Jesus
having loved his own, his veiy own, whom
the Father had given him, who were and
would continue in the world, and have
tribulation there (see ch. it. 18—20; xvi.
1—4, 33; xvii. 11, 14, 18), and all the more
so because of his departure and the cessa-
tion of his earthly manifestation and
ministry. Here the sentence ends with
the climacteric expression. He loved them
utterly ; t.«. he manifested, and that before
the Paschal Lamb should be slain for them,
hia absolute, extreme, unutterable love.
Archdeacon Watkins has made an interest-
ing suggestion, that eU t4\os represents, in
Greek, the Hebrew idiom of the repetition
of the action of the verb; whereas the
LXX. often presents this Hebraism in
literal Greek, as Gen. xx. 17, yet in Amos
ix. 8 a similar reduplication is Grecized by
the phrase eis riKos; and that what St.
John, a Hebrew writing in Greek, meant
by the use of it was simply, " He loved them
with a fulness of luve." This usage is con-
firmed by 1 Thess. ii. 16, by later Greek
and by classical usage. It probably means
in Luke xviii. 5 "at last," but not neces-
sarily so even there. Margin of Revised
Version gives " to the uttermost."
Ver. 2. — ^A supper having commenced ; or,
being then in progreei ' — without doubt the
meal in which our Lord terminated the Old
Testament dispensation and introduced the
New, and which John disciiminates, there-
fore, from the Passover proper referred to in
ver. 1. The evangelist now reverts to the
diabolic design which had been injected
■ T.R. here reads, with A, D, A, 1, 33, and
all the ancient versions, Selirvov yevo/ifvov ;
but, on the authority of N, B, L, X, Origen,
and Nonnus, Tisohendorf (8th edit.), Meyer,
Weslcott and Hort, and Revised Version
read ■ywojLfvov. Godet does not accept the
teading, thinking that it is a correction,
intended to put the washing at the begin-
ning rather than at the end of the feast.
Lficke, on the same internal grounds, justi-
fies the translation, "during the meal,"
" when the rapper took place" {jietdtah oder
■Mr),
into the heart of Judas. The devil having
already cast into the heart (of iTudas) that
he— Meyer's suggestion that the devil put
this design into his own heart, does not
lighten tlie construction, and encumbers the
passage with ideas which are foreign to the
Bible — (even) Judas, (the son) of Simon,
the Iscariot, should betray him.' The idea
came from the devil, but the purpose of the
devil was not irrevocable. The evangelist
looked through his tears of love to the
traitor's face as he sat at meat, and felt how
the very excess and uttermost and hyperbole
of love was readied and scaled by the con-
tact between the treachery of the one and
the Divine humiliation of the other. The
contrast between these two mental states is
one of the most striking antitheses in the
Gospel. But how should John know that
Judas had already plotted the betrayal of
his Master ? Hengstenberg makes the wise
suggestion that the fourth evangelist was
acquainted with the synoptic tradition of
the priority of Judas's bargain with the
chief priests (Matt. xxvi. 14 — 16 ; Mark xiv.
10, 11 ; Luke xxii. 3—6).
Ver. 3. — • Knowing — a significant hint of
the complex wonder of the Lord's Person.
John felt at this moment that the conscious-
ness of Jesus was receding into the eternal
eelf-consciousness of the Logos when he
thus ventures to speak — that the Father —
in tlie great act of his generation — gave • all
things into his hands, and that he came forth
(d;ri) from God, and was going back (or,awaj/)
to God, in the glory of his incai nation and the
mystery of liis death and resurrection. The
whole uf tlic incarnate ministry of Jesus was
a separation, to some extent, I'lom God, just
as the close of it, in the death and resur-
rection, was a return to the glory which he
had with the Father before all worlds. We
must admit the extraordinary quality of
the evangelist's assertion. He here throws
> T.B., with A, D, r, A, and Syriac Ver-
sions, here transposes the sentence, thug :
'loi^Sa Xi/j-wvos ^\(TKapid)Tov *iva avrhv irapaS^t
" of Judas son of Simon the Iscariot to
betray liim." The text of Tischendorf,
R.T., and all modern editors rests on X, B,
L, M, X, Vulgate, and numerous quotations
from Origen.
* Griesbiich, Lachmaun, and others sus-
tain the reading 6 'Iriirois, on the autho-
rity of A, r. A, A, n, and numerous versions.
Tischendorf (8th edit.), Tregelks, and B.T.
omit it, with N, B, D, L, X, with Vulgate
and .^thiopic.
' The Revised Version translates "had
given," though reading eSuicey, with Tischen-
dorf (8th edit.). Westcott and Hort, T.B.,
and Laohmann, with A, D, X, eto., nad
S4iaKtr.
186
THE GOSPEL AOCORDINO TO ST, JOHN. [oh. xni. 1 -38.
bikck into the majestic manner of the OhriBt
the hints which the subsequent discourse
of our Lord must have given him of the
Divine greatness which flashed at times
from his sacred Person, and conferred a
boundless significance on the subsequent
act of humiliation. Christ gave the highest
proof of his Divine self-consciousness in this
display of his condescending love, this
voluntary abasement to the lowest place in
the household of faith. The use of etSiis
twice over (vers, 1 and 3) if contrasted
with the yviicriii of ver. 7. The vast con-
fessions here made are declared to be
matters of absolute intuitive knowledge,
not the results of long experience. Christ
did not "come to know;" he "knew" all
these fucts about himself. It must not he
supposed that this was a theological idea
which came into the writer's mind after-
wards. St. Pnul, in the Epistle to the Philip-
pians (ii. 6—8), had adequately grasped the
same thought long before St. John penned
this Gospel (cf. 2 Cor. viii. 9).
Vers. 4, 5 — Commentators differ as to the
motive which induced our Lord to perform
this menial act, to adopt the gesture, gild-
ing, and duties of the Sov\os, to divest him-
self of his iij,dTta or upper garments, and
to appear and veritably to act as a slave.
Strauss regards it as a mythical reprcbcnta-
tion of one of our Lord's discourses on
humility. Lange, with nmoli pertinence,
believes it to correspond to the pain which he
manifested, at the very laat Supper, with the
unseemly contest for pre-eminence among
the apostles (of. Luke xxii. 27, " Whether is
greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that
serveth ? ... I am among you as he that
Berveth"). Others, like Meyer, see no such
reference, and require the presence of no
sucli motive. It is remarkable that at such
a season this dispute could liave arisen at
all. Having undoubtedly broken out on
more than one occasion, our Lord chose the
midst of this feast, when wo learn from other
Boui'ces there was such an outbreak, fur this
emphatic revelation of the royalty of service.
Wiinsche (' Erl.,' p. 550) says that both
" before " and " after " the Passover festival
it was customary, in order to demonstrate
the equality and liberty of the guests, to
practise mutual interchanges of the ordinary
menial service of Aond-washing ('Pesachin,'
fol. 108). In this verse every si-nteuce is
a distinct picture. He riseth from the
supper, and layeth down his npiier garments,
ftnd when he had taken a towel, he girded
himself (Edersheim and Wiinsche botli give
proof that the Talmud repeatedly Greeizes
the word here rendered " towel," Kivnov,
"linen cloth," by tlie word Untith or aUn-
Hth) after tlje fitsbion of tlic humblest riave ;
then he ponreth water into the washing-
basin (viirr^pa), the article of furniture in
the room ("Nihil ministerii omittit," says
Grotius. 'Thus he discharges every part of
the duty, while the disciples wonder at the
new revelation). And he began to wash the
feet of the disciples, and to wipe them with
the towel wherewith he was girded. \Vest-
cott refers to the rabbinic commentators on
Ezek. xvi. 9, "Among men, tlie slave
washes his master, but with God it is not
BO." So then the inversion of all human
social relations forced on John's mind the
deep truth that we are here face to face
witli the Divine — with the Divine-human.
John here strains his words to give some
conception of what passed in his own mind
when he saw our Lord's face, and wit-
nessed this great revelation of his character.
Though this evangelist did not record the
"Transfiguration," there were moments in
Christ's history which produced a still pro-
founder impression upon him, and in which
he veritably saw the glory of the Only
Begotten of God in his Master's form. On
this occasion the highest conception oi
his Divine Personality, origin, and destiny,
was blended witli tlie deepest descent of the
Lord's entire humanity to the level of weak-
ness, pollutiou, and sin. The greatest
manifestation of God was in the revelation
of the exceeding limits, the infinite depth,
which love could compass. We may see a
little further on what were the special stepi
our Lord took to give this sense of love " to
the uttermost " on the part of him to whom
all the universe had been entrusted, who had
come from, and was going back to, the Father.
Ver. 6. — It cannot be determined with
whom our Lord commenceil the feet-wash-
ing. Some of the older expositors have said
it was with Judas. The ouv might denote
that several of the disciples, in awestruck
wunder, had submitted without a word, and
then (oj/y resumptive) he oometh to Simon
Peter. But the great bulk of ancient and
modern expositors suppose that Peter was
the first to whom this great grace was
offered At all events, in his impulsive
manner always rushing forwards, and ready
to give his Master advice, and to be the
mouthpiece of otherwise unuttered feelings,
Peter was the first to exclaim, (and') he'
saith unto Mm, and with strong emphasis
on the 2i;' and the fi.ou. Dost thou wash my
feet t The protest was natural. It corre-
sponds with many another scene in Peter's
life ; as when he said, " Depart from me ;
for I am a sinful man,"' or cried, " That be
far from thee," and later on in this chapter,
" Why cannot I follow thee now ? " or, « 1
have never eaten anything conmion or un-
' T.K. and l,acljmann read xal, with N, A,
and other authoriticg. They also add e'ltei's*.
CB. xxn. 1—88.] THE GOSPEL ACCOBDING TO ST. JOHN.
187
clean." Tbia trait in Peter's character is
wonderfully accurate, and corresponds with
the portraiture of the same man in the sy-
noptic narrative (see Introduction, p. cxv.).
There is here an analogous blending of re-
verence and self-will, of outwardness and
forwardness — a new illustration of one who
would distinguish himself by the greatness
of his humility.
Vers. 7, 8. — Jesat answered and said to
him, That which I am doing thou knowest
not now — thou hast not absolute knowledge
of, thou hast not seen through as yet ; but
after these things, afterwards when I bhall
have completed my present undertaking,
thou (yv<i(rri) Shalt come by clear proof and
full discovery and intimate acquaintance to
nnderstand. This is sometimes refeixed to
the subsequent illumination of the Holy
Spirit, or even to the higher life oi the
future world (Luthardt), but the above
interpretation is more consonant with the
context. The /lerii toSto may (as Westcott
suggests) point to the whole manifestation
of love as it should complete itself on the
cross, and become illumined by the Resur-
rection and by the gift of the Spirit, when the
same mind should be put into Peter that
was in Christ Jesus ; consequently we may
reasonably apply this great word to many
of our earthly experiences. God's ways,
Christ's government of his Church, and the
mystery of our lot, are often so puzzling
that we cannot be said to know them ob-
jectively or absolutely. We know (yiyii-
axoiuv) but in part, and see (fiKiirofuii) by
means of a mirror (1 Cor. xiii. 12); but
eventually in the fulness of the Divine
manifestation wo shall know (f7nyvu)ir6iii6a)
completely, subjectively, in the depths of
our personal consciousness. Feter saith to
him, with more emphasis than before, with
an intensity of double negative and eis rhv
aiui/a. Thou Shalt not ever wash my feet —
" not while eternity lasts." " A praiseworthy
modesty," says Calvin, "were it not that
with God obedience is better than worship."
This vehement, Peter-like burst showed that
even yet he had not learned his profound
dependence upon his Lord. Exuberant
utterance of a love which in its superlative
entliusiasm was in- danger of seveiing the
relation between his Lord and himself,
elicited from Christ a reply which went far
beneath this purely symbolic washing, and
gave even to it a moral significance which
it had not possessed before. Jesus answered,
If I wash thee (not thy feet) not, thou hast
BO part with me — no nipos,^ no portion, no
' Discriminate q /uepfs from ri fiepos, the
former used in the LXX. (see also Luke xi.
36 ; xii. 46 ; Matt. xxiv. 51 ; see also Josh.
xxii.84,25; 28»m.xx. 1; 1 Kings xii. 16).
share, no communion, no common inheri-
tance with me in the honours and blessings
of the kingdom. This may be understood
in two ways : either, " If I do not by my
grace cleanse you from your defilement,
wash you in a deeper sense, in a more
abundant and effectual manner than by
giving you this practical lesson, there is
utter misunderstanding of my relation to
you — you have no part nor share with me."
And this ver. 11 seems to favour. Heng-
Btenberg strongly defends this viev as a
reference by Christ to his power on earth
to forgive sins, and confer the pure and
now nature (cf. Ps. li. 4, 9 — 1 1) ; and this
doubtle. 6 lies in the solemn tone of the
Lord. A refusal to accept the Divine
cleansing is the only ground of exclusion
from the benefits of the bloodshedding.
Still another more obvious meaning arises,
"If you refuse this manifestation of humble
love from me, if you put your own pride
between yourself and me, if you disdain
this act of self-surrender, claiming to under-
stand me and our mutual relations better
thai) I, you have no part with me. This is
a symbol of my love to you, and of what is
to be your love to one another (ver. 15); if
you refuse to accept it from me, you will
then have no part with me in the mani-
festation of the spirit of self-sacrificing
love which I have come to inaugurate."
Peter must learn the beauty and glory of
service for the sake of others; and if he
were unable to understand and accept this
act of love, he must separate himself from
all share in the Master's work. This truth
dawned upon him, but only in part, and it
led to the extraordinary revulsion of feeling
which followed.
Ver. 9. — Simon Peter makes another im-
petuous and characteristic outburst, and
another of his almost glorious mistakes.
Once more he will go before and give
advice to his Master. The very same Peter
who drew the sword in Gethsemane and
then fled, who went to the high priest's
palace and then denied his Lord ; the very
same Peter who rushed into the water and
then cried, " Lord, save mo, I perish," who
cried, even on the Mount of Transfiguration,
" Let us build three tabernacles ; " and when
our Lord spoke of his cross said, " This shall
not be done unto thee;" — the same Simon
Peter now said to him, " If it comes to the
primal experience of being washed by thee
in thine unutterable love, if there be any
question of part and share with thee in thy
work, I will (cf. ver. 37) go nith thee to
prison and to death, then, blessed Lord, not
my feet only, but also my hands and my head ;
i.e. all my uncovered body ; seeing that my
power of thinking And all my oftpacity for
service alike need cleansing." Pet«r not
18a
THE GOSPEL ACOOBDINO TO ST. JOHN. [tp. xm. 1— 3&
vaMMMmaUy felt the weakness and corrnp-
tion of his nature, and cried out, ae we all
an often duponed to do, for renewal and
mnetiflcation of every faculty and energy of
his heing. In this he showed a lack of
lealuation of the new world ieto which
gnu!« had brought him, and once more
needed correction. Ohrybostom says, " In
his deprecation he was vehement, in his
yielding more vehement, but both came
bma his love." But even here we see the
same eagerness to go beyond the Lord, and
dictate the course to be pursued.
y«r. 10. — Jesus taith to him. Christ's
answbr here undoubtedly shows tliat he
is speaking of something far more impor-
tant than the foot- washing. He goes back
to the spiritual meaning which Peter attri-
buted to his words. He that has been
bathed (KeXm/jUvos) is indeed washed from
head to foot, hath no further need than
to wash his festi' bnt is altogether clean.
By personal communion with the Lord and
belief in him, by the word which he had
spoken to his disciples, they were (^xaSapoi)
clean (ch. xv. 3). They had been washed
from the defilement of their old nature,
they had undergone a thorough moral and
spiritnal change, by moral union with
Ciirist. They were reconciled and cleansed ;
they therefore did not need a fundamental
change to be wrought daily in bead, hands,
and Ufe. Just as a man who had thoroughly
bathed only requires the removal of the
soil contracted in the daily walk; so a
regenerated and forgiven man is clean, and,
Uke Peter, should not need, being Ka9ap6s,
more than the foot-cleansing which Christ
in Divine condescension had then granted.
It was inevitable that some of the Fathers
(Augustine, Theodore) and many modem
expositors (Hengstenberg, Godet, and
Wordsworth) should see here a reference to
baptism, and speak of Peter's having over-
looked the grace of his baptism. When it
is remembered, however, that nothing but
John's "baptism unto repentance" had
been administered to the disciples, and that
this cleansing is, in ch. xv. 3, distinctly
referred to the word of Christ, it is a very
unneoessary trifling with the text to find in
this \f\ovii4iios baptism or any sacramental
or nrnboUo act. Lampe and Cncceius, in
renderini; \e\ovii,4ros, substitute for bap-
' Tischendorf (8th edit.), on the authority
of K, omite the words «i itii and robs w6Sat,
and thus alters the meaning of the whole
passage. Lachmann, Tregelles, Westcott
and Hort, R.T., and others retain these
words in the text, on the ground that K gives
a oanection to harmonize the saying with
KaSupis i\n, md from not drawing distinc-
tien betwMB h»\*un4f»t and vi'^turem.
tism, the regeneration of the Spirit, and
treat the washing of the feet as equivalent
to the daily forgiveness of sins of infirmity.
Archdeacon Farrar, 'Early Days of Chris-
tianity,' voL i. p. 126, suggeste that this
intensely interesting scene may account for
Simon Peter's pictnresque expression (1 Pet.
T. 5, 4yKO)tPiirar0e), wherein he enjoins on
Christians to " tie on humility like a dress
fastened with knots;" and also for the
apostle's "insight into the true meaning- of
baptism, as being, not the putting away the
filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good
conscience towards God." And ye are clean ;
and therefore these words and this principle
apply to yon. Dr. Westcott finds in this
phrase a reference to the purity of the
titible Church, notwithstanding, i.e,, the pre-
sence of Judas in the group ; but the excep-
tion itself which follows shows that the
Lord did not regard Judas as XcXav/u^cas or
KoSafis. The suggestion of the passage is
precisely contrary to that so often drawn.
But not all. This reference to Judas may
have been one more warning to the man who
was plotting against his Master's life.
Yer. 11.— For he knew who was betraying
him ; therefore he said, To are not all clean.
That Christ should have been ignorant of
the devices of Judas, or of his true character,
is repeatedly denied by all the evangelista
John certainly calls attention to the Lord's
knowledge of the secret of Judas, and justi-
fies thus his Divine prerogative. That
Strauss, Hilgenfeld, and others should see
here an innuendo against Peter, and the
charge against Peter of advocating a kind
of Ebionitic daily ablution of the whole
body, is wilful and nncalled for.
Vers. 12— 17.— The Lord gives other
practical instmotions based on his ovm
hnmble self-obliterating discharge of a duty
which it was obvioos that, in their desire to
be great, they had one and all abstained
from doing even for their Ijord. Out of it
he draws the great lesson of mntual love
and brotherly regard.
Yer. 12. — So when he had washed their feet
— the interruption of Peter had brought fortlr
the wonderful and weighty replies, and then,
in awfulness and great amazement, the pro-
cess went on. John and Judas as weilas Peter
submitted. Matthew and Thomas, Philip
and Nathanael, and the rest yielded and
received the deep, ineffaceable impression —
and taken his garmente he was do longer in
the form of a slave, but of their Teacher and
Lord — and again reclined ' at their head, ha
' R.T., Westcott and Hort, Tischendorf
(8th edit.), etc., read ivenetf ia pl«c^ o(
dvartirlov, with K*. B, Q*.
OH. xra. 1—38.] THE GOSPEL ACCOBDING TO 8T. JOHil.
169
said nnto them, Know ye what I have done
onto yonl They must oonBiderthe mean-
ing of it all. There was no affectation of
humility about it. The purpose of the
Lord wae distinctly practical and ethical.
60 when he ceased his manifestation in the
likeness of sinful flesli, and was set down
on the right hand of God, ho sent his Spirit
to teach them all things. Moultou chUs
attention to the tiinal arran^^emeut. Tliree
particulars precede the gre^t utterance that
follows (cf. vers. 1 — 3 ; of. also ch. xvi. 6 ;
STi. 8, etc.; xvii. 22, 23), as well as the
three topics of the intercessury prayer ; also
the three words from the cross (ch. xix. 27 —
30) and three appearances to the di^oiples
(ch. xxi. 14). This may be compared with
the use of three throughout the Apocalypse.
Ver. 18. — ^Ye uame me the Teacher and
the Lord. "Babbi and it&Ta," the names
of reverence which discipk-s of the lli.hrew
teachers were accustomed to ofl'er to their
masters, iuvetv means to name, and the
two nominatives are used appellatively, not
as vocatives. Tholuck regards them as
vocutivea. Scholars dared nut address their
teachers without some marks of respect
AtSd(rKa\os is John's equivalent for <3i, my
Master (see ch. i. 29 ; xx. 16). And ye say
well ; for so I am. At this supreme luoment
he does not repudiate this high function,
nor abate any of his lofty claims. He was
moat obviously the highest in his con-
descending love. He had given no more
amazing proof of the originality and supie-
maoy of his nature than this inversion of
all ordinary relations. So I am — more,
indexed, than " the Teacher," " the Saviour,"
more than " the Master," as Peter said on
a memorable occasion, " God was with
him," and he was Immanuel — " God with
us," and " Lord of all " (Acts x. 37, 38).
Vers. 11, 15.— If I then, the Lord and the
Teacher, have washed yoni feet; ye ought
also to wash one another's feet ; for I have
given ■ you an example, that ye shonld do as
I have done to you. KaBtis, " as," " like as,"
was used by our XjOtd rather than 8, "tliat
which." The virSSuyiia ' shows that he had
set before his disciples a parallel, an example,
' AeSaiKo, perfect, on the authority of
K, A, K, M, n, 1, 83, and many cursives,
is preferred by Tischundorf (8tb edit.), and
RjT. ; but Tregelleg, Lachmann, Westcott
and Hort, preserve the aorist ISwKa, with B
and six other uncials and several Fathers.
The aorist has the power of the perfect in
this place.
* 'Tir6Seiyiui is found in Polybius, as well
as in the New Testament. The older
classical word is irapiSeiyim, an example,
pattern, memorial, specimen, and is used by
Sophocles in this sense.
a symbolic type of the servioe they were to
render to one another, and was not establish-
ing a custom or exact ordinance. The
washing of the feet was an Oriental custom
of great antiquity as a mark of hospitality
(Gen. xviii. 4 ; xix. 2 ; Abigail, I Sam. xxv.
41 ; see also Luke vii. 38, 44). In 1 Tim.
V. 10 there is trace of such a cnstom of
Christian hospitality. Considering the ease
with whicli the Church has eetablished a
ceremonial from an isolated text, it is
remarkable that no more literal use has
been made uf this injunction. However,
Maundy Thursday, a name derived ftom Diet
mandati, was celebrated as the day on
which this great command, or that contained
in ver. 34, was given — Mandatum Ttovum
do vobif — and the feet of the newly baptized
were waslied. The endeavour to make
Augustine the authority for this religious
practice is doubtful ; bnt the Council of
Toledo (A.D. G91) mentions this particular
day as that on which it was appropriate.
In the early Gallioan Church there was
such a ritual, and the forms of pedilavium
observed are to be read in early Gothic and
Gallican missals. Bernard of Clairvaux
tried to convert the ceremony into a sacra-
ment, but without success. And it would
seem that Rome effort was made to introduce
it into Spain. "In 1630, Wolsey washed,
wiped, and kissed the feet of fifty-nine poor
men at Peterborough. The practice was
cuntinued by English sovereigns till the
reign of James II. " (Westcott). No traces
of it are to be found in the Ambrosian ritual,
but the preservation of the custom is found
now in Uie Bussian imperial palace, in the
ceremonies of the holy week at Bome, and in
the palaces of Vienna, Madrid,Munich. The
practice was for a time retained by the United
Brethren and Meunonite9,and the Tuukersof
Philadelphia (see ' Dictionary of Christian
Antiquities,' vol. i arts. " Baptism," §§ 34,
67, and "Maundy Thursday;" Herzog.,
' Enoyo.,' art. "Pusswasohung," by H. Merz ;
and Sohaffs 'Herzog.,' art. "Tunkers").
The Church has for the most part looked
below the mere form to the rt:al substance of
the Lord's teaching, and only thus can we
appreciate it adequately. The very injunc-
tion would bo an inadequate, burdensome one
where the feet are covered, and would beuome
impossible and valuele^a in the Northern and
Western world. The service demanded is
the self-forgetting ministry of love, which
places the interests of self behind and below
those of otliers. Nothing is more theoreti-
cally easy and acceptable than this principle,
but nothing more difficult of accomplish-
ment. This sentence of our Lord is a nobis
illustration of the method in which a great
principle is made by him the basis of a
small duty (cf. Panl's vindioation of hii
190
THE GOSPEL AOCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xm 1— 3a
own trathfulnen and freedom from l\i-
(l>pia, 2 Oct. i. 17—20; he based it on God'i
own faithfulness to promise).
Ver. 16. — The Verily, verily revoals the
solemnity with which our Lord touched the
frequently quoted aphorism (Matt. x. 24;
Luke vi. 40; and again ch. xy. 20). The
servant — the slave — ^is not greater tiian his
lord ; you have already called me Lord, and
so I am; neither is (one that is sent) an
apostle greater than he that sent him on his
great mission. Therefore if L your Lord
and Teacher, have set forth this principle of
self-abnegating service, a /orfion 'should ye
in love serve one another, the greatest should
render even menial service to the humblest ;
he that would be first to him that is the last,
and each to alL This is one of the essential
marks, and ever will be, of the mind that was
in Christ Jesus (comp. Matt. x. 23, 24, where
an analogous phrase justifies the disciples
in expecting and fleeing from persecution —
a step in which Ihey would simply be follow-
ing their Lord's example ; of. a very different
UK of the proverb in Luke vi 40, where it
is used to warn a blind man from assuming
the ofSce of a guide, and the resemblance of
the character, etc., between the Teacher and
disciple).
Ver. 17. — ^If ye know these things, blessed
are ye if ye do them. Knowing and doing
are often perilously divorced (cf. Matt. vii.
21, etc. ; Luke vi. 46 ; xii. 47 ; and Jas. i. 25).
The sublime principle by itself may be
something, but if it be never put into practice,
the last great beatitude is forfeited. Mere
admiration of an ethical or a Christian
principle degenerating into a heartless and
fruitless ceremony is hardening to the heart
and deadening to tlie conscience. The same
truths had been taught independently of
parable and symbol, in Matt, xxiii. 8 — 12 ;
XI. 28.
Vers. 18— SO.— 2. The exclutim of the
faithleit disciple. This paragraph draws
the circle of his cleansed ones, of those who
accept him as Master and Lord in the fullest
sense, more closely about him. But the
proceeding is tragic in the extreme ; one of
the twelve chosen as apostles is a traitor in
disguise. The fout-washing has been an
awful insufficiency in his case. He must
depart before the greatest depth of the
Master's love and truth can be revealed.
Ver. 18. — I ipeak not conoermng you all.
Tkeie ia one who, thoagh he knows these
things, will not do them, is now indisposed
to see any Divineness in the act and spirit
of love which I am laying down as a
fundamADial law of my kingdom. I know
whom ' (or, the indimduah whom) 1 chose foi
apostles — (in oh. vi. the same statement is
made with less definiteness, " Have I not
chosen you twelve, and one of you," etc. ?) •
Judas among them — ^bnt. It is difficult to
follow this construction, and to decide on
the antithesis to this disjunctive. (1) We
may add, this has happened (toCto yiyovty) —
i.e. this choice has been overruled, and so
in its issues corresponded with the Divine
purpose (Vra)— 80 that the Scripture might be
fulfilled. Be that eateth my bread,' or, bread
with me, hath lifted hie heel againet me ; (2)
we may take the tva ir\7)pu6f as a paren-
thesis, and link the &\\' with the quotation,
"He that eateth," etc.; or (3) we may,
with Meyer, suppose that ^{eA.e|({/ir)i' airovs,
" I chose them,'' is mentally involved here :
" I chose them, and Judas among them (fra),
in order that the Scripture," etc. This con-
nection would suggest a destiny and purpose
which Christ knowingly corresponded with,
harmonizing his plan with the Divine and
prophetic programme. Emphasis must be
laid upon the cKXeyecrSai. It refers to
Christ's choice of apostles, not to the eternal
election to salvation. This interpretation
corresponds more closely with the text,
though it savours of a fatalism foreign to
the Scripture. There is, however, a true
sense in which the evil-disposed man is so
placed that, if he will sin, he must sin
along certain well-defined lines. The forty-
first psalm, from which the quotation is
made, is not strictly Messianic ; it is de-
scriptive of the ideal Sufferer, the holy but
outraged maT), whose melancboly condition
is sure to be "haraoterized by treachery
among lji.~ familiar friends. Christ implies
that, if he were to fulfil this portraiture, then
this bitter dreg would be put into his cup ;
and BO he humanly made this olioice, <.e. he
took steps which in their tenderness of love
might have saved Judas from the worst, but
which were really part of it Divine plan
which would vindicate his own foresiglit
and the method of Divine government. A
full understanding of the formula in Matthew
and John, iva ri ypaiprl %\i]po>6^, will save us
from putting into these words a hopeless
fatalism. Notice that the LXX. reads this
passage differently, and is not so closely
' T.E. and B.T. both read o6s, with A, D,
r. A, and other uncials and Latin versions ;
but Tischondorf (Sth edit.), Westcott and
Hort, Tregellea, and Alford read rivas,
with N, B, C, L, M, and 33, with Origen,
laying greater emphasis on the individuality
in each case.
» Mow, with B, 0, L, is read by Westcott
and Hort, B.T. ; but fiii' lnoS is preferred by
Tischendorf (8th edit), with N, A, D, the
Vulgate, etc.
•H.xin.1— 88.] THE GOSF'SL AOCOBDINa TO ST. JOHN,
191
allied to the Hebrew : " He that eateth my
loaves hath magnified against me his sur-
reptitious despite, his tricky antagonism."
Great beauty is given to the passage by tlie
B.T, fiou instead of jxer' i/ioS, for it suggests
the idea that Chrisst was the real Host of
the twelve, the Father and Provider of his
family. Cbrist must be regarded ai the
Father and Host of the entire group of guests, -
and the treacherous treatment of • host
throughout the East is regarded as a lign
■ of peculiar obduracy.
Ver. 19. — I tell you from henceforth — an'
ttpTi of Matt. xxvi. 61 corresponds with Luke
xxii. 69, airli rod vvv; the word also implies
that onr Lord would again recur to the
subject. This is the true meaning of hripn
in the New Testament (ch. i. 52; xiv. 7;
Matt, xxiii. 39 — ^before it come to pass, that ye
may believe when it is come to pass, that I am ;
(.«. I am what I have said, none the less, but
all the more, the Son of God (of. Isa. xliii.
11—13; oh. viii. 24, 28, 58). It is more
than the words will bear to make the iy^
el/u the equivalent of a Divine claim to
equality vrith Jehovah; but "all that I
have said of myself, and all you have
admitted to be true." It is not a promise
3f continual prevision of events, but a start-
ling proof that in this case our Lord bad
completely fathomed the mind of Judas, and
was communicative of what he saw there to
the rest of the disciples, so that when the
tragedy should be consummated, this pecu-
liarity, instead of shaking their faith in him,
will prove that he was taken by no surprise,
and throughout his great career was what
be said he was.
Ver. 20. — The connection of the solemn
utterance that follows is not easy to seize.
Verily, verily, I say onto yon, He who receiveth
whomsoever I shall send receiveth me ; and
he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent
me. In the earlier utterance of an analo-
gous saying (Matt. x. 40), SexfaBai is used
instead of AajUi3aj/»f. The 4cit/ rlya tre^^pat
suggests that those who may receive his
commission need not, and wiU not, be con-
fined to the twelve apostles, although in-
cluding them. The words reveal a claim
to issue such commissions, and to confer
upon his apostolic and other representatives
snmi thing of his ovm dignity and glory, viz.
the glory of sacrifice for others, the dignity
of service. He may have intended : (1) To
comfort those who are bewUdered by the
thought of the treachery within their en-
closure, and to assure tliem that such conduct
on the part of an apostle must not be allowed
to lower their estimate of apostolic duty.
Certain ecclesiastical interpreters find here
that Ae unwoi-thiness even of Judas did
not destroy the Divine character of his testi-
■ony, and that the immoral character of the
minister now doea not annul the oommission
he has received. This dogma is essentially
hostile to the teaching of the New Testament
(Matt. vii. 17—21). (2) The royal power of
the dying Christ ; and (3) the bold identifi-
cation of his own claims with those of his
Father. Few more wonderful sayings were
uttered by Jesus, if we ponder the connection
in which they stand ; but let it be observed
that we do not owe to thu Fourth Gospel the
matter of this saying. It must have been
familiar to the readers of John from the
solemn records of the Gospel of Matthew.
Vers. 21 — 30 correspond with the scene
which Matthew describes (xxvi. 21, etc.) as
occurring during the Paschal meal, and
preceding the departure of Judas before the
Supper was instituted — " as they did eat."
The i tadiiaviur' e/ioSinMark xiv. 18 corre-
sponds and finds its explanation in the
scene described by John, as also his quotation
from Fs. zli. It does not follow, because the
synoptics omit the "feet-washing," that
they were ignorant of it; John's purpose
was to record that which they had omitted.
On the other hand, John does give some very
significant indications of the same general
current of inner Life in the mind of Jesus
and of the twelve. Matthew (xxvi. 14 — 16)
shows that at this very moment Judas had
so &r given way to his avarice, impatience,
disappointment, and innate pride and selfish-
ness, as to be simply seeking his oppor-
tunity to betray his Master in the absence
of the multitude. He had his price ; he was
meditating treachery. Granting the mixtui'e
of motive which may have agitated him, we
condemn the pleading of numerous modem
writers, who almost extenuate bis malice and
represent him as victim of the violent vulgar
passion of the multitude for a triumphant
secular Messiah. Every touch or stroke in
the evangelic narrative shows how utterly
impervious to goodness the traitor really
was ; and John gives us a further hint, in
addition to that supplied by the synuptists,
as to the very commencement of the agony,
the details of which they prolong into the
night. Jesus was troubled in the spirit (cf.
notes on ch. xi. 33). This is one of the
strongest expressions used of the sorrows of
Christ ; the rapixv BYen was deeper down in
his nature than what is expressed by aSrifio-
veiv, \viTeTa8ac of Matthew. The distress
penetrated from " body " to " soul," and then
to inmost " spirit." The Lord was terribly
perturbed, not merely with approaching
agony aggravated by treachery ^nd deser-
tion, but by the contrast between his love
and the issue, between an apostle and his
doom. And he testified, and said, Verily,
verily, I say unto yon. A close specification
of coming ev«its takes the place of the more
vague utterances of vers. 17 — 19. On* «f
19>
THE GOSPEaC ACCORDING TO BT. JOHN. [oh. xm. 1—S8.
yov ihaU betray me. The synoptic account
introduces the virid scene of humble and
heart-rending inquiry, " Lord, is it I?" to
which the reply was made, " The one that
dippeth his hand in the dish with me shall
betray me," followed by a still more awful
warning, and imprecation calling the self-
consciously guilty man to hesitate, to pause
for his own sake (Matt. xxvi. 21). And,
further, we learn that Judas received the
answer, uiheard by his fellow-disciples,
that it was he who was in this imminent
danger. This scene, however, was so
impressive to the majority that the sy-
noptic tradition failed to record a briefer
side-scene, of which John was the prin-
cipal witness, and which he here de-
scribes. The diaoiples (therefore) ' were
gazing on one another, being in perplexity
oonoeming whom he spake. They were
looking on in mute or whispering amaze-
ment and tribulation upon one another,
being in sore bewilderment (dTropoiJ^uevoj),
but as yet they did not suspect Judas.
There was lying, says our text, reclining at
the table, in the bosom (ey r^ K^\ir^) — M to
(TTriSos, "against the breast" — one of his
disciples whom Jesns loved. Observe, this
sacred designation occurs in ch. xix. 26;
XX. 2; xxi. 7, 20. In ch. xx. 2 it is "the
other disciple whom Jesus {(piKci, amnbat,
implying tliat the love of Jesus was not
oonflned to John, but embraced Peter aUo ;
whereas here we have Si/ iiyima, the higher
love of respect and affection, diligebat. We
can have no doubt, from the enumeration of
the group in ch. xxi. 2, etc., that it is one
of Zebedee's sons. Now one of these, James,
as we learn from tha narrative of Acts xii.,
soon passed away. The author of the
Fourth Gospel does undoubtedly mean to
refer to John, and to represent the disciple
lyiiydna 6 'lri(rovs as no other thanJiimself.
The attitude so carefully described had been
adopted by the Jews at table. It shows
that John was seated, or was reclining, next
to Jesus on his right, and therefore could,
more easily than his next companion on the
left, have sought and received au answer from
the Lord. Whetlier this was Peter or Judas
does not appear certain. Edersheim has
represented Peter's place as on the opposite
side of the horseshoe table. Words from
that distance could have been overheard by
all. At the celebration of the Passover,
the guests were accustomed originally to
$tand ; but after the Captivity the custom
fell into desuetude.
> Loohmann and others maintain oZy, with
K*, A, D, and many other nncials; but
Tischendorf (8th edit.) and B.T. reject it.
with K*, B, 0, and some nnoiali geldom
•Inwhne sgrreeing witli ibma.
Ver. 24. — Simon Peter therefore beokoned
to this (disciple), and saith to him. Where-
fore he must have been far enough off to
beckon, and near enough to speak. Westcott
imagines that Peter was on the left side, in
the place of real honour (?), though not in
inch proximity as, unobserved, to ask the
question. Bdersheim also speaks of the left
side as the place of honour, but assigns no
adequate reason for such a violation of unir
versal usage and metaphor. The natural
impetuosity of Peter would have induced-
him, if he had been so near, to have asked
the question himself. It is more probable
that Judas himself was there, judging from
the language of Matt. xxvl. 23, and from
the act which follows. Either with T.B., He
spake to him, to ask who it might be ; ' or,
saith. Tell (ns) who it is oonoeming whom
he speaks ; as though Peter had rushed to
the conclusion that John knew. This is
singularly like Peter, and John may tacitly
have been supposed to be better acquainted
than the rest with the mind of Jesus.
Ver. 25. — ^'He, leaning back as he was
against the breast of Jesns, saith unto him.
Lord, who is it? Meyer explains, "He,
raising himself from the KihTros of Jesus to
his breast, nearer to his ear, draws close to
him, and asks in a whisper." This turns on
the special rendering given by Meyer and
others to kSXttos, as meaning the fold of the
garment above the girdle, as in Luke vi. 38 ;
but the fundamental meaning of kSKitos is
bosom, womb, embrace, and this secondary
meaning need not be pressed (ct ch. L 18 ;
Luke xvi. 22, 23).
Ver. 26. — Jesus (then) answered — "then,"
ovv, is introduced by the modem editors, as
well as $d\^a for $Jafias — He it is for whom I
shall dip the sop (or, morsel), and give it >"'in ;
so (fcol ^ijL0d\)ias is exchanged, on very strong
authority, into $d.\lias oSv, and eViSdjo-co into
Sd>au) when he had dipped the sop, he taketh
and giveth it to Judas the son of Simon, the
Isoariot. The if'oi/ifoi' was the morsel of meat
or bread dipped into the charoseth, a mead
' _T.B., with A, D, T, A, and many other
uncials, Syriao Versions, Armenian, etc.,
read, irvBiaBai tis Si/ eftj ; while Tischendorf
(8th edit.), Westcott and Hort, Meyer,
Liicke, Tregelles, and E.T., read, eiir^ tIs
?o-Tij/ jrepl o5 A.6'7«i, with B, C, L, 33. N
gives a blending of the two readings.
' T.K. and Lachmaun read, Imirea^v Sk,
with A, B, P, and many other authorities;
Tischendorf (8th edit.) reads olv, with
N, D, L, M, X, numerous cursives, Latin,
Vulgate. The oiras, introduced by Tischen-
dorf (8th edit.) and R.T., is omitted by N.
The ivajreffiiK of K.T. and Westcott and Hort,
but not Tischendorf (8th edit.), leats oa
W, B,.0*, K, L.
, xra. 1—38] THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST. JOHN.
193
of wine and fruit used at the Paschal meal.
The nsage is illuetrated by the LXX. ver-
(ion of Buth ii, 14 and Job xxxi. 17. In the
New Testament yfiafilCo is used for distri-
butiou of food. Bom. xii. 20 ; 1 Cor. xiii. 3.
The act of Jesus was almost contemporaneous
with the " Thou sayeet it" of the synoptiats
It was twofold in meaning, explaining to
John what he wished to mow for Peter's
sake, and giving Judas one more gracious
olianee to repent and believe in the Divinity
of love rather than that of display, power,
and pomp. Judas had been dipping his
hand into the same dish with his Master,
eating his bread. Instead of resenting such
effrontery the blessed Lord gave him in
pity the last opportunity to escape. He
puts the morsel sopped in the acid wine,
the bread of fellowship, into his very lips,
and the miscreant received it. The name
of Judas, and of his father, and of the place
cursed by being his birthplace, are once
more introduced at length (cf. oh. vi. 71).
Ver. 27. — And after the sop ; not with it.
By no magical or demoniacal rite was the
man rendered the slave of Satan ; pott hoo
is not propter hoc. After tlie sop, after this
last final proof of the unutterable friendship
and love of the Divine Lord — rire, then,
" at that moment," as though goodness was
turned into wratli, and the conflict with evU
closed, the inoarnatBd fiend resolved that he
would wait no longer. Then Satan (the only
place in the Fourth Gospel where Satan is
mentioned) entered into him, How coidd
this be known? The evangelist clearly saw
what he thiia described— he saw the malign
end unrelenting expression on Judas's face ;
he suspected that some devilish plot was
hatched, some hideous purpose finally formed.
It is the evangelist's way of saying what he
personally saw and afterwards concluded.
Up to that moment of supreme forbearance,
the character was not irretrievably damned,
but now lie had sinned against knowledge
and love, and even Jesus gives him up.
" It were better for him that he had never
been bom." There is no more awful or
tragic touch in the whole narrative, nor any
more symbolic of the curse which the
corrupt heart can make and bring down
upon itself out of the greatest blessing.
There is no advantage in trying to deter-
mine the amount of figurative sense con-
veyed by the expression, " Satan entered."
Tiie etliical state consequent either upon
the sop or the devil is clear enough. The
moment when it was induced is signalized
in this tragedy. The vehement effort which
the traitor must have made to resist all
gracious influences opened the way for the
powers of hell and darkness to take posses-
sion of him. He strengthened himself to
do evlL Jesns therefore said to bim, That
then doest, do qniokly. Questions have been
raised as to the sentence — whetlior it was
a solemn command or a permission at ones
to carry out the purpose that was in his
heart (as Grotins, Kuinoel, and others sup-
pose); but Meyer here is more penetrative
(bo Moulton) :" Jesus (as a man) actually
wishes to surmount as soon as possible the
last crisis of his fate now determined for
him." Jameson ('Profound Problems in
Theology and Philosophy ') urges tliat it was
the proluugatioa of the struggle which was
the bitterest elemeat in Chnsfs sufferings.
The decision kt ivhich he had arrived
brooked no longer delay. As if he Tiad said,
"If you have any manhood in ysxi, and
you are not altogether incarnate dsUDon,
make haste, let me remain no longer in sus-
pense; carry out the purpose now and at
once." Ambrose, Liicke, Tholuck, suggest
that he meant to separate Judas from the
eleven, and be rid of his presence. His re-
moval from the group is undoubtedly the
condition of our Lord's highest revelations
of himself.
Vers. 28, 29. — Now not on* (oVStls, not
even John) of those leolining at table knew
with reference to what matter or behoof
he said this to him. The toSto Is very
emphatic, and, on the supposition of the
autbeuticity of the narrative, John expressly
disclaims the knowledge. It is arbitrary for
Keim to say that John mud have known.
The whole of this " aside " was the work of
a moment. For certain of them were sap-
posing, because Judas held the purse — or, box
(see note, oh. xiL 6) — Jesus said to him, Buy
the things we have need of for the feast;
or, (he spake) in order that he should give
something to the poor. (See Introduction,
p. xcii., for an explanation of this passage,
and the use that has been me^e of it to settle
the question of the day of our Lord's death.)
If the great feast of the Jews was to be
held on the following day, and this was
the 13-1 4th of Nisan, this advice would be
perfectly comprehensible, whereas, if it was
the 14-15th when Jesus and also all the Jews
were celebrating the Passover, the purchase
of any articles would have been contrary to
law ; and on both grounds the conclusion is
drawn that this was the evening of the
13-14thj and that the Paschal meal had cer-
tainly been anticipated by Jesus ; but this
is not absolutely conclusive, because, even
though this were the Passover meal, it is
certain that further sacrifices, called " Pass-
overs," were consumed on the great day of
unleavened bread that followed the Paschal
meal, and it is not perfectly certain what
was the custom of the Jews with reference
to purchase. Talmndio snthoritiea may be
quoted both w^yi; and » large number
of di«tio(^hed oonunentators (Hengiten-
0
IM
THE GOSPEL ACCORDIN(J TO ST. JOHN. [ch. saii. 1—38.
berg, Tholnclr, Lange, M'Clellan) take the
latter yiew, harmonizing John ^rith the
synoptistB ; bat considering all the other
difflcultleB that arise, Meyer, Godet, and
Westcott take the former view. The sup-
position of a gift to the poor from the little
atock is very suggestive of the almsgiving
spirit that had pervaded all the habits of
disciples taught by Christ (cf. oh. zii. S;
Gal. ii. 10). Hengstenberg urges that the
night of the Passover was that above all
others on which the poor needed help to
rejoice befo) e the Lord.
Yer. 30. — He then having reoeived the
lop went out straightway : and it was night.
There is no advantage to be secured by
omitting the ody, and connecting the Jjv Sk
yi^ with the ore (iri/i') ej^xflc, nor is it pre-
ferred by the later editors. The immediate
departure of Judas when he had taken the
sop is compatible with all the context — a
horror of the shadow of death falls on the
tragic scene. He at least passes out into the
outer darkness, apt symbol of his soul and
of his deed. Hungstenberg imagines the
Lord's Supptr to have followed the previous
words, aud that the evBis must be inter-
preted with some laxity, leaving time for
the sacred meal to have been instituted and
the solemn song to have been sung. It is
difficult to say where the Eucharistic service
is to be introduced, and every possible sug-
gestion has been made. The statement of
Luke xxii. 21, 22 makes it probable that
tke traitor was present at it. And all the
synoptists make the indication of the traitor
follow the iustitution of the Eucharist, and
two of them place it on the very way to the
garden of Gethsemane. Bengel, in harmony
with his chronological scheme, supposes that
the traitor went out and returned. Accord-
ing to Keim, the Eucharistic meal may be
supposed to be introduced at the close of
ch. xiv. and before the discourse on the
vine ; but that discourse follows a summons
of Jesus to his disciples to leave the upper
chamber. And every attempt to find »
place for it in the midst of the valedictory
discourse is unsatisfactory (see these amply
discussed in Godet, Liicke, Meyer). Thus
Faulus, etc., place it after ver. 30. Liicke and
Meyer, between vers. 33 and 34 ; but Peter's
question looks back to ver. 33, allowing no
such break. Neander and Ebrard place
after ver. 32. Tholuck, after ver. 34. Lange
identifies it with the new commandment;
and Bengel makes the discourse down
to dh. xiv. 31 precede Christ's journey to
Jerusalem to keep the Passover, so that
BO olashiag takes place. I think that the
simi^fist station m the dii&culty is to put
it at tlie eoMmencement of the feait, and in
tbo IMb m it were tt tke soata— o ia oh.
siii. ttwMek Mb w tbU *mm Utrti Ua
disciples to the uttermost (cis rh rtXos).
The endeavour made by Strauss, to orgua
from the silence of the fourth evangelist
that he knew nothing of the institution of
the Eucharist, is a great exaggeration. The
synoptic tradition must, ex hypothesi of the
late authorship of the Gospel, be well known
to the author, and 1 Cor. xi. 33, etc., was
ample proof of its historic basis. There
was, in the entire representation of this
Gospel, an intense perception of the inner
meaning of the Eucharist, and of the new
covenant and commandment based on the
assumption pf the Passion and death of the
incarnate God ; so that instead of describing
the ceremonial, he expounds its ideas (see
Introduction, pp. cv., cvi.).
Ver. 31— ch. xvi. 33.-3. Thb Taia>
DIOTOBT DlSCOimSES OP THE LOBD.
Vers. 31— 33.— (1) The glarifieation of {h»
Son of man, and of the Father in the Son.
With ver. 31 the solemn valedictory dis-
course of our Lord commences — a veritable
evangelimn in evangelio, and by the aid of
which we come more closely to the heart of
Jesus. " Here," as Olshausen says, " we are
entering the holy of holies in the Passion-
history." We have, indeed, come through
the courts of the temple, we have left the
courts of the Gentiles, of the women, of the
priests behind us, and have been waiting
in the holy place of sacrifice and incense
and ablution; now we follow our great
High Priest to the veil over the holieit of
all, and he prepares us to listen to the
intercession that he makes before the nn-
veiled majesty of the Father's love. The
first section, extending from ch. xiii. 31 —
xiv. 81, reports a series of question! by
Peter, Thomas, Philip, Jude, which all turn
more or less on the anticipated separation
which he teaches them to regard aa a
veritable glorification of the Son of man,
and also as a higher revelation to them of
the nature of his own Person aud of those
relations between "the Son" and "the
Father" which are imaged and shadowed
forth in those between " the Son of man "
and "God," which they could more readily
understand. This prepares the way for
the discourse and prayer which followed, in
which the future spiritual union between
the victorious Lord and his own disciples,
between a sanctified humanity and the
eternal Godhead, is exhibited, distinguished
by wonderful blending of intnitive lnsi(h|
OH. xni. 1—38.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST. JOHN.
19S
and nipernatuial reyelaiioii. The diBConrra
ii consistent with the stnpendoni con-
ception which the evangelist had formed
of the Person of Christ. Hilgenfeld and
others regard this address as utterly in-
compatible with the valedictory discourses
of Matt, xxiv., XXV., and Hark liii. Wo
have already seen that they are but different
aspects of the same mysterious and wonder-
fal Personage; that the synoptlsts are not
silent concerning the ■piritnal presence of
Christ in and with his disciples till the
end of the world ; and, on the other hand,
that the fourth evangelist is perfectly alive
to the reality of his kingdom in the world
and to the true nature of his second coming.
(On the historical character of this discourse,
see Introduction, pp. czxvi., oxxvii.)
Vers. 81, 32.— (The oSf is not omitted
by T.B. or Westoott and Hort. It stands
on great authority. The different punctua-
tion of Stephens, vb^ Srt i^tiKSe, dispensed
with the ODc; but this arrangement is not
followed by modem editors.) When there-
fore he (Judas) was gone out, and the Lord
was left with his trembling but faithful
eleven, his heart yearned over them with-
out reserve or exception, and he speaks as
though his Passion had begun, and even
ended too. Jesus saith. Now is the Son of
man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
The aorist eSo|a(r97) suggests more than " is
glorified." Bengel says, " Jesus passionem
ut breve iter spectat et metam potius pro-
spioit." As Son of man, he has secured the
highest glory of the most tender, humiliating
sell'-sacrifice, has cast out of the covenanted
fellowship the hateful, baneful virus of a
carnal triumph. To his eye as Sou of man
the end is secured, just as in ch. xvii. 10
he says, " I have been glorified in them." '
The thought ia certainly complete without
the clause appended in T.B., which simply
reiterates the last clause, in order to make
it the basis of a further thought : God will
glorify him in (himself''), if his sufiering
and sacrificed humanity has been the scene
> The clause, el 6 0fhs iSo^iveri tv airif,
found in T.E., with W, A, C», r, A, several
versions ; but it ia wanting in N, B, C*, D,
L, X, and quotations by Tertullian and
Ambrose. It is bracketed by Lachmann
and Tregelles; omitted by Tischendorf (8th
edit.), E.T., and Westcott and Hort.
« Tregelles, Tischendorf (8th edit.X B.T.,
read airy, on the authority of N*°' ', B, H,
A, and two quotations of Origen; but Lach-
mann and Alford, with M", A, 0, D, L, X,
and many other unoiala, read iaurf.
and material of a glory given to God,
because a new manifestation of the Divine
fulness in humanity ; that is the reason why
his very hnmanity will be lifted up into
the Divine glory, itself becoming one with
it, exalted far above these heavens, that he
might fill all things, Elsewliere we read
that "Christ is hidden in God" (Col. iii.
3 ; Acts iii. 21). All his earthly sufferings
will now be seen to be a forth-streaming of
Divine love, the fullest revelation of the
innermost essence of God (cf. Isa, xlii. 1).
Godet says, " When God has been glorified
by a being, he draws him to his bosom and
envelops him in his glory." This expres-
sion scarcely sustains the sublime nni^aeness
of the glory of God in the Son of man, and
the glory of the Son of man in God. The
words, and will straightway glorify Mm
show how imminent was the glorification
which is consummated by the new meaning
put into death, and into all that leads to it
and into the sacrifice involved in it. That
" straightway glorify him " ii a note of
triimiph, and this while Judas is completing
his bargain (cf. the irapit <roi with if iavrp
of this verse ; cf. ch. xvii. 5).
Ver. 33.— This is the first and only
time, in the Gospels that the tender word,
little children, is nsed by the Lord (but
compare iraiS^a of ch. xxi. 5, and the re-
peated adoption by John himself in 1 John
a 1, 12, 28; iii. 7, 18; iv. 4; v. 21; and
TcKva in Mark x. 24). The adoption of the
gentle love-word is appropriate as a link to
the new commandment, and reveals the
love of departure, the tender love that wells
up in his heart, as he contemplates the
orphan-like and bereft condition of hia
disciples. A little while am I still with
you. Te shall seek me in the way of sym-
pathetic love and vivid realization of my
spiritual and real presence; and as I said
onto the Jews (a term that Christ used in
this place only when speaking to his dis-
ciples, though he had made use of it to the
Samaritaness, and would use it to Caiaphas
and Pilate), in ch. vii. 33, 34, and viii. 21 ;
but there and then he added, " Ye will not
find me," because they would only seek
him in carnal ideas and angry disappoint-
ment. Observe, he does not here repeat
this consequence of the search, because
ultimately these disciples would not only
seek, but follow and find ; nevertheless, he
adds : As I said to the Jews, Whither I go,
you are not able to come ; so at this time I
say to yon. There are two words used for
" now " — vvv denotes absolutely the present
moment; (.prt (ch. ix. 19, 25, etc.) denotes
here and there, a period distinct from past
and future, and yet related to both. The time
is not yet come for you to enter into m;
glory; you cannot yet come, jou have to
196
THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xm. 1—38.
continue my earthly miniBtry, to prolong
the testimony which I have given concern-
ing God, and which Ood has given concern-
ing me. The time will oome when " I will
receive yon unto myself, that where I am,
til ere ye may be also ; " but now he prays,
" though I am no more in this world, these
are in the world, . , . holy Father, keep
them " (ch. xviL 11).
Vers. 34, 35.— (2) Tlie demand which thit
glorification would make on the mutual
fidelity and affection of the disciplet,
Ver. 34. — A new commandment I give
unto you (with the purpose and scope') that
ye love one another; even as (or, seeing that)
I loved yon, that ye (also) love one another.
The interpretation of this verse largely de-
pends on the meaning given to the itaSdit,
if, as many translate it, "even as I loved
you;" or, "after the manner and type of
my love to you;" then an amply sufficient
explanation arises of the novelty of the
ivToK^. So new a type of love is given that,
M the Greek ezpositois generally have
urged, there is a deeper intensity in the
love than can be found in the Mosaic prin-
ciple, " Love thy neighbour as thyself." In
this comman(iment, which embraces the
whole law, self-love is assumed, and is made
the standard for the love of neighbour.
This ivToKili, on the other hand, would be
based on a new principle, and measured by
a higher standard, and even mean more
than love of self altogether. Christ's love
to his disciples was self-abandoning, self-
sacrificing love. This view of the passage is
urged by Liicke, and really removes all
necessity for the varied trauslations of the
Kotvii, such as " illustrious " (Hammond) ;
"last" (Heumann); "one that is always
new" (Olshausen); "renewed command-
ment," a " renewing commandment " (Au-
gustine and Maldonatus); "the institution of
the Eucharist " (Lange). But it is doubt-
ful whether the ideal image of a perfect love
constitutes the novelty, and whether the
double Iva and the transposition of the
second Jva be found in the simple style of
Jqhn. If, however, KaSiis i)yiini<ra be taken
as "seeing that," or "since I loved you"
(see ch. xvii. 2), Christ's love becomes not
BO much the manner or type, as the motive,
ground, and principle of love to one another.
As if he bad said, "I have loved each of
you unto death ; in loving one another yon
are loving me, you are loving an object of
my tender love. The desire of mere imita-
tion, howevisr strong, is not equal to tlie
demand I make, while the Destowment
of the ' new ' principle of life arising from
• response to my love is." For the first
teiorpretation speaks John's own use of
tbe idea (1 John iii. 16). There is a third
iMlH|)retatioa, wbiah makes xaBiit ^yitxTjira
i/iSi a sentence parallel with the S^Su^i.
" Even as up to this moment, and up to my
death, and to the uttermost, I have loved
you, I give," etc., "in order that ye may
love one another, and, inspired by me, may
imitate my love one towards another
(Westcott). This is an endeavour to com-
bine both interpretations. Alford snggesti
that the "newness" of the commandment
consists in its " unioity," its being the prime
injunction of the new covenant, and the
firstfruit of the Spirit (Gal. v. 22; 1 Cor.
xiii.). Tholuck sees the expression of self-
renouncing luve — the love of the highest to
the sinful, the love which is more blessed
to give than to receive, the all-embracing
love.
Ver. 85. — By (or, in) this shall all men
know that ye are my disoiples, if ye have
love one toward another. Not by works of
majesty and power, but by love to one another.
All commentators refer to the well-known
saying of St. John at Ephesus, as recorded
by Jerome, " This is the Lord's command-
ment. If ye love one another it is enough "
(Tholuck refers to TertuUian's ' Apol.,' 39;
Minucius Felix, "They love before they
know each other;" and Lncian, "Their
Master makes them believe they are
brothers," • De Mort. Pereg.'). Analogies to
the great law of Christ may be found in the
Law of Moses, in Talmudical writings, in
the Confucian 'Analects,' and in Stoical
maxims ; but this ivroXii in its fulness, and
as sustained by this motive, or inspired by
this pattern, and lifted to this standard, is
neuo to the human race : and it is the power
which has revolutionized thought, society,
and life. So long as this great power pre-
vailed, the Church made astounding pro-
gress ; when the so-called disciples of Christ
began to hate and Idll one another the
progress was arrested. But, thank God,
the " new commandment " has always had
marvellous power over the OburoU of Christ.
Ver. 36— ch. xiv. 4.— (3) The question of
Simon Peter, with the terrible reepanse an
bitter grief of the entire group, followed b
the consoling promise,
Ver. 36. — Here follows another charaote
istic question of Simon Feter, who said
him, Lord, whither goest thoni This 1
quiry points backs to ver. 33, where Jesu
warned his disciples that tliey could no
(&pTi) now follow him. Jesns answered
(liim) (the "him" is omitted by B, O, L,
Vulgate, and Coptic, by Westcott and Hort,
and B.T.), Whither I go, thou canst not
foUow me now (vSv), at this crisis ; but thou
Shalt follow me afterwards. Peter felt that
the central teaching of the entire oonversa*
tion turned upon the Lord's departure and
his separation, not only from the Jews who
misunderstood him, but frum the disciplea
DH. xra. 1— 38.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
197
themBelves. He wanted something more
than the eacred power of love to his own
brethren ; lie yearned after more utter
identification with his Master, rather than
closer interdependence of love and mutual
ministries among the shattered group of
half-tauglit disciples. Whither goest thou ?
If to the battle-field, to the condemned cell,
to the martyr's death, I will go with thee.
" Not now" is the reply, but " afterwards,"
after tliou hast strengthened thy brethren
(see Luke xxii. 32), after thou hast shep-
beiKled my lambs and my sheep, and fed
the sheep themselves with the finest pasture,
then thou shalt come my way. It is very
impressive that, in the beautiful legend that
has been commemorated in the Church of
"Domine, quo vadis?" in Borne, Peter
should at the last have been supposed to
put his personal feelings before his Master's
will. Fleeing from persecution at Rome, he
is said to have met his Lord entering the
city, and, after putting this question, re-
ceived the reply, " ibam ad urbem, iterum
crucifigi." The disciple, after bis wont,
accepted the rebuke, immediately returned
to the city, and "then another bound him,
and led him whither he would not" (ch.
xxi. 18, 19).
Ver. 37. — Peter saith unto him, 'Wb.j
cannot I follow thee even now 1 I will lay
down my life for thy sake. Compare the
language of Thomas (ch. xi. 16), "Let
us go, that we may die with him." Peter
thought himself ready to die for his Lord,
before his Lord had died lor him. He who
had seen the glory of the Transfiguration,
and the majesty of Christ's power, and the
depth of an uttermost love, was ready, as
he thought, for any sacrifice, for the most
complete self-abandonment; but he mis-
calculated his strength of will ami the
tenacity of his purpose. "Quid in animo
ejus esset cupi(£tatis videbat, quid virium
non videbat " (Augustine). St. Paul, long
before St. John made this conversation
known, must have gathered from the known
teaching of Jesus the same sublime subtle
truth, that it is possible to dare a martyr's
death, and yet to be without true love
(1 Cor. xiii. 1, 2, 3).
Ver. 38. — With infinite pathos and pity
Christ took up the words of Peter: Jesus
answereth, WUt thou lay down thy life for
my sakel Verily, verily, I say nnto thee,
The cook shall not have crowed, till thou
hast denied me thrice.' In Matt. xxvi.
31^5 and Mark xiv. 27 — 31 the announce-
ment of Peter's fate is made on the way
to the garden of Gethsemane ; Luke's
account (xxii, 31, etc.) may harmonizo
chronologically with this statement of John ;
but from all we know of Peter, it is probable
that, after his long silence maintained
during the discourse of ch. xiv. — xviL, his
love may have been so quickened and
deepened as to have once more induced the
reiteration of his fidelity and his willingness
to die for and with his Master, only to receive
aguiu a more explicit warning of his weak-
ness. Towards the close of the sixteenth
chapter of this Gospel, the Lord warns all
his disciples of their inability to stand the
tremendous test to which tljey would soon
be exposed. If we reject the " harmony,"
and refui<e to double the preiliction, we
should be strongly inclined, with Meyer and
Lucke, to accept the higher credibility of
John's chronology than that of Matthew or
Mark. The extraordinary character of this
prediction, recorded in all four Gospels, is one
of the most vivid proofs of our Lord's super-
natural power, and in iU detail and dcfi-
nitencss places him among those who claim
attention from their absolute knowledge,
and not their vague guess of the future.
Yet there was no fate in this prediction :
for Peter is afterwards warned, entreated,
prayed for even, by Immanuel.
' 'f^TTOKfivtTat 'Iijtroi/j is preferred by Ti-
schendorf (8th edit.), Westcott and Hort, and
B.T., on the authority of N, A, B, C», L, to
iirenplBTi air^ 6 'inirovs, and ipyii<rri for
imapviiry. ^uK^o-ciof T.B.rests on 0,D, E, H,
L, etc. ; ^aviiffrion K, A, B, C,and a vast num-
ber of other authorities. The latter is adopted
byB.T.,Tischendorf(8thedit.),TregeUeB,etc.
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 1 — 3. — Farewell token of Christ's love to M> disdples. We are now to trace
the development of faith in the body of the disciples, responsive to the supreme mani-
ftistatioDS of his love to them during his earthly ministry.
I. Our Lord's knowledge of his approachino death. " Jesus knowing that his
hour was come." 1. This knowledge was strictly prophetic. It was no mere forecast,
grounded on a calculaiion of the extremeness of Jewish hatred. He had often evaded
arrest, because " his hour was not yet come." 2. It is a solemn thing to know the hour oj
our death. (1) It is not given to man to know it. The uncertainty respecting it enables
man to follow the business of life without distraction, (2) Those who know their end
U kt hand see in death the most important crisis in their being, ending as it does theii
198 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xiii. 1—38
relations with this life, and UBbering the soul into an altogether untried mode of exlst-
eQ3e. For Jesui and for his laints death is a mere transference QuTaPjj) bom one scene
to another.
II. 0(TB Lobd's INOBEASIKO TENDEBKEBB to the DIBCIFLES IK VIEW OP THE FIKAIi
SEPARATION. " Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them to th«
uttermost." 1. The disciples, in spite of their many faults, were the objects of OhrisPs
svpi-eme love. Doubly dear because they were " his own," as given him by the Father.
2. His love was redoubled at the thought of his approaching separation from them. (1)
They were to be left "in the world," and therefore exposed to its temptations and
trials. " In the world ye shall have tribulation." (2) They needed, therefore, a special
manifestation of his affection to support them in their isolation. (3) Jesus forgets his
own near sufferings in the thought of his disciples' bereavement. This fact is a measure
of the intensity of his love to them. (4) The treachery of Judag Iscariot was alreadj
in its inceptive stage. " The devil haying now put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot,
Simon's son, to betray him." (a) The devil has power to inject evil into the hearts of
men. There is great mystery in the methods of his operation, hut the facts of his
influence over men are without dispute among those who believe in Scripture. (6)
Yet the responsibility of Judas for his wicked act was in no degree diminished by this
temptation of Satan. He was perfectly free to resist or to yield to the tempter, (e)
The fact that Jesus washes the feet of Judas, his betrayer, throws a vivid light upon
this last token of Christ's tenderness. (5) The explanation of onr Lord's act. " Jesus
knowing that the Father had put aU things into his hands, and that he was come from
God, and goeth to God." (a) It was because of his Messianic greatness that he now
humbled himsfelf to fulfil the office of the lowest. The sense of absolute sovereignty is
all the more impressive from the thought of his approaching death. He " was crucified
in weakness." The thought of (6) his Divine origin and (c) his Divine destination made
his act all the more impressive, with a force of example that was designed to act irre-
sistibly upon the minds of his disciples through all time.
Vers. 4 — 11. — The washing of the diseipUi feet. This affecting incident occurred
immediately after the controversy among the.disciples as to which of them should be
accounted greatest in the kingdom of heaven (Luke zzii.}.
L Jebus takes the fobm of a sbbyant. He washed the feet of his disciples,
though it had been more their place to wash the feet of their Master. 1. His humility
led him to stoop to the most menial offices in the day of his httmUiation. 2. He has thus
consecrated the most menial duties and offices of life for us, that we should not in onr
pride decline to discharge them. 3. His example does not bind us to do his very act —
for the custom was Oriental in its origin and meaning — but to carry the spirit of his
act into all our relations with brethren.
II. Pbtee's kbfusal to accept the offered. seb VICE. "Lord, dost thou wash my
feet ? " The question originates : 1. In the apostle's humility and reverence, for he
feels that it is an inversion of all proper relations for Jesns to do this service to his
disciples. He felt himself unworthy of our Lord and of his love. 2. In the apostle's
ignorance. He does not understand the symbolic meaning of the act. Therefore our
Lord says, " What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." These
words imply (1) that there is always in our Lord's acts much that we cannot under-
stand; (2) that our want of understanding does not neutralize the efficacy of our
Lord's act ; (3) that the want of understanding specially manifests itself in these acts
of our Lord which affect ourselves ; (4) that our want of knowledge ought not to
shake our faith in him ; (5) that there will come a time of revelation. The " here-
after " may be soon or late, but it will surely come.
III. Separation pbom Chbist is involved in the want of bubbbndeb to rth.
"Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me." 1. There was
a spirit of sdf-wUl in the apostles words. " Thou shalt not wash my feet." Our Lord's
words reprove Peter's opinionativeness. 2. The first condition of true discipleship is
self-surrender. The apostle is too impulsive to await the further knowledge in store
<br him. 3. Yet observe his sudden apprehension of our Lord^s true meaning. " Lord,
not my feet only, but my hands and my head." The revulsion of feeling Ib very oh*-
taeUiiatio of the apostle. He will not hold l»ck any part of hinuelf from a ■hare 1%
HH. xm. 1— 38.] THE GOSPEL AOCORDIITG TO ST. JOHN. 199
Divine blessing, nor decline to be identified with his Lord to the fullest extent 4. Our
Lord's interpretation of his meaning. " He that is washed needeth not save to wash
his feet, but is clean every whit." (1) The apostle's words implied that he was wholly
unclean — head, hands, feet — and every believer must repeat the Bame words. (2)
Christ washes all who have an interest in him. (3) All who have an interest in him
may be regarded as " clean ; " for they are " washed, sanctified, justified, in the Name
of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our Qoi." (4) Yet they all need a daily wash-
ing on account of their repeated acts of sin, just as a traveller needs to wash the staini
of the road off his feet. 6. Ow Lord's insight into Judas. " And ye are clean, but
not all. For he knew who should betray him ; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean."
(1) Jesus did not regard Judas as a justified man. (2) He shows the disciples that he
is not the dupe of the traitor's hypocrisy. (3) Our Lord's words might have warned
Judas of the way upon which he was bent to his own utter undoing.
Vera. 12 — 17. — The explanation of the washing of the disciples' feet. I. The asou-
MENT BY wmoH CUB LoBD ENFORCES THK LESSON OF HIS ACT. " Know ye what I have
done unto you ? Ye call me Master and Lord : and ye say well ; for so I am." Ttie titles
the disciples gave to him have a decisive force. 1. As he is a Teacher, they were hound
to learn in his school vnth all docility and meekness of wisdom. 2. As a Master, they
were bound to give him subfection in aU matters touching the conduct of life.
IL The lesson of his act. " If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your
feet, ye ought also to wash one another's feet." 1. There ought to be mutual conde-
scension and mutual service among brethren. Our Lord utterly opposed the idea of
hierarchical pretensions among them. Those who sought the highest place ought to do
the meanest service. 2. Christ's example, which is always in a way of self-sacrifice,
ought to be regarded as possessing an authoritative force. " For I have given you an
example, that ye should do as I have done unto you." (1) He does not say that we
should do the very thing that he did, but do as he did ; for we are not now bound to wash
one another's feet. The example is in the principle, not in the specific act. (2) The
Boman Catholic Church practically misrepresents our Lord's act by a literal obedience
to our Lord's commands. The pope washes the feet of twelve poor men on the Thurs-
d»y of Passion week, (o) But why should it be done only once in a year? The act
is to be constantly imitated by true disciples. (6) Why should it be done only by
the pope ? It is to be done by all Christians one to another. The act is to be a token
of humility, condescension, love, and patience. 3. The thought of' the Lords dignity
ought to incline his servants to a ready acceptance of his example. " The servant ii not
greater than his Lord." 4. The blessedness of doing as well as knoviing, "If ye know
these things, happy aje ye if ye do them." (1) Our Lord doos not command a blind
ol>edience in his disciples. They ought to understand the principles and grounds of their
action. (2) The knowledge of God's will ought never to be divorced from the sincere
practice of it. (3) Our happiness depends upon the degree in which we correlate our
knowledge and our duty.
Vers. 18 — 20. — The exception to this blessedness of the disciples. The thought of
their blessedness recalls the fact that there was one in their society with whom know-
ledge would not have this happy issue.
I. The tbeaohebt of Judab was as tbt only manifest to Chkist. " I speak
not of you all." 1. Jesus knew the thoughts of Juda£s heart. Q'here was no surprise,
therefore, to Jesus in the treachery that was preparing the way for his death. 2. Judas
was not an object of Christs saving choice. "I know those whom I have chosen."
This cannot refer to disciplesbip — ^for Judas was chosen to office just like the other
acostles — ^but to grace and salvation. 8. The prophetic confirmation of Chrisfs words.
"That the Scripture might be fulfilled. He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his
heel against me." Whether the reference is to David or Jeremiah, the words refer to
the troubles inflicted on the righteous, by the treachery of a false friend. 4. Christ's
foresight of Judas's treachery would (1) in some degree relieve as well as anticipate the
bitterness of disappointment ; (2) lead the disciples to trust in him the more implicitly.
" Now I tell you before it come to pass, that, when it ii come to pass, ye may believe
that I luu he. If he had not mad* thia dedaration, the disciples might h*v« ««M X»
200 THE GOSPEL AOCOBDmO TO ST. JOHN. [oh. zm. 1— 8a
doubt whether his choice of Judas wai consiBtent with his being the Messiah. It ii
here traced to the will of GkxL
II. Thb EIIOOURA0BMBNTB OF THE APOSTLBBHip. " He that receiveth whomgoerer
I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me." 1. Thi
Master's greatness is reflected in the mission of his servants. They are apostles from
him, as he is an Apostle from the Father. 2. 2'A« treachery o/Jtidas, though it might
shake their confidence, covid not annul the dignity of their apostolic office.
Vers. 21 — 30. — J%» dismissed of Judas. The departure of the traitor was necessary
to the full disclosure of all that our Lord had in store for his beloved disciples.
I. Mark the emotion of oub Loed. " He was troubled in spirit." 1. Not on
account of wounded love. 2. Nor from horror at the conduct of Jtidas. 8. Nor from
pity for his approaching doom. 4. But, as the word (ttwC/uo) signifies, from the shod
that was caused by the thought of the fearful crime about to be committed at the instiga-
tion of Satan.
II. Mark oub Lobd's open identification of thb tbaitob. "Verily, verily,
I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me." The statement proved the omni-
science of Jesus. Judas had as yet done nothing to excite suspicion of his treachery.
1. Mark the astonishment and perplexity of the disciples, " Then the disciples looked
one on another, doubting of whom he spake." (1) They doubted their own hearts
rather than the ominous sentence of their Master. There is a remarkable humility
manifested in their attitude, as each asks, " Lord, is it I ? " (2) They never suspected
the guilt of Judas. None of them said, " Lord, is it Judas?" The fact proves the
skilled hypocrisy of the traitor. 2. I%e anxiety of Peter to discover the traitor. (1)
He takes the initiative, with his usual promptitude, suggesting that John should ask
the Lord " who it was of whom he spake." (2) Jesus does not name the traitor, but
silently identifies him by giving him the sop. (a) This act was one more appeal to the
conscience of Judas, (b) Judas received the sop, as if to mark his fellowship with
Jesus ; but it only gave additional point to the ancient prophecy, " Mine own familiar
friend, who did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me." (c) Judas was thus
made known to John only, 3. The traitor opening his heart to Satan. "And after
the sop Satan entered into him." (1) What a mysterious power Satan exercises over
the hearts of sinners I Peter says to Ananias, " Why hath Satan filled thy heart that
thoa shouldest lie to the Holy Ghost?" (2) It is for the sinner himself to determine
whether Satan shall have entry or not. Therefore men ought to " resist the devil " at
his first solicitation. 4. Owr Lord dismisses Judas from his presence. " That thou
doest, do quickly." (1) The resolution had been already formed, and Judas does not
deprecate the issue for himself. (2) Jesus needed the little space ,that remained of his
last night for the instruction of his disciples in farewell duties. 6. The perplexity of
the disciples at owr Lord's cwmmand to Judas. (1) None but John, and probably
Peter, kuew that the traitor had been identified, therefore the words of Jesus were of
doubtful meaning. (2) The disciples imagined that Judas held his old footing as
treasurer, and had received an injunction to provide either for the poor or for the
observance of the Passover, It is remarkable that Judas should have so successfully
concealed his real character and designs from his fellow-disciples. 6. The departure of
Judas. " He then having received the sop went immediately out : and it was night."
(1) Judas bids an eternal farewell to Jesus on the old footing of discipleship. They
never meet again till the hour of our Lord's arrest. (2) The night into which Judas
stepped forth was but • faint figure of the deeper night of • soul into which Satan had
entered.
Vers. 81 — 38. — Sy>aration and its issue. The departure of Judas sets Jesus free to
discourse familiarly with his disciples,
L Thb traitor's departure IB thb BIONAI, for thb BEDEEMEB'B OliORIFIOATIOB.
" Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him." 1. Jesus regards hit
death, now so near, as involving his glorification. (1) The glorification extended over
Girist's whole past life. It lay in Ub voluntary self-abasement, (2) The redemptive
work is regarded as virtually completed (ch. xvii. 4). (3) The Father is glorified by
(he obedience and sufferings of his Son, The sufferings and the glory were closely
OH. xra. 1—38.] THB GOSPEL ACOOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. 801
linked together (1 Pet. i. 11). (i) The Son will ba glorified by the Father In hturm,
as he himself glorified the Father on earth.
II. The apfboachino sepabation op Jesub feom his disciflks. " LittI* children,
yet a Uttle while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews,
Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you." 1. The language is that of detp
affection and solicitude. He sympathizes with the disciples in their coining bereavement.
They are soon to be orphans. 2. The disciples would experience a longing to rejoin
him after the separation which was now at hand. 3. They were not yet ready tofoUow
him. (1) The search of the disciples would not be finally in vain. " I will receife you
unto myself ; that where I am, there ye may be also " (ch. xiv. 3). He does not say
to his disciples what he said to the Jews, " And ye shall not find me." (2) They had
a task to accomplish. "A new commandment I give unto you. That ye love one
another." (a) The period of bis absence was to he a season of spiritual growth. Love
to one another, with the mutual sacrifices involved in it, would be the realization of his
presence among them. (6) The commandment of love was new in its scope and motive,
though love was always the principle of the Decalogue. It was new, (a) as it was
enjoined afrer a new model — " even as I have loved you ; " (fl) as it was love to
brethren — to " the new creation ; " (7) as it arose out of a new necessity — " By this
shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." This
love was to be a badge of discipleship. The world would thus understand the true
meaning of Christianity.
III. Peter's anxiett to know oub Lobd's destination, and his baokenebb to
DIB with him. " Lord, whither goest thou?" 1. Hie question marks the disciple'*
loving regard for his Master, from whom he would not be separated in life or in death.
2. Yet it suggests that his mind was occupied with the idea of his Lord's establishment
of a temporal kingdom. Where was he going? Was not Jerusalem to be tlie centre
of the coming kingdom? ■'•'. The answer ^ Jesus declares the separation to he inevitable,
hut only temporary. " Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now ; but thou shalt
fullow me afterwards." (1) The death of Christ was necessary to Peter's entrance into
heaven. (2) Peter, besides, had an apostolic ministry of great moment to fulfil. 4.
Peten't determination to follow his Master to death. " Lord, why cannot I follow thee
now ? I will lay down my life for thy sake." (1) He evidently thought that Jesus
was about to die, and that his death was in some way to contribute to the establishment
of his kingdom. (2) He thinks that ho can lay down his life for Christ before Christ
lays down his life for him. He came afterwards to know that the two deaths must
follow a different order (ch. xxi. 18, 19). (3) He does not dream that his faith might
fail in the supreme crisis of his Lord's tiial. 5. Oar hordes prediction of Peter's fall.
" The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice." (1) Our Lord does not
doubt the sincerity of his disciple, but his spiritual strength and steadfastness. The
best of men do not know their own strength till it is tesied by temptation. (2) Our
Lord rebukes the^over-confidence of his disciple. None are so near a fall aa those who
are so confident of their standing. " Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest
he fall." (3) Our Lord's prediction had such an overwhelming effect upon Peter that
he did not utter another word during all the following discourses.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS
Yer. 1. — Ohrisfs constancy of love. If there is any time when a man's attention is
presumed to be necessarily and properly directed to himself, that time is the time when
danger is present and when death approaches. But when our Saviour's hour was come,
when the shadow of the cross fell athwart his path, he seems to have been signally
unselfish in all his actions, and disinterested in his very thoughts. Humiliation,
suffering, and death were immediately before him ; but it is beautiful, instructive,
encouraging to see how warmly his heart beat for his friends, and how anxious he was
to use the closing days of his ministry for their spiritual profit. These words reveal to
us Christ's constancy of love.
I. Its objects. Whom did he love, and love unto the end ? 1. They were " hii
own," i.e. those who were called and chosen by him, who were loved and purchased by
SOS THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [<m. xm. 1—38.
him. His own poiBeBsion and property, his own spiritual kin, these friends of Jeiui
were attached and devoted to him, conformed to his character, participators in his
spirit. 2. They were " in the world." This expression is significant, as implying that
Christ's disciples were the objects of his affection, notwithstanding that they were
eucompassed by life's difficulties and temptations, notwithstanding that in their character
they bore traces of this world's influences and assaults. 3. The language used is
at)|ilicable to others beside the immediate disciples of our Lord. He felt towards others
and prayed for others (ch. xvii.) as he felt towards the twelve and prayed for them.
All are " his own " who truly trust and love and obey him ; and all his own have an
interest in his purposes of pity and of grace.
n. Its wokdeb. Marvellous indeed is it that the affection of Jesus should outlast
the many trials to which it was put by his disciples, to which it has been put by all of
us. There was very much in his followers which was fitted to check, to kill, tb« love
of Jesui.
" Could we bear irom one another
What he daily bears from us ?
Tet this glorious Friend and Brother
Loves UB, though we treat him thu* !
Though for good we render ill.
He accounts us brethren still."
** Hil own" were : 1. Slow to understand his teaching. 2. Slow to appreciate hi* natnre
and his mission. 3. Unworthy in their character of his fellowship and his Name. 4.
Inconstant, as was shown by their afterwards forsaking him in the depth of bis distress
and humiliation. Amazing was the love which endured when so tried I Amazing is
the love which we and all Christ's people have experienced from him, notwithstanding
our unfaithfulness and coldness I
III. Its motive and explanation. 1. The constancy of our Saviour's affection is
not attributable to any qualities in his disciples, which could deserve and retain his
interest and attachment. So far as we are concerned, our need, our dependence upon
him, are all that have to be taken into account. If Jesus were not faithful to us,
where would be our strength, our safety, our hope ? 2. For the explanation 'of this mar-
vellous constancy we must look to Christ's own character, to his faithful, unchanging
nature^ free from every caprice, from every unkindness. It is his nature to love, and to
love without fickleness or weariness.
IV. Its pboofs. 1. In the lessons he taught. Christ's was a love that first and
chiefly contemplated the highest good of its objects. His aim has ever been the spiritual
welfare of those whom he befriends. He teachfs (1) by words ; (2) by symbols, as in
the context, where, first by washing the disciples' feet, and then by instituting the
Lord's Supper, he evinces his affectionate interest in his disciples' well-being by
imparting to them pictorial and sacramental lessons which were intended to perpetuate
to all generations the memory and the blessing of his unchanging love. 2. In the
sufferings and death to which he was about to submit. Only constant, unchanging
friendship could account for our Lord's willingness to lay down his life for his own.
And no one who studies this record can doubt that the sacrifice was willing and
cheerful ; that our Lord, the good Shepherd, " laid down his lile for the sheep."
V. Its duration. " To the end," says John the evangelist, who had good reason to
knuw the Master well. To the approaching end of his own earthly ministry and life,
and to the end of his disciples' period of probation and of education. Christ's love ia
" faithful, free, and knows no end." It is not only mighty ; it is immortal. — ^T.
Ver. 3. — Chrisfs conseiousntss ofTtia mission. The occasion upon which our Saviour
W said by his friend and apostle John to have had a vivid consciousness of his mission is
deserving of attention. It was just before his Passion, in the upper room where he was
about, by act and language, to inculcate great lessons upon his disciples, and whence
he was to take his way to Gethsemane and Calvary. In such circumstances the
confidence of a human leader might well have wavered, and his purposes might well
have faltered. But Jesus could look forward to what he was about to endure with a
touching equanimity, because he knew whence he bad come, whither h» waa going,
what wa* the nature and authority of his mission.
m. xm. 1—88.] THE GOSPEL ACOOEDmG TO ST. JOHN. 203
I. Chbist's ooNBOionsNBSS OF HIS OBianr. He was aware : L Of his Divine nature.
2. Of his Divine mission. 3. Of his Divine qualifications.
II. Christ's oonboiousness of his departube and destination. He knew that
he was not going into annihiUition, into oblivion ; that he was not to fail in bis work,
though he was to die in its execution. 1. His departure was to secure the accomplish-
ment of Ood's will. 2. And the achievement of man's redemption, which wa^i the
special purpose of the Father. 3. And the manifestation of the Father's acceptance.
He went to God to be received as God's beloved Son ; and he was raised from the dead,
and taken to heaven, that it might be evident to all the world that the Father approved
his work.
III. Christ's consoiousnbss of his universal authority. 1. In the hour of his
lufTering and humiliation he knew full well that his hands were all-comprehending
and all-powerful, that all power was given to him in heaven aud on earth, that his was
a supreme and universal sway. 2. He knew, too, that his power should be exercised for
the salvation of his people. They should scatter and flee, but he should rally them.
He was to be their High Fries't, and at the same time their Ring.
Aftlication. Learn : 1. The security of those who trust in One so wise and so
mighty. 2. The strength of those ^ho work for such a Master. 3. The hope which
is before those who seek and wait for his salvation. 4. The encouragement which all
who need his countenance and help are at liberty to take from him. — T.
Ver. 13. — MattersMp and sul^ection. Equality amongst men is the dream of fanatics.
It is true that men should by law have equal rights. But the Creator has not bestowed
equal gifts or powers of body or of mind, and no human laws can equalize men's con-
dition, their possessions, or their enjoyments. And in all society there must be
authority and subordiaation ; some must rule, and some obey. So is it in the spiritual
kingdom of our Lord.
I. The claiu of Christ. 1. What it it. (1) Jesus claims to be the authoritative
Teacher, the Master of his people and of mankind. He reveals and communicates the
truth of God to men. He bids us learn of him. (2) He claims to be the Lord who
rules. His authority is not merely over men's beliefs ; it is over their actions. He
issues laws, and requires homage and obedience. In both these respects Christ is
unrivalled and supreme. " One is your Master." 2. On what it rests. (1) On grounds
of native right. The Deity of our Lord's Person, the Divinity of his attributes, his
appointment by the Father, give him a right to teach and to govern his people. (2)
On grounds of moral fitness. His wisdom and insight are such that none is so qualified
to instruct ; his moral authority is such that the conscience bows before him as before
none other. (3) Christ's claim rests upon tenderer grounds — upon his love toward his
people. What he has done and suffered for us is proof of his disinterested affection,
and gives his claim to our devotion an efficacy quite unique.
II. His people's acknowledgment op Christ's olaiu. 1. The character of this
acknowledgment. It is sincere and practical ; opposed to resistance and rebellion, and
eqtially opposed to pretence and hypocrisy. The repudiation of the rebel, the enemy,
and the pretence and dissimulation of the hypocrite, are alike detestable to Christ.
t. The methods of this acknowledgment. Practical submission to Jesus means the
studying and reception of his doctrines, and obediunce to his commands. Tet there
are certain definite ways in which we may recognize Christ's lordship, e.g. by honour-
ing his holy Name, and by discountenancing and rebuking profanity ; and again by
devoutly observing his ordnance, concerning which he said, " Do this in remembrance
of me." 3. The advantages of this acknowledgment. It tends (1) to the improvement
of the individual Christian character ; (2) to the unity of the Church, which needs to
think less of human leaders and more of the Divine Head ; and (3) to the illumination
and conversion of the world. On these accounts they " say well " who sincerely
recognize Christ's just demands upon them, and prove their sincerity by their docility
and their obedience. — T.
Ver. 14. — Humility and mutiud service. There are certain virtues which are dis-
tinctively Christian. Amongst these must certainly be reckoned humility. Chris-
tianity has done not a little to elevate this grace of character to a higher position than
aM THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xm. 1—38.
it occu^ed in the esteem of the ancients. The Old Testament, in some passages, extols
lowliness of heart as acceptable to the iligh and Lofty One. Tet this can hardly be
deemed a characteristic of even pious Hebrews. But by his example and by his pre-
cepts our Saviour has done much to encourage and develop among his followers in
every position of life this admirable grace. And in proportion to the prevalence of
humility is the disposition to render mutual services. As men forget themselves, they
remember others ; as they relinquish claims upon their fellow-men, they recognize
claims upon themselves for services to be rendered.
L Thb hindbanceb to hdmilitt. Christ would not have been at snch pains to
inculcate this lesson unless there was danger of its remaining unlearned. The fact
that he upon a solemn occasion, a crisis in his ministry, deigned to wash his disciples'
feet, with no end in view except the inculcation of lowliness and self-forgetting help-
fulness, proves that in his view there was urgent need for such instruction. N^o one
who knows human nature can doubt that the lesson is hard to learn. There are dis-
positions deeply rooted in man's sinful character which are altogether opposed to that
Ikumility which our Lord enjoins upon his disciples. Especially ig pride, or a high
opinion of self, an obstacle to be dealt with. There is also selfishness, or the disposi-
tion to concentrate all interest and all effort upon personal enjoyment and enrichment.
On the other hand, there is a tendency in human nature to disregard others in propor-
tion as self is magnified. The proud and selfish man is likely to be indifferent to the
welfare of his neighbours, to be indisposed to undertake any labour, or submit to any
self-denial, with a view to their good. This spirit may degenerate into a positive
hatred especially of any who may have been injurious. Such basenesses as malice, envy,
and jealousy may thus enter into and defile the soul.
IL The natitre of humilitt. What is the disposition and habit of mind which
our Lord thought it so needful to impress upon his disciples as essential to true
discipleship? What is the example which he set them for their imitation? As we
examine the narrative in connection with our Lord's conversation, we find that the
character and conduct here commended have two aspects. 1. With regard to self, the
Christian is called upon to cherish meekness and lowliness. If our Divine Lord did not
disdain to minister to his friends, if he did not deem it derogatory to act as a servant,
his followers may well lay aside those sentiments of vanity and self-importance which
are so ruinous to a noble character. If men would but think of their own infirmities
and imperfections, of their dependence upon their fellow-men, and above all of their obli-
gations to their Creator and Eedeemer, it would not be so hard to abase self. 2. With
regard to others, the Christian should cultivate the habit of consideration and sympathy.
What beauty and force is there in the apostolic admonition to hole upon the things of
others I Some are " all eyes " for their own interest, but very blind to the concerns of
their neighbours. Christianity is not unreasonable. Comte bids men "live for others,"
as if regard to self were sinful. But Christ bids us " love our neighbour as ourself ; "
and the welfare of mankind will be best secured by compliance with this twofold
admonition.
m. The PEAonoAi, hanttebtations of humility. Looking at these in the light
of the context, we may say that true Christ-like lowliness will be displayed in : 1. Ser-
vices of social courtesy. There may, indeed, be superficial politeness without Christian
humility. But the danger with many is lest there should be a foolish and proud blunt-
ness of manner in intercourse with others. There have been those who have deemed
it a duty literally to copy the Lord's example by washing the feet of the poor ; sove-
reigns, ministers of state, and popes have endeavoured by such acts to atone for much
pride and haughtiness. The form of Christian courtesy will be determined by the
manners and customs of the age. Acts which are natural and beautiful, in one country
and one state of society may become forced and grotesque in another. It is tlje spirit
which is all-important ; this will reveal itself in forms suitable and appropriate to cir-
cumstances. 2. Services of mutual help. The washing of the feet was regarded as
necessary to comfort and propriety ; it was, therefore, a real service. No doubt there is
a difference of magnitude in the benefits conferred by members of human society upon
one another. And there is a difference of kind. But every day brings some oppor-
tunity of rendering service of some kind or other to those with whom we associate;
the Christian, so nr as he follows his Master, will take advantage of snch opportunities.
m. XDL 1—38.] THE QOSPBL ACCORDING TO BT, JOHN. 206
Pride, indeed, will counsel thus : " Let others serre yon ; it is beneatli your dignity to
minister to them." Humility will offer very different advice : " Bear ye one another's
burdens, and bo fulfil the Law of Christ."
ly. The uotive to uuuilitt. There are doubtless many motives ; but one is bo
supreme as to leave scarcely any room for any other, i.e. in the Christian's heart. The
example of the Lord Jesus is to him all-powerful, all-persuasive. This is so when we
think : 1. Of Christ's native greatness, and of his voluntary humiliation in his incar-
itation and advent. 2. Of Ghrisi^s whole conduct during his earthly ministry, which,
as recorded, affords so many instances of condescension, compassion, and loving-kindness.
He took the form of a servant, and he lived the life of a servaut. 3. Of Christ's
obedience unto the death of the cross, in which he " tasted death for every man." If
the Lord of glory deigned to die for men, it is scarcely possible for any disciple of
Christ to render service to his fellow-mea which shall fairly express the devotion to the
Master and the consecration to his service which he has a right to expect. It is in
Christ that the Christian finds the motive and the model of unselfishness, humility,
and Iienevolent service. -
V. The beward of humilitt. 1. Peace of conscience is one happy consequence of
this disposition and habit. Pride is the cause of restlessness and of wretchedness. But
the meek and lowly spirit finds true and lasting rest. 2. Honour and exaltation by
Ood himself. He abases the proud; he exalts the lowly and meek. He that bumbleth
himself shall be exalted. Before honour is humility. — ^T.
Ter. 16. — The supreme txamph. Imitation is a principle of human nature. It is
natural, and therefore the means by which a great part of our knowledge and many of
our habits are acquired. It is universal, prevailing in all ranks and conditions of
society. It is powerful, moulding character, and controlling and directing life. It is
ultimate, not to be expltuned, but to be accepted upon its own authority. Upon this
princide human life develops itself ; upon this principle education for the most part
proceeds. This principle is manifested in religion ; Christianity makes special use of
it, and Christ is the Model and Exemplar of all his people.
I. The ohabacteristics ih vibtue of which Cubist is am Example to men.
1. He was foultlessly perfect. Although the Bible gives us many examples of virtue
and piety, it has often been noticed that both in Old and New Testament Scripture
human character is represented as imperfect. In Christ alone no sin was found. His
friends can find no words warm enough to praise him ; his enemies can find no faults
with which to charge him. How Qtted, then, is Jesus, our Redeemer, to be also our
Model I If we are to have a model and a master, let us choose the highest and the
best. Christ always towers above us, and above all his rivals and all his followers. 2.
His example is singularly comprehensive. It must have occurred to the student of
Scripture biography that human exemplars are usually quoted as illustrating one or
a few excellences ; Abraham of faith. Job of patience, Jacob of earnestness in prayer,
Moses of wisdom and meekness, Joshua of courage, David of devotion, Daniel of fear-
lessness, Peter of fervour, Paul of zeal, Joha of love. In Christ, and in Christ alone,
all goodness is conjoined. It is sometimes supposed that our Saviour exemplified only
the softer and milder virtues; but this was not so, although for wise reasons this aspect
of his character is dwelt upon most fondly by the evangelists. There was in him
Divine harmony and symmetry of character, such as can be found in none beside. 3.
His example was divinely authoritative. We base this statement upon his own
language : " Learn of me," " Follow me," etc. And upon apostolic teaching : " Walk
even as Christ walked," " Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example," eto.
II. The bebpectb in which Christ is an Example to men. There are respects
in which we cannot imitate him. For example, in his superhuman knowledge and
power, and consequently in his voluntary humiliation. 1. But we may imitate the
Lord Christ in his consecration to his Father's will. He came to do the will of him
who sent him, and he pleased not himself. This same principle and law it is open for
us to adopt; Ufe may oe to us high and holy, being devoted unto Qod. 2. In his
pelsonal purity. Jesus lived in a sinful world, and mixed freely with anful men ; yet
he was unspotted by the contact. His goodness was i>ot negative only, but positive ;
•very virtua wm perfected in his life. Can ordinary men, in the busy life of thu
206 THE GOSl'EL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xiii. 1— 3<«
workaday world, be imitators of Christ ? There are abundant illustrations of the poiisi-
bility ; the example of Jesus is one which it is practicable to follow. 3. Especially in
his humility and condescension. This is the virtue to which in this passage express
allusion is made. The lesson which the Lord wished to convey was a hard one ; accord-
ingly he taught it, not simply by precept, but by example. A literal fulfilment is not
expected, but the spirit of Christ's example may be truly shared. 4. In his benevo-
lence. In the Saviour was not only a kindly disposition, but a habit of active benefi-
cence, a readiness to forgive injuries, and to deal patiently and forbearingly with the
.slow of heart and the un sympathizing. In these very difficult virtues there is room
for Christ's disciples to imitate their Lord.
The wo)k of copying the perfect model is to be a progressive work. It will not
be completed here; and this fact points on to the future. The perfect conformity is to
be attained in heaven, where we shall be like him ; for we shall see him as he is. — T.
Yer. 17. — The hlessednest of inteHigent obedience. Our Lord Jesus taught, practised,
and commanded. His teaching was perfectly true and wise ; Ins conduct was perfectly
good and right ; his directions were perfectly just and authoritative. His instructions
were sometimes verbal, sometimes by example, and sometimes symbolical. Christ
taught the lesson of humility not only by words, but in his whole demeanour and
conduct; nor was this all, for he illustrated his lesson, now by setting a little child in
the midst of his disciples as an example, and again by washing the feet of his apostles.
Many were the means he used to impress this and other lessons of moral excellence
upon his disciples. But he always insisted that true discipleship was not in an intel-
lectual acquaintance with his teaching, but in a cheerful compliance with his will. As
Lord of all, he sought to bring the whole nature under his control ; and as their Master
and Lord, he assured them with authority that their true welfare lay in their not only
knowing, but in their doing, his commandments.
I, Enowledoe. Man is made to know. It is his privilege and prerogative to
exercise his understanding and reason. Truth is within man's reach — not all truth,
but certainly such as is most necessary for his well-being. Of all knowledge, none is so
valuable as the knowledge of God in Christ. The highest truth is presented in our
Lord's life, his deeds and words, his sufferings and glory. He is the one great Lesson
for mankind to study and to learn. The twelve had abundant means of knowing
Christ, of becoming acquainted with his character and his will. But through our pos-
session of the New Testament we have sufficient opportunities of learning Christ. In
order that our knowledge may be complete, as far as our position allows, we must study
the Saviour and his revelation of himself, his declaration of his will, with reverence
and meekness, with faith and prayer.
II. Practice. Our nature is not only intellectual ; it is also active. Our life is not
one of pure contemplation ; it is eminently practical. Knowledge without correspond-
ing conduct is vain, is even worse than ignorance. It is like steam which is generated
in the boiler, but which is not brought to bear as motive po\\ er upon an engine. It is
like the blossom which in itself is beautiful, but which is followed by no fruit. Those
who believe that there is a revelation should receive it. 'i'hose who are convinced that
Christ is the Son of God should live by faith in him. Those who are persuaded that
Christ's law is the highest standard of morality should obey that law and conform to
that standard. Those who believe that there is a future life, and that they are account-
able to a righteous Judije, should prepare for judgment and for immortality. Know-
ledge without corresponding conduct is seen to be useless in every department of life ;
how reprehensible must it be in religion I A young man may study law through a
long series of years, and under the superintendence of able practitioners ; of what avail
is hiff knowledge if, when the time comes for him to act for himself, he cannot draw
a deed in chambers, or construct a defence for a client in court ? The pupil of an
engineer may have a good knowledge of mathematics, may be able to make accurate
drawings of other men's work ; but is his theoretical ability of service to him in
practice? That is the important question ; for no one will employ a man to build a
bridge, or to bore a tunnel, unless he has shown himself capable of carryinj; out such
works. A cadet may pass the preliminary examinations, may study the art of fortifi-
cation, the laws of projectiles, the tactics adopted by famous generals in historical
OH. Mil. 1—38.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 2(W
campaigns ; but all this is preparatory to actual warfare, and he will have studied to
good purpose only if, when the time comes, when some unexpected responsibility falls
upon him, he is able to lead a force or to defend a city. In like manner young peopla
are taught tbe Scriptures, are made familiar with the doctrines, the principles, the laws
of Christianity. 'J'o what end? Surely with the intention that they may not merely
call Jesus Master and Lord, but that they may do the things which he bids.
III. Blessedness. It is wrong to make happiness the one great end of life. Yet
happiness is a merciful addition to life — an ornament and a recompense appointed by a
benevolent Providence. It is remarkable how often the Lord Jesus pronourjced those
happy who shared his character and obeyed his will The pursuit and acquirement of
knowledge are attended with happiness; but the truest hap|iiness is the fruit of
obedience. 1. This appears from the consideration that those who know and do Christ's
will employ all their powers in true harmony. The capacity for knowledge and the
faculty for action in such a case work together towards an end, and such co-operation
he who made our nature has designed to be productive of a tranquil joy. " This man,"
says James, speaking of the doer of the work, " shall be happy in his doing." 2. They
who know and do Christ's will are happy, because they have a good conscience. If a
man feels and says, " I know that I ought to follow such a lino of conduct, but I confess
that I do not carry out my convictions," how can he have peace ? The conviction and
reproof of the inward monitor will not let him rest. On the other hand, when there is
no schism between knowledge and practice, the voice of conscience speaks approval,
and such approbation is blessedness indeed. 3. Obedience as the fruit of knowledge is
accepted and commended by the Lord Christ. His approving smile rests upon his true
and loyal disciple and servant, who takes up his cross, when so summoned, and follows
his Lord. Hereafter the blessedness shall be perfect, for Christ shall say to the faithful
servant, " Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." — T.
Ver. 21. — A disciple and yet a traitor. In how many passages of the gospel narra-
tive is there a revelation of the truly human heart of our Lord Jesus ! Again and again
he was grieved, troubled, indijinant ; for he was a partaker of our nature and of our
sinless feelings. It is observable that most instances of our Lord's deep feeling were
occasions upon which others had, by their conduct, displeased or disappointed him.
He was bitterly distressed by the unbelief and unfaithfulness of those whose welfare he
sought. No wonder that, amidst the complication of sufferings which closed around
him as his Passion approached, the treachery of Judas pained his tender and sensitive
heart.
I. DisoiPLESHiP MAKES TREAOHEEY POSSIDLB. It was Sad cnough for Jesus to know
that, among those to whom he ministered, there were many who were incredulous as to
his teaching and claims, and hostile to his plans. " He came to his own, and his own
received him not." But it was sadder that, in the circle of his chosen and trusted com-
panions, there should be those who, whilst professing allegiance and attachment, were
in heart estranged from him, and were ready, when opportunity should offer, to desert
and to betray him. And it nmst be remembered that, although there were enemies
without, traitors could only arise from within. An open foe one knows how to treat ;
one may evade or overcome. But a secret foe, in the court, in the camp, in the house-
hold, is far more dangerous. He has, by reason of the confidence with which he is
treated, opportunities of injuring a leader, a cause, which no other can use. If all men
were either avowed foes or sincere friends of Christ, thei e would be no danger, for there
would be no possibility of treachery. Judas knew the place and the time for finding
the Master unprotected ; and the open enemies of Jesus made use of the knowledge
of his professed friend, who led them to the garden, pointed out the object of their
hostility, and betrayed the Son of man with a kiss.
II. DiSCIPLESHIP MAKES TKEAOHKRY DOUBLY BLAMABLB. For : 1. The disciple
knows the Master, and accordingly knows his excellences and his just claim to
reverei.ce and fidelity. There were those among our Lord's enemies who wronged him,
not knowing what they did. They had no real perception of his goodness and the
Divine beauty of his character. Since they knew nothing against Jesus, they were
grievously to blame for the p;irt they took against him. Still they did not sin against
clear, full daylight. But Judas was in constant association with his Lord, and knew
208 THE GOSPEL AOCORDINO TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xm. 1—88.
how .perfectly Jesus merited the wannest attachment and devotion. Yet he hetrayed
him whom he should have honoured and defended ; and on this account his guilt was
greater. It may be said of many who have been trained in the Christian Church, who
hnve enjoyed many opportunities of studying Christ's character, and who yet have
deserted and calumniated their Lord, that their sin is without cloak. They knew how
holy and how compassionate was the Saviour against whom they spoke and acted, and
theirs is the greater sin. 2. The disciple has been graciously treated by the Master,
and this fact aggravates the guilt of him who, having been so treated, proves traitor.
Judas was admitted to the Saviour's intimacy, was even promoted to an office o(
trust, was permitted to provide for Jesus' wants, and to administer Jesus' charity ;
yet he betrayed the Lord who had so exalted him. How many are there who, as
disciples, have listened to Christ's words, eaten at his table, companied with his
friends, yet, in the hour of temptation, have fallen, and have betrayed the dear Lord,
wliose kindness should have been with them as a sacred amulet to preserve them from
defection I
Pbactical lkssons. 1. Let the history of Jndas remind us of human infirmity and
liability to sin. 2. Let the tempted remember that Christ's knowledge of his people
is complete. 'Whilst he knows the hypocrisy of the false, he knows the danger of the
sincere and true friend. 3. Let every disciple hold last to the Saviour, for in his
fellowship only is safety. The peril lies in consorting with Christ's foes, in entering
into any complicity with such, in even hearkening to their plans. Better to be in the
garden with Christ than in the council-house with Christ's foes. — ^T.
Ver. 23. — The intimate friend of Jesus. In mentioning himself in this indirect
manner, our Lord's beloved disciple displays his modesty, and at the same time gratifies
his attached devotion to his Master. The friendship which existed between Jesus and
John has been [jroductive of some obvious and signal advantages to the Church and to
mankind at large.
I. This fbiendship was the means by which there has been pbovided for
us A MEMOIR OF ChEIST DI8T1NODI8HED BY A BEMABEABLB CONGENIALITY BETWEEN
THE BiOGBAPHBB AND HIS DiviNB SuBjE(7r. If the first three Gospels contain the
popular tradition concerning Jesus, the Fourth Gospel records the imiire-sions received
during an association of the closest character, lasting throughout our Lord's public
ministry. It is to this fact that we owe the record of conversations and discourses not
{Mreserved by the other evangelists, and more particularly of our Lord's wonderful reve-
lations, promises, and prayers preceding his betrayal and crucifixion. The difference,
which cannot but be noticed by every reader as distinguishing John's Gospel from the
others, must be mainly attributable to John's peculiar opportunities of knowing Christ,
and to that congeniality of spirit which enabled him to limn a portrait of his Friend
in outlines so clear, in colours so true.
II. To THIS FBIENDSHIP WE OWE DOOUMltNTS PECULIAELY STEEPED IN THE SPIRIT
OF Chbist's oharacteb and example. No one can study John's three Epistles and
the Book of Revelation without recognizing, in the compositions of their author, the
influence of the Redeemer's companionship and teaching. Not only did John (the
eagle of the Christian symbolists) soar into the heavenly, the spiritual world, and dis-
cern the Deity and the eternal glory of his Master ; he also, by association with him in
his humanity and his humiliation, so shared his spirit, that we seem, in reading some
of John's words, almost to be reading the words of Jesus himself. Especially is this
apparent in the constant inculcation in the First Epistle of the incomparable virtue of
CSuistiaa love.
III. The fhiendship between the Master and his disciple affobds ns ah
insight into the very heart or Christ. Our Lord's perfect humanity is here
brought very strikingly before us. There are several intimations of Christ's capacity
for human love He loved the young ruler who appealed to him for spiritual direction ;
he loved the family at Bethany ; and he loved the disciple who was wont to recline
upon his breast at their social meals. John's was not only the place of distinction and
honour ; it was the place of affection. We delight to remark our Lord's perfect partici-
pation in our human nature, with its sympathies, its tenderness, its personal affectiona.
Ji?°iifi appreciated the noble, ardent, affectionate nature of the son of Zehedee ; and ht
dk. tin. 1—88.] THE GOSPEL AOCOBDINOt TO ST. JOBtN.
appreciated still more the growth and completeness of his own Divine image in the
character of John. All this makes our Saviour more real and more dear to his aimiring
people.
IV. The fkiendship bbtweb!n oub Lord and his beloved disciple is an encoub-
AQEMENT TO SEEK A CLOSE AND AFFECTIONATE INTIMACY WITH THE llEDEEMEB. 'J'hcre
is nothing on Christ's siHe to preclude the possibiliiy at preseut of such a friendship as
that recorded to have existed during his earthly ministry. The conditions of hallowed
fellowship with Jesus are such as all Christians should aspire to fulfil. "Ye are my
friends," said our Lord, " if ye do whatsoever things I command you." There is no
caprice, no favouritism, in our Lord's intimacies. The reverent, the lowly, the obedient,
are encouraged to aspire to his precious friendship. His love of compassion is towards
us all ; that love may become towards any disciple; who does his will and seeks his
Spirit — a love of complacency, sympathy, and delight. — ^T.
Vers. 34, 35. — MtUual love. Upon our Saviour's departure from the world, he
made provision for the perpetuity of his work upon earth and among men. This he
did by constituting a society of living persons, who were to be united together by
bonds of peculiar strength. The ties which the Lord intended to knit his people
together were three, and " a threefold cord is not quickly broken." Faith in Christ, love
to one another, and benevolent effort for the world's salvation, — these were the three
"notes" of Christian discipleship, the three elements by which the Church was to be
cemented into a true unity. Of these the Saviour, in this passage, lays stress upon the
second.
I. Mutual love is the commandment of Christ. 1. Who are they of whom
this mutual love is required? 'J^he admonition here is not to general philanthropy,
but to affection towards brethren in the spiritual family. Notwithstanding social
differences, notwithstanding diverse tastes and habits, Christians are bound together
by ties stronger than all forces which disunite. U. What kind of love is this which
the Saviour here enjoins? It is a disposition contrary to that old nature which
displays itself in coldness, suspicion, malice, and envy. It is a disposition which
reveals itself in good will, confidence, and mutual helpfulness. 3. Is it leasonable for
love to be commanded f Must not love ever be spontaneous and free? The answer
to this question is that Christian love may be cultivated by the use of means appointed
by Divine wisdom. 4. In what sense is this a new commandment? Not absolutely;
for the Old Testament enjoins mutual kindhness and benevolence. But it is new as a
law of Christ for the government of society at large, new in its range and scope, new
ill its spiritual sanction and its Divine prototype.
II. Mutual love is motived by and is modelled upon Christ's love for his
people. 1. The motive. It is observable here, as elsewhere, that our Lord refers all
duty and virtue to himself. To the Christian, Jesus is the Master in all conduct, the
spiritual Power that accounts for the renewed character in all its phases. He loved
us with a love in which he identifies his people with himself. We may show our
devotion to him by loving his peOple as himself 2. The model. Christ alone is the
perfect Example ; he loved his people with a constant, patient, and forbearing love ; with
a love active, practical, and self-sacrificing. As he loved us, so he expects us to love
one another.
III. Mutual love is a proof of Christian discipleship. This is the test which
the Master himself has chosen. 1. It is a proof to the Christian himself. " We know
that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren." 2. It is a proof
recognized by fellow -Christians. Love is a means of recognition ; it is the language
which tells that we have met a fellow-countryman. It is a claim for sympathy, a
summons to resfKinsive kindness. 3. It is an argument which tends to convince the
world. The exhibition of mutual love was, as is evident from the well-known passage
in TertuUian, early recognized as distinguishing Christians from the unbelieving world.
It was felt that Christianity was a new and beneficent power in human society.
" Your Master made you all brethn n I " Such wag the exclamation forced from the
beholder. Often as this ideal has beeu unrealized, still its life and force have not
departed, and Christianity must now be acknowledged as the' one only moral power
which can change hatred into lovn, and warfare into amity. — T.
lOHB. — n. f
210 THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xni. 1—38
Ver. 37. — Promptness in following Jesus. There was a reasun why Peter could not
follow Jesus then. He could not lay down his life for Christ until Christ had laid down
his life for him. Peter did sincerely aspire to obedience and consecration. But much
was necessary before he should be able to realize his aspirations. He must needs learn
his own weakness, and prove the strength and grace of his Lord. When these lessons
had becD learned, he was ready enough to take up his cross and to follow the Master,
even unto death.
I. This question beveals a just conception op the religious life. 1. It
consists in personal relation, as is apparent from the use of the terms "I" and "thee."
In order to a right course, it is necessary to understand and to feel that the individual
soul has to be brought into conscious and immediate contact with Christ Jesus. The
experience of the Apostle Paul may be quoted as exemplifying this : " He loved me, and
gave himself for me." If Jesus be the Son of God and the Saviour of mankind, as a
personal and living Benefactor, he must be approached in spirit and by faith by every
one who would know his power and feel his love. 2. It consists in following Christ.
We must confide in Him, admire and love him, in order that we may follow him. By
"following him" — an expression frequent in the New Testament — ^is to be understood
imitating his example and doing his will. Such conduct is the proof of the reality of
the personal relationship presumed. It is not a simple act, but a constant habit, that
is intended by this phrase. To follow a guide, a man must follow him in every stage
of the journey, until the end is reached. So is it with the Christian's relation to his
Lord. It may be that to follow Christ will involve the taking up of his cross, sharing
his persecution, perhaps even hi« death. This Peter learned in after-years. But the
question for Chri>-t's disciple is not — Whither will this resolve lead me? but rather —
Am 1 in the way of obedience ? in the footsteps of my Lord ?
II. This question implies the immediate claim of belioion. "Even now" —
such is the language of Peter's ardent s|iirit. The summons of God is to prompt,
unhesitating obedience : " Seek ye the Lord while he may be found." The possibility
of blessing is assured upon compliance with the requirement of immediate application :
" Now is the accepted time." The promise is to those who give heed without delay :
" To-day if ye will hear his voice." It may be urged upon the young that theirs is
the period of life in which it is wise to resolve upon the path of earth's pilgrimage.
It may be urged upon the old that the present is almost the only time left for them to
obey the voice of Heaven. Some for the first time hear the truth with conviction of
the understanding, with emotion of the heart ; let such take advantage of this new
enlightenment and enthusiasm, lest the unheeded voice of conscience be hushed.
Others have often acknowledged the justice of the Divine claim, but have hardened
themselves against it by worldliness and sin; let such remember that now may be
their last opportunity, and beware lest it pass away and leave them unblessed.
III. This question suggests the consideration of the reasons why hearers
OF the gospel do not follow Jesus even now. Of course there are many who
have no disposition to seek what is good ; but even amongst such as do not deny the
claims of Christ, and are not indifferent to those claims, there are to be found some
who do not arise and undertake the Christian pilgrimage. This may be explained in
one of two ways. 1. On the part of sooib there is unwillingness to give up the
service of sin. The emoluments or the pleasures of sin may have a stronger attraction
for them than the voice of Divine love counteracts. Not insensible to the nobility and
blessedness of a religious life, they yet suffer themselves to be drawn into what they
know is an inferior path, by the fascinations of carnal joys, of sinful sucioiy, of worldly
interest. There may be in their minds a hope that at some future time, when these
attractions have lost much of their power, another course may be taken, a better part
be chosen. 2. On the part of others there is a habit of indecision and procrastination.
A want of depth of nature, a disinclination for serious deliberation, a w< ak suscepti-
bility to various disiractiong, or a habitual fickleness, prevent some from following
Christ, in following whom they would be acting in coulornjity with their highest con-
victions and with the impulses of tlieir belter nature. They are far from denying the
truth, from deliberately rejecting the Saviour, from wilfully despising their opportu-
aitiei, from ridiculing the offers of the gospel ; yet they are so. foolish as to put off a
practical acknowledgment of the claims of Christ until " a more convenient season."
OH. xin. 1—38.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 8T. JOUN 2H
IV. This question suggests reasons why all men should follow Jesus etbn
NOW. 1. They may. The invitations of the Word of God are many and plain and
persuasive. What words were more frequent and empliatic on the lips of Jesus than
such as these : " Come unto me 1 " " Follow me I " 2. They can. Christ does not call
men, and then withhold the grace which is needed to obey the call. The help of the
Holy Spirit is necessary, and that help is graciously bestowed. 3. They ought.
Obedience to the voice which speaks from heaven, to the voice which speaks within, to
duty, to conscience, to God, requires us all to follow Jesus "even now.' — T.
Ver. 1. — Jesus loving to the end. Notice —
I. The special knowledge of Christ. This was the knowledge respecting his
death. Its speciality lies, not in his knowing the fact that he would die, but in certain
circumstances connected with it, the knowledge of which was calculated to pain and
liscourage him. 1. He knew the time of his dea,th. This is wisely hid from us; but
he knew the hour and the minute. 2. He knew that the time of his di-afh had already
come. " Knew that his hour was come," etc. Comparatively speaking, he was already
within the deadly hour, and had only a few minutes between him and the last conflict.
3. He knew the awful circumstances of his death. He knew that it would be by
crucifixion, with all its physical torture, public shame, and insult. Earth and hell
competed in making his death as painful and ignominious as possible, and his physical
sufferings were but a faint shadow of his mental and spiritual, which could only be
known to and fully realized by himself. He acted through life in the full knowledge
of these, which would naturally paralyze his actions and dry the springs of his energy.
4. But in his knowledge there were some alleviating features. (1) He knew that his
death would involve his escape from an evil and hostile world. He had lived in it now
about thirty-three years. He had spent a quiet youth, and the greatest portion of his
manhood seemed to have been peaceful and happy; but the last three years he had
borne the heat and burden of the day, and experienced the most hostile opposition of
the world which he had come to benefit. He knew that his death would involve his
escape from this, which in itself would doubtless be a relief. (2) He knew that his death
would be only a change of state, and nut an extinction of existence, nor a cessation of
life. He speaks of it, not as an extinction or expulsion, or even a flight, but a
departure. The commotion, extinction, and hurry were only outward; in the inner
regions there was only a quiet walk into other scenes. (3) He knew that his death
would involve his going home. We can well imagine this world, even to a wicked
man, becoming so disagreeable as to make death comparatively sweet. A leap is
delightful, even in the dark ; but Jesus knew absolutely whither he was going — that he
was going to a happy and to a loving Father. It is sweet to come home from eveiy-
where, even from the brightest scenes and the most delightful society ; but sweeter
still to go home from a hostile country and a rough voyage. This was what Jesus was
conscious of now. To him death was a felt gain ami a royal exchange — a hostile world
for a happy home, the most cruel treatment for the bosom of an indulgent Father, and
the wild execrations of the mad throng for the sweet music of golden harps. (4) He
knew that his death would involve the greatest benefit to the world. Its cruelty could
only be surpassed by the invaluable spiritual blessings which shall ever flow from it.
11. The special love of Jesus. " Having loved his own." 1. The special objects
of his love. " His own." The world was his own — it was made by him, and now he
had becorne its tenant. The inhabitants of the world were his own— he had created
lliem in his image; and what sad impressions were his as he saw on every hand the
Divine image marred and disregarded I The Jewish nation were his own, but they
disowned and rejected him. But his disciples were specially his own. (1) By special
love. All material objects, the earth, planets, moon, stars, and sun, are the children of
■ his power and wisdom. But his disciples were the children of his care and mercy, the
produce and property of his love. (2) By his Father's gift. They were given to him
to redeem, save, and perfect. (3) By purchase. They were bought with a price ; the
price was paid — he laid down his life for them. (4) By mutual choice. He choss
them, and they voluntarily chose him. They were his willing slaves. He had loved
them so much as to bind them to himself and engage their faith, obedience, and lenricei
'^6) They were hie absolutely and for ever. Nothing could separate them from him
:il2 THE GOSPEL ACCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. t™. mi. 1—38
Qe would dispenee with all his property rather than this. They were specially his
own and the objects of hia Bpecial love. 2. Some of the special features of his luve.
Bis love to his disciples must be somewhat distinguished from his love to the world.
(1) It is the love of relationship. He was their Saviour, and they the saved. He was
their King, and they liis loyal subjects. He was their great Benefactor, and they hig
grateful dependents. They were his brethren, and he their elder Brother. There was
a family feeling. (2) Love of complacency. He could faintly see in them his image
and that of his Father. He could hear the music of heaven in their voices, and detect
the language of Paradise in their conversation. (3) The love of value. The esteem
of property according to its value. These disciples, although few and poor, were to him
ii)fiuitoly valuable. An inliuite price had been paid for them, and infinite benefits
vroiild result from the purchase m relation to the grand purposes of his love. They
were his jewels, the seed with which to sow his land, the handful of com on the tops
of the mountains, the foundation-stones of the Church, the twelve gates of the heavenly
city, and the furniture with which Jesus commenced his life on earth. (4) Love
excited by trouble and opposition. " His own which were in the world." The world
was hostile to and hated them, and the more they were hated and opposed by the world
the more they were loved and befriended by Jesus. 3. The perfection of his love.
" Unto the end." (1) Perfect in nature. Pure, disinterested, and self-sacrificing. (2)
Perfect in degree. It was human in manifestation, but Divine in quality and quantity.
His love, as indicated by the sacrifice, was iofinite and full to overflowing — an ocean
without a bottom or shore. The sacrifice of his love was infinite, its care most tender
and watchful, its protection most powerful and safe, and its supplies most benevolent
and free. He loved them to the uttermost. (3) Perfect in constancy and duratum.
" Unto the end." Many circumstances cause human love to flag, (a) Un worthiness
in its oiijects. But this had no effect upon the love of Jesus. His disciples were weak
and imperfect; one of them denied him, and all left him in the hour of trial; but he
remained faithful to them, (b) The trouble of the parties — of the lover and the objects
of his love. But this had no disparaging effects upon the love of Jesus. The trouble
of his disciples increased his love for them, and it was intensified by his own. Indeed, on
account of his love for them he was crucified. He knew beforehand that his death would
be most cruel; still, this kaowledge, so far from causing his love to fiag, made it most
heroic, and to blaze with increasing brilliancy through the gloom, (c) Separation of
the parties. With human love, it is often " out of sight out of mind." But separation
brought Jesus nearer to his disciples than before. The arms of his love embraced them
through death, and be carried them away in his heart. He could not go home all the
way without sending back two white-robed messengers to direct and comfort them.
The distance between heaven and earth only made them nearer. 4. Hie elevation of
one of the parties. The chief butler of Pharaoh forgnt Joseph after being restored to
royal favour. But this was far from being the case with Jesus. He was exalted to the
highest position and glory, but forgot not bis earthly friends. He ascended, in fact, to
receive gifts for them, and, faithful to his promise and punctual to the minute, sent back
to them his Holy Spirit, the greatest Gift of his love, and the Executor of his purjiose in
them. Amidst the music and happiness of heaven he will not cease to love his friends
till their faith is complete and their character perfect.
Lessons. Contemplation of the love of Christ should inspire his disciples : 1. With
the prqfoundest gratitude to Mm. 2. With the most devoted and sdf-sacrifieing con-
secration to his Person and service. 3. With the most humble bat implicit ^confidence
in their salvation through him. Such love must secure every needful grace, ultimate
perfection of character, and full and eternal felicity. — B. T.
Vers. 21 — 80. — Jesus and the traitor. I. A bgvebs tboublk. 1. The trouble of
Jesus. He was troubled in spirit. This was no ordinary trouble, but it was imique
in its circumstances, cause, and painfuluess. He was troubled in the highest regions
of his nature. (1) Because he was about to be betrayed. The betrayal in itself was
painful. Its )>ersonal and general results are not taken into account here, but the black
deed in itself, apart from the perpetrator. (2) Because he was ahout to be betrayed by
one of hia Htdplea. " Ote of you shall betray me." It is Aot a foe or a distant
aoqiuuntaiic*, but oae of his nearest and dearest friends. " Oce of you." Thi* mad*
Ota. tin. 1-58.] THE GOSPEL ACC!OBDlN(i TO ST. JOflN. «1*
the edge of the betrayal all the keener, and its poison peculiarly loathsome and deadly.
(3) Because he was ahout to he betrayed hy one whom he had done all in his power to
reclaim. He had given him warning after warning, but gave it in such a general way
as not to cause suspicion to point to him and cause him to lose his self-respect. He
waa not exposed, and was not excluded from the society— he was treated with the
same kindness as the rest, and perhaps with more. His indignant objection to the
anointing of Jesus was not explained, but left to pass with the remark which was
addressed to all the disciples, " Let her alone." The betraying disciple s feet had just
been washed by the Wndly hand of the Master. AU that atfectionato and Dmne love
could do to avert the calamity had been done, but to no effect. (4) Because of the
awful consequences of the deed to the betrayer himself. Keen as Jesus felt it in his own
soul, as severe as it affected him, we venture to say that he tit more, after all, for the
traitor himself. He who could weep for a wicked city could not contemplate the self-
ruin of even this wicked and inexcusable man without experiencing groaning which
could not be uttered. He could not bear to lose anything, and the loss of even the
"son of perdition" gave him a most severe pang of anguish. The betrayal, as it
affected himself, was not so painful to him as its terrible effects on the traitor himself.
(5) All this plunged him in the greatest trouble. The betrayal wounded his very spirit,
and the betraying kiss was to him more agonizing than the piercing of the sharpest nails
or that of the most pointed spears. It was the trouble of a wounded spirit, and that
spurit was pure benevolence. It was the trouble of being betrayed by a professed near
friend — the trouble of insulted, checkered, and wounded love ; trouble arising from
the terrible doom of an old disciple, a trusted ofBcial, the treasurer of the_ society.
2. 2%e trouble of the disciples. (Ver. 22.) They were in doubt, perplexity, and
bewilderment. In faot,'they were in trouble similar to that of Jesus, only theirs was
as a drop compared to the ocean. (1) Theirs was the trouble of conscious innocence.
(2) The trouble of conscious weakness. (3) The trouble of personal sympathy.
II. An AwruL kbvblation. The personality of the betrayer was revealed. 1. This
revelation was made in consequence of a request. (Vers. 24, 25.) (1) This request
was direct. "Lord, who is it?" Each had asked before, "Lord, is it I?" The
charge assumed a general form, and the inquiry was made in a general and indirect
way. But now the question is put directly, " Who is it ? " " Who is the betrayer ? "
(2) It was reasonable. The charge, as it had been several times made, was general,
and it might apply to any of the twelve — to loving Jolin, or honest Peter, or to any of
the group. Now they could stand it no longer ; they request a definite information al
any cost, and it was quite reasonable. This is admitted by the revelation of Jesus.
(3) It was timely. The disciple^ were ready for it. Jesus was ready. The awful
secret troubled his spirit, and struggled for publicity. He could scarcely keep it any
longer. The betrayer was ready. He was ripe for revelation, and, if it was delayed
much longer, he would have revealed himself by performing the terrible deed. 2. The
revelation was made by a sign, "He it is to whom I shall give a sop when," etc.
We can well imagine all the disciples, save one, looking at their Lord with bated breath,
and watching every look and movement of his with beating hearts; but there was one there
keeping his countenance better than any of the rest, and more himself than one of them,
and amid the silent but stirring excitement Jesus gave the sop to Judas, the son of
SimoUj etc. (1) The traitor was revealed in a most considerate and tender manner.
By a sign, and privately. Judas could not know that anything referred to him unless
his ^ilty conscience made him suspicious. (2) He was revealed by an act of kindness.
" It is he to whom I shall give the sop," etc. The sign was an act of kindness. What
was a revelation of a foul traitor to the disciples was a deed of love to the traitor him-
self. One would think that he would be pointed out in a voice of thunder and in looks
of lightning, This would be manlike ; but as Jesus was God-like, Jesus was kind to
Judas to the last. He was determined to the utmost to bluck up his course with kind-
ness, and that no act of his could furnisli him with the faintest shadow of excuse for
his foul deed. This was the last kindness of Jesus to Judas, but would not be the last
if he had the least chance. (3) The participation of this kindness led to rsfovd entrance.
" After the sop Satan entered into him." Jesus only could see this. He could sea
that dark form by Judas's side, waitin.; for admission ; he had been there a long time
fanning the temptation and ript^ning the dread resolve and preparing the place. Th*
214 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 87. JOHN. [oh. xm. 1— 3&
hypocritical participation of Jesus' kindness completed the necessary preparations, and
he entered and took full possession. What Jesus did to stop his entrance cleared the
way for him to enter. Satan entered, and Jesus was left out, and the last sop of lore
was introductory to the final possession of the demon of hatred and avarice. 3, The
revelation was made directly and publicly to the betrayer. " What thou doest," etc.,
implies : (1) The present actitality of the deed. It was inwardly dune, therefore actually
done to Jesus, as confirmed thoughts are deeds to him. It was too late to repent, he
had gone too far to retreat ; the demon of treachery was on the throne, Satan was in hit
soul, and his soul was in the bag. (2) The mysterious utility of a speedy execution.
" Do quickly." Once an act is a read thought and resolve, execution is an advantage.
It was better for Judas, because the sooner he faced the inevitable the better. Where
there is a spiritual conception, birth cannot be too soon ; sin is better out than in.
There is a ventilation, and any remaining good has a better chance for development.
If you are going to hell, the sooner the better you arrive. Better for Jesus. Delay to him
was painful once it was an actuality. Better for all concerned. To a certain point he
retarded a wicked deed, but when that point was reached he hastened it. (3) The
readiness of Jesus. The traitor might think that he was taken unawares and unpre-
pared, but he was mistaken. Jesus was ready^ far readier for his fate than Judas was.
So ready was he for it that he advises or commands speed. " Do quickly." He bails
it with confidence, if not with satisfaction. The guilty deed of Judas fitted in with the
eternal purposes of God and the mission of Jesus better than he would think. Jesus
can say to every schemer of evil, every sinning designer of harm, "That thou doest,
do quickly." He is ready whenever they are. There is no evil without good ; the
good will not come till the evil is complete, for good the sooner the better. 4. ITie
relation of the traitor was not fully understood by the disciples.
III. A SAD DBPABTUBB. (Vcr. 30.) 1. The departure of an old disciple from the
kindest of Masters and from his only Saviour. He could have really no cause for this,
the reason was entirely in himself. In Jesus he hail every reason for continued attach-
ment and love, but he went out immediately, and walked with feet newly washed by
the hands of that Master he was now deserting, and with strength invigorated by his
kindness. 2. It was the departure of an old dinciple for the vilest purpose — to betray
his Master, and sell him to his foes for the meanest consideration. 3. It was the
departure of an old disciple, never to return again. It was hia last farewell to a loving
Saviour, He came to him again, not as a disciple, but as a traitor. He was leaving
for the last time, not to buy provisions for the feast, but to sen his Master to his
enemies. 4. It was the speedy departure of an old disciple immediately. Judas was
now ready for the deed; tlie command of Christ was timely, and it was echoed in
Judas's soul. He was ripe for tho dark deed. Thepresenoe of Jesus was now painful
to him, and it was a relief to depart. Once Satan gets full control of the reins, he is
a furious driver ; once the rapids of the Niagara are reached, the velocity is increasingly
swift, and the terrible falls are soon reached. 5. It was the departure of an old disciplefor
a terrible doom. " He went out." And whither? The answer is in the foul controlling
spirit witliin ; once that spirit had full possession of his soul, he would soon lead him
to his own place. John significantly adds, " And it was night." Night seems to be in
harmony with the dark deed. Wiien it reached its climax on Calvary, the day was so
out of sympathy with it that it turned into night. But it was now niglit. There could
scarcely be any stars in the sky, as they had fled from the tnacherous act, and if there
were, they would have welcomed a cloud as a veil. But the darkest night was within
and before the poor traitor's soul. He left the day, and the last ray of the Sun of
Righteousness was extinguished before the entrance of the prince of darkness. And with
regard to his dark deed, his sad condition, his precipitated departure, and his terrible
doom, volumes could not say more than the incidental but significant sentence of the
evangelist, " And it was night."
Lessons. 1. The most terrible fall is a fall from Christ, and the saddest departnre
is the departure of an old disciple from the Saviour. 2. Thin is a terrible possibility as
instanced by Judas. Whatever he fell from, he fell from being a disciple to be a
betrayer, from being a treasurer of the Christian society to be the traitor of his Lord.
3. The higher the position th'. gr&tter is the danger and the greater is the responsibility.
Only an apostle could fall so terribly as Judas. 4. This case is highly ealculat'ed t*
tearJi the professed foBotMTt t^ Jitus humility, watchfulness, and godly fear. — B. T.
fiH. XIII. 1—38.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST. JOHN. 216
Vers. 34, 35. — Thenew ttmimandmmt. I. In its impost. 1. Ttat the dimpUa of
Christ should love one another. " That ye love one another." (1) Man must be a
disciple of Christ ere he can come under this law nf Christian lote. He must be a
Christian disciple ere he can exercise Christian love towards another, and ere he can
lawfully expect it from another towards him. This command was given by Christ to
his disciples, and as such they were expected to obey it. It is true that Christians are
to love mankind generally, and even their enemies, but not in the same way and degree
as they are to love one another as the disciples of Christ. What is commanded here is
Christian love. (2) This love is to be mutual. It is the duty of all, the duty of each
disciple to love his fellow-disciple, and the equal duty of that fellow-disciple to love him.
It is a universal duty of the Christian school and brotherhood, and there is no exception.
If a man is a disciple of Christ, this command is binding on him. 2. That the disciples
of Christ are to love one another as Christ loued them. " As I have loved you." In
order to know the full import of this command, we must know what Christ's love to his
disciples was. (1) It was great and self-soKrificing. To know the fountain, look at the
stream. To know the love of Christ, look at it in its gift, sacrifices, and miracles.
The gifts of his love were princely, the exploits of his love were miraculous, and the
sacrifice of his luve was infinite. He loved his disciples more than himself. " He
made himself of no reputation." To understand and imitate the love of Christ to some
extent, his disciples' love must be great and self-sacrificing. They must love one
another more than themselves. (2) His love was purely unselfish. He loved his
disciples while pour and unworthy. The motives of his love were derived from himself,
and not from them. He loved them in their weakness, errors, and backtilidings, and
his love was strongest when they least deserved it. One of them betrayed him, but he
loved him still. Another denied him, and he loved him all the more. One stemly
and stupidly disbelieved his identity and resurrection, and he suffered him to put his
fingers into the prints of the nails. What but love the most unselfish would do this ?
So the disciples are to love one another. We are to help the weakest, succour the most
needy, and love a brother, not on account of what he has, but what he is — a fellow-
disciple. (3) His love to them was practical ; it was not a mere profession or senti-
ment, but reality; it was perfect love. Love is not peifect till it appears in action.
It is but seed in principle, but ripe fruit in action. Christ's love was active. It walked
in his feet, spoke in his tongue, worked in his hands. The hands of his love washed
his disciples' feet, the feet of his love walked about doing good, the eyes of his love wept
tears of compassion with the two sisters at their brother's grave, and the voice of his
love summoned him back to life. The care of his love asked, " Children, have ye any
meat?" Every impulse of his kindly heart was manifested in a corresponding deed
or word of kindness. His disciples' love to one another should be practical. Love,
like faith, without works is dead. (4) His love to them was devoted and constant.
(Ver. 1.) Like the sun, he shone upon them all, but with -more constancy, as his love
was never under a cloud, and never set, but shone full-orbed to the last, and shines
still. His disciples' love should be devoted, constant, and unchangeable.
II. In its impobtanob and obligation. It is important and obligatory : 1. Am H
is the natural law of spiritual life in Christ. This is love. It naturally arises from
their relationship to him and to each other. This relationship is the nearest, dearest, and
most sacred and lasting, and from each of these considerations love is the essential law,
and the essential law is specially binding and important. Not to observe it is a contra-
diction of our real relationship to Jesus and to each other. It is a universally acknow-
ledged law — the higher and nearer our relationship, the greater is our obligation to love
and succour each other. If so, how great is this obligation with regard to the disciples
of Christ I 2. As the specially expressed wUl of Jesus. Expressed in a positive form and
in a most solemn command, given at a most solemn hour, on the eve of his departure
from them, under the shadow of death and the stroke of enmity, he gave the command
of love, and his express will is in perfect harmony with the law of spiritual life in him,
which is supreme love to one another. The voice of the law within is echoed by the
voice of the lawgiver without, " That ye love one another." 3. As it is renewed and
revived by the life and death of Christ. On this account it is properly called a new com-
mandment. (TL) New in its complete expression. The first and the old edition was pub.
lished on Sinai through Moses, but the new was published by Christ on his way to Calvary
21« THE GOStEL AOCORDlNa tO St. JOHN. [oh. xin. 1-3*
He had given fragmentH and hints of it berore to his disciples during his ministry, but
the full edition is given them now in solemn command. (2) New in its perfect example.
The odd example was solf-love: "Love thy neighbour as thyself j" but the new and
perfect example is the love of Christ. He loved them more than himself. This exampla
was wrought out towards them ; it was not merely within their observation, but within
their experience and consciousness. They were the immediate objects of his love.
" As I loved you." Not, " As I loved the wcirld at large, or your forefathers, but you
personally and individually ;" and he gave himself as a Sacrifice for them, as a match-
leas and perfect Example of self-sacrificing and unselfish love. (3) New in its inspiring
motives — motives arising from their ultimate relationship to Christ, from his matchless
love towards them, and their indebtedness to him in consequence. Christ loved them
in order that they should love one another. In order to teach and inspire them to this,
and in his life and death, he threw a new life and force to the command of love, that it
was the experience of his followers afterwards, " The love of Christ constraineth us."
The command of love was getting old and withered amid the thunders and lightnings
of Sinai and the formality of the former dispensation, but it assumed a new life and
vigour in Gethsemane and on Calvary. What can inspire love so well as love itself ?
and what love so potent and inspiring as the pure and self-sacrificing love of Christ to
us ? This makes the command really new and original to him, and, as a motive power,
is exhaustless and irresistible. 4. As it is the outuiard sign of Christian discipleship.
" By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."
(1) By this we can he and knoiv ourselves that we are his disciples. Brotherly love is
set forth in the New Testament as a test of discipleship— of love to God and transition
from death to life. " We know that we have passed from death unto life," etc, " If
a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother," etc. Thus you see that brotherly love
is a test-point, and on it depends the momentous issues whether we love Christ, and
- have passed from death into life or not. (2) By this can others know that we are his
disciples. It is not only an inward proof to Christians themselves of their condition,
but also an outward proof to others. Different classes of people are distinguished by
different outward marks. The soldiers of different countries and their various regiments
are known by their uniform. The public schools of antiquity had their public signs
by which they were known. The Pharisees and Sadducees had their distinguishmg
phylacteries and ceremonies, and various kingdoms have their coats of arms. But Jesus
of Naxareth chose as '' the coat of arms " of his disciples " love to one another." " By this
shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." Not if
ye have this or that dress, not if ye have wealth or learning, not if ye have a long face,
or a groaning tone, or a pious whine ; but if ye have love one to another. A man may
possess many good qualities without being a disciple of Christ. A man cannot be a
disciple of Christ without studiously respecting the laws of morality ; but a man may
be moral in the popular acceptation of the term without being a disciple of Christ.
There are moral infidels, moral atheists, moral worldlings, and even the devil himself
can appear very decent and proper and assume the garb of an angel of light. He can
even believe, tremble, and profess ; but he cannot love, because the essence of his nature
is malice, envy, hatred, and revenge. Jesus chose as the sign of Christian discipleship
a thmi, which the devil and his followers can never do, never wish to do, viz. love.
They can imitate anything, but cannot love. If we wish to be known as the disciples of
(Jhrist, we must be distinguished by that which distinguished him, viz. love for others.
If we wish to impress others that we are under his tuition, we must wear the badge of
our Teacher and the insignia of his school. " By this shall all men know," etc. By this
they have been known in every age and country. The followers of the Lamb, as set
forth in the 13ook of Bevelation, had their Father's Name written on their foreheads ;
and this was brotherly love, for God's Name cannot be written with anything but
love, for God is love. In primitive times their affection for each other was so intense
and conspicuous that the persecuting pagans exclaimed with astonishment, " See how
these Christians love one another I " What a convenient sign of Christian discipleship
is this in every age and under every circumstance ? When Christians were most cruelly
hated and persecuted, then the truth of their religion and their union with Christ wera
most clearly seen by others. If they could not meet to worship, to commemorate his
tova, and sing his praise, they could love hi m and love one another ; they could wave tbii
OH. xuL 1-^38.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDINO TO ST. JOHN. 21?
flag from the blazing faggots, and embrace and kiss each other in the flames. " By this
shall all men know," etc. It is all-important, not merely that we should realize
our Christian discipleship, but that others should know it, that they may be taught to
respect and obey our laws ; and the most efficient way to commuQicate this knowledge
to them is by loving each other as he loved us. Thus the most charming feature of
the Master will be ever seen in his disciples. — B. T.
Vers. 3 — 5. — A last act of love. It must not be supposed that the act of Jesus hero
was a purely symbolic act, an act useless in itself. Probably Jesus and his disciples tiiul
been walking about most of the day, and the washing of the feet would be very grateful
to tired and sandalled wayfarers. Jesus was rendering a real service, however slight a
one. Before they went out of the room, Jesus had to have much very earnest talk with
them, and it was just as well for them to be comfortable while they were listening.
I. An expression of love. John puts this first in the narrative. Those whose feet
Jesus washed were not comparative strangers. Jesus loved them simply as human
beings, knowing sin, suffering, and sorrow. But beyond all this was the added love
coming from many days of close companionship. And now the very last day had come.
To-morrow the Shepherd will be smitten, and the sheep scattered, Soon, very soon,
according to the flesh, he would cease to know these disciples. They were to stop in
the world and do his work. Years of toil, anxiety, and suffering were yet before them.
But Jesus was going to the Faiher. A few more hours, and he would suffer his last
pain, know his last trial. We can easily imagine how, in years long after, and in lands
far distant, when some of these apostles had finished a weary day of walking for Chiisl's
sake, and had got their travel-stained feet washed, their thoughts would go back to
that last night, recollecting how the Master went from one to another in the little
company, washing their feet, and looking in their faces with his own unutterable look
of affection and interest.
II. An expression of steadfastness in love. Jesus was just on the point of
stepping from humiliation to glory, just about to cast aside the veil of his flesh, and
appear in all his heavenly splendour; but it made not the least difference in his gentle,
unaffected way of treating his disciples. We reckon it one of the greatest things to be
said in praise of any one who has risen in the world, that he remains just the same sort
of man, not made proud by being lifted up. The washing was a kind of intimation that
Jesus looked on himself as being a Minister as much as ever. They were servants to
him, but he was Minister to them ; they did his work, and he supplied the needs that
made them fit for the work. He who in the flesh was ever at the beck and call of needy
men and women, is at their beck and call still. His power to help is greater, but his
willingness cannot be greater.
III. A PEACTICAL ASSERTION FROM JeSOS THAT MEN CANNOT DO WITHOUT HIM.
Not only does he minister, but he must minister. Peter thought Jesus was not doing
a fitting act. But it is perilous work criticizing what Jesus does. How should we
find out, all at once, on the first glance, the full aim of any act of his ? Jesus knows
what he can do for us, what he ought to do for us, and what we, in all humility and
obedience, ought to accept from him. If Jesus comes not to minister, what need is
there for him to come at all ? Jesus must cleanse every human being as far as he needs
to be cleansed.
rV. The great exemplabt aim in this act. It is plain that Jesus recollected
whi t disputings the disciples had among themselves as to which should be greatest ;
and just at this moment, when it is beginning to be settled conclusively that Jesus is
far above them, he tries to show by his own example that the spirit of ministry is a
part of real greatness. Distinction does not make happiness. God means all of us to
be as happy as we can be. Jesus came to minister to us, in order that we might
minister to others, and if we are not ministering lovingly, diligently, joyfully, then
that is a proof that the ministry of Jesus himself has not yet b^u truly accepted by
as.— Y.
Ver. 13. — The Lordship ofJesut. L Oub bebehblamoh to thk dI80ifle8 in using
the name. These men called Jesus " Lord," and were known as his helpers and agents.
As long as Jesus remained in the flesh there was no difficulty in looking upon him m
218 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xni. 1—38
Master. All their doings had been sufficiently easy, consisting, as they did, for th«
most part, of outward actions. But in due season the visible Master became the invisible,
and one by one the first servants also died away and went into the invisible. Thus
generation has succeeded generation, ever getting further and further from those first
days when the visible Master stood among his servants, appointing their tasks. But
we have not yet lost the habit of using the Master-name. We also say, " Lord," and
Jesus might well ask what we mean by using the name. Is it to be a mere title of
honour, with the recollections of power and duty that first caused it to be given emptied
out of it ? Or is there a real mastery and a real service still ? We cannot say, " Lord,
Lord ! " too often, if the sayinc helps in serving and in bringing others to serve.
II. It may be we resemble the disciples in using the Masier-name without knowing
from a deep experience what it is truly to have Jbscs for Master. Empty
compliments do Jesus no good, any more than mere names of abuse do him harm.
The first disciples did not become the true servants of Jesus just because of what they
did for him in the days of his flesh. Only when Jesus bad passed through all those
experiences which put him at God's right hand did his discipli-a really comprehend
what Jesus wants from men, and what men can do and are bound to do for Jesus. The
Lordship of Jesus is a spiritual thing, and has to be spiritually discerned. This is
emphatically a matter in which none of us is to be taken on his bar- word. We are
not the servants of Jesus because we say we are or think we are. The service truly
acceptable to him does not lie in a quantity of talking or even of doing. With Jesus,
quality goes before quantity, and where there is quality, quantity never fails. Character
. and inward life, — these constitute the richest service to Jesus. Jesus expects every one
of us to do much for him, but it is by heing much. Jesus does want our service, our
best, fullest, heartiest service, and he will not leave us in any doubt as to whether we
are doing just what he wants. No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the
Holy Ghost, and where the Holy Ghost is there must be true service.
III. The service is one ookditioned by que present life. We are here in tke
flesh. Our fellow-creatures in need can see us, but they cannot see Jesus. We are to
furnish bodies through which the spiritual Jesus can bless mankind. We are evea
to do greater works than Jesus did in the days of his flesh. Preaching the gospel oi
spiritual salvation and renewal to sinners, with demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
is a far greater work than the resurrection of Lazarus. This makes our obligation, our
privilege, and our abundant o|]portunity. As long as there are sinners in the world
there will be no lack of opportunities for serving the Lord Jesus. We have each to
find our own opportunity. Doing what lies nearest us is our wisdom. Because it lies
nearest us we are more responsible for it than any one else. We serve as the lighted
lamp serves, and it is not expected to give light to those a mile away.— T.
Ver. 17. — The happiness of Christian activity. L Once more Jesus proves hib
desire for human happiness. This is amply prored by his putting the thought of
human happiness in the forefront of his teaching in the sermon on the mount. There
he evidently made it his business to show men, in a way not to be misunderstood, that
human happiness is not a mere subordinate result of Christiauity, a something that
may be present or absent. Human happiness is an essential part of Christiauity. If
Christ is not making his people happy, increasingly and exuberautly happy, there is
something wrong in their connection with him. For this is just one of the aims of
Jesus, to take away misery and dulness and ennui, and put happiness in their place.
II. There is no happiness in mere knowledge. There may be a great deal of
pleasure in the acquiring of it, but it is quite possible that so much time may have
been spent in acquiring knowledge that other things may have been neglected. We
may very easily shut ourselves up from our fellow-creatures, and lose many an oppor-
tunity of doing good that would have made us far happier than any pleasure of tht,
mere intellect.
III. We must take care that we do really understand what Jesus wants
m TO DO. His words are not as maps of the country through which we have to travel ;
they are rather finger-posts showing the direction. Each finger-post sends you on to
another. The words of Jesus are meant to secure within us a certain inward spirit ; if
that be Mcnrod *hit nroper outward actions will follow as a natural consequence. W«
CH. xiT. 1— 31.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN,
219
have not yet comprehended one Tery importaDt warning to Christian disciples unless
we have been made to feel, from reading the Gospels, how easy it is to misunderstand
Jesus. His most importaut words, his most significant deeds, were to be meditated
over, seen in their position as parts of the living whole of truth.
IV. Thbeb is no happiness in mbeb doing. To leave the right thins undone, and
to do the wrong thing, equally lead to misery. Increase of activity, unless the right
principles and methods underlie it, only means increase of mischief and misery. We
must not be deceived by mere external activity. There may be a great deal of real
doing — doing such as Jesus counts doing, where there is little to show men. The
right spirit must pervade and suffuse the doing, and it can only pervade and Buffuse
w Li at is right in itselfl — Y,
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTEB XIV.
Ver. 1. — It is not necessary to follow
Codcx D and some of the versions, and
here introduce into the text Kal cZttci' tois
HaBriTois aiiTov. It is enough that the
awful warning to Peter, wliioh followed the
announcement of the treaciiery of Judas and
hie departure, the solemnity of the Lord, and
the clear announcement of his approaching
death, had fallen like a thunderbolt into
their company. Judas held the bag, and
was their treasurer, their hriaxoTros (see
Hatch's 'Bampt. Lect.'), and a referee on
all practical subjects and details. He had
turned against the Lord; and now their
spokesman, their rock of strength, their
most prominent and their boldest brother,
the senior of the group, and with one ex-
ception the disciple most beloved and trusted
by the Master, was actually warned against
the most deadly sin — nay, more, a course of
conduct is predicted of him enough to
scatter them all to the four winds. Is it
possible to exaggerate the consternation
and distraction, the shrieks of fear, the
bitter sobs of reckless grief, tiiat convulsed
the upper chamber? In the agony of
despair, and amid the awful pause that
followed the outburst of their confusion and
grief, words fell Upon their ears which
Luther described as "the best and most
consoling si riuons that the Lord Christ
delivered on earth," " a treasure and jewel
not to be purciiasid with the woiM'a
goods." Hcngstenberg has argued at length
that the opening words of the chapter do
not point to tliis scene of deep dejection,
but to the conversation recorded in Luke
xiii. 35 — 38, where our Lord warned his
disciples of the career of anxiety and
dependence and struggle through which
they would have to pass. They must be
ready even to part with their garment to
procure a sword, i.e. they must be prepared
to defend tliemselves against many enemies.
With his characteristic impetuosity Peter
says, "Here are two swords;" and Jesus
•aid, "It U enough." He could not have
meant that two swords were a match for the
weapons of the high priests, or the power
of the Roman empire, but that the disciple
had once again misunderstooil the figurative
teaching of Christ, and, like a child (as he
was), had, in tlie intensity of his present
feeling, lost all apperception of the future.
True, the language of Luke xxii. 35 — 38
suggests an answer to the question, "Why
cannot I follow thee now?" But these
words in ch. xiv. more certainly contem-
plate that query, coupled with the other
occasions that had arisen for bitter tribula-
tion. To the faithful ones, to Peter's own
nobler nature, and to them all alike in view
of their unparalleled grief and dismay at
the immediate prospect of his departure, he
says. Let not your heart be troubled — the
one heart of you all ; for, after all, it is one
heart, and for the moment it was in utter-
most exacerbation and distress. He repeated
the words at the close of the first part of
the discourse (ver. 27), after he had uttered
his words of consolation. The " trouble "
from which that one heart of theirs is
breaking is not the mere sentimental sorrow
of parting with a friend, but the perplexity
arising from distracting cares and d inflicting
passions. The work of love and sarrifioe
means trouble that nothing but supernatural
aid and Divine strength can touch. The
heartache of those who are wakened up to
any due sense of the eternal is one that
nothing but the hand that moves all things
can soothe or remedy. Faith in the absolute
goodness of God can alone sustain the mind
in these deep plates of fear, and under the
shadow of death. But he gives a reason
for their consolation. This is, Baiieve in God,
I.e. the eternal God in all his revelations
of himself in the past — in God the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, who has most com-
pletely been unveiled to you now in the
word and light and life tliat have been given
to you in me. Your faith in God will be
equal to your emergencies, and, if you live up
to such faith, you will bear all that befalls
you (of. Mark xi. 22). But, he adds, as I
have been in the bosom of Qod and have
220
THE GOSPEL ACCOBDLNQ TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xiv. 1—31.
declared him to yon, belisTe also in me, as
his highest and most complete Bevelatioh.
He claimed &om them thus the same kind
of sentiment, as by right of creation and
infinite perfection God Almighty had de-
manded from them. There are three other
ways in which this ambiguous sentence
may be translated, according ai both the
vtareiiTt are taken either as indicatives
or imperatives, but the above method is
approved by tlie great majority of inter-
preter! from the early Fathers to Meyer
and Godet. The Vulgate and Authorized
Version and Bevised Version make the
$eo(md only of the ittaTeieTs imperative, and
consequently read, " Ye believe in God, be-
lieve also in me," which, in the revelation
they had just given of their wretchedness
and lack of adec^uate courage and faithful-
ness, was almost more than the Lord, in the
deep and comprehensive sense in which he
was using the word "God," would have
attributed to them. The different order of
the words in the Greek, bringing the two
clauses, " in God " and " in me," together,
gives potency to the argument of the verse,
which is that of the entire Gospel,
Ver. 2. — In my Father's house are many
uansions; or, abiding-places, homes of rest
and peace and sojourn. "My Father" it
the grandest name of all — the Divine father-
hood, as conceived in the consciousness of
Jesus and revealed to them. Had not he
who dwelt for ever in the bosom of the
Father come forth, as he alone could, to
reveal "the Father" and what the Fatlier
had been to him In the eternities ? " My
Father's house" is the dwelling-place in
which devout believing souls would abide
for ever (Ps. xxiii. 6; xo. 1). In the vast
home filled by my Father's glory and lighted
by his smile of recognition and reconciliation,
in the high and holy place (Isa. Ixiii. 15;
Deut. ixvi. 1 5), are " many mansions " pre-
pared from the foundation of the world
(Matt. XXV. 34). Heaven is a large place ;
its possibilities transcend your imagination
and exceed your charity. Thoma quotes all
the grand hopes which Paul's Epistles and
that to the Hebrews contain, that Jesus made
heaven and home by his presence there
(Phil. i. 23 ; 1 Thess. iv. 14, 17), and he sup-
poses that the Johannist put these woids
into the lips of Jesus. One conclusion forced
upon the reader, so far as this passage is
concerned, is that there is no reason why
this Gospel may not have been written long
before the olose of the first century. If it
were not soj »'.«. if there were any doubt
about it, if the revelations already made do
not avail to prove as much as this, if you
have been cherishing nothing better than
vain illusions on this subject, I would have
told you, for I came forth from God, and
know thesA many mansions well. I would
have told you, for all things that I have
heard from the Father (up to this time
possible for yon to receive) I have made
known to you. Here surely is a colon, il
not a period. Many interpreters, by reason
of the ilri,' which Lachmann, Tischcndorf,
Westcott, and Meyer believe to be the cor-
rect reading, link the following sentence in
diflerent ways to the precpding; e.g. some
say ifri is equivalent to " that," and read, " I
would have told you that I go," etc.; but
against this is the simple statement of ver. 3,
where Jesus proceeds to say that he is going
to prepare, etc Others, translating ofn " for,"
differ as to whether the departure of Jesus
and his preparation of a place for his dis-
ciples refers to the first or second part of
the sentence. Surely the frt, " because " or
"for," opens out a new thought based on
the whole of that sentence: "Because,
seeing if it were not so, I would have told
you," because our relations are so close as
to have involved on your part this claim on
my frankness, for I am going to prepare a
place — ^to make ready one of these many
mansions — for you. Over and above the
vague mystery of the Father's house, my
departure is that of your " Forerunner," and
my presence will make a new resting-place
— ^it will localize your home. As you have
made ready tliis guest-chamber for me, I
am going to make ready a presence-chamber
for you in the heavenly Jerusalem. Lange
objects to this view of Liicke, Calvin, and
Tholuck, that it involves a diffusion of
knowledge and revelation among the dis-
ciples, of which there is no proof. Tliis
does not seem bettered by another rendering
preferred by him, viz. " If it were not so,
would I have told you I go to prepare a
place for you?" But then this mode of
interpretation implies a previous definite
instruction as to the part he himself was
going to take in the furnishing of the
heavenly mansion. Of that most certainly
there is no proof.
Ver. 3. — And if I go and if I prepare a
plaoe for you — a simple oonditiou, soon to
be realized by the event — I oome again ; I
am ever coming, as I am now about to ex-
plain to you,'(l) in my resurrection (ch.
xvi. 16, 17); (2) in the bestowment of the
Comforter (vers. 17, 25, 26 ; ch. xvi. 7, etc.) ;
(3) in the intimate relatiobs wliich, through
the power of the Spirit (vers. 18, 23), shall
prevail between ns. I am coming to you
in my glory and power, and in my victory
in you as well as for you over death and
Hades, to receive you unto myseU; that
where I am, there ye may be also. The full
' 'On is inserted by modem editors, witi
It, A, B, C*, D, and many others.
OH. xir. 1— 31.] THE GOSPEL ACCOBDING TO ST. JOHN.
221
perspective of the Lord's approach to faith-
ful souls is giveu in the extraordinary
pregnancy of the " I am coming." Not untU
he comes in all his glory will the words be
perfectly fulfilled ; but the early Church, on
the basis of communion with Christ himself
in the power of his Spirit, expected that
Christ had come and taken to himself one
by one those who died in the faith (1 The9s.
iv. 14). Thus Stephen expected the Lord to
receive his spirit (Acts vii. 59); and the
dying thief was to be with him, in Paradise ;
and Paul knew that to be from home, so far
as body is concerned, was to be " at home or
present with the Lord" (2 Cor. v. 8). « To
be with Christ" was "far better" than to
labour on in the flesh (Phil. i. 23). The
highest thought of peaoo and love was to
the apostles union and presence with Christ.
Our Lord asserts here that by his very near-
ness to them he will make their heaven for
them. How soon this wonderful idea spread
among men I Within twenty years, Thessa-
loniang were comforted about their pious
dead, with the thought that they slept in
Jesus, and would together with them be
"for evx ■T'ith the Lord."
Ver. 4, — Instead of "Whither I go ye
know, and the way ye know," E.T. reads,
Ye know the way whither I am going.'
Some valuable manuscripts and veraions,
also th@ bulk of the cursives, Cyril and
Chrysostom, sustain the T.B.; nor have
Hengstenberg or Godet departed from it.
The construction of the amended reading is
harsh and awkward, but considering the
point-blank contradiction which Thomas
gives to the words in ver. 5, the truncated
reading is probably the true one. Great
emphasis is laid upon the ^li. They ought
to have known, if they did not know, after
his telling them so frequently of the way he
was taking through suffering, self-sacrifice,
and aloneness, by spiritual processes rather
than secular triumphs, by giving his life a
ransom for many, by laying it down that he
might take it again. He assumes, he even
assures themj that whithersoever he may bo
going, and however vague may be his goal
in their ideas, they at least must comprehend
the way by which he intended to reach it.
Peter in any case ought to have been clear
about it; more than once had he been
rebuked for such worldly conceptions as
beclouded his surer judgment.
Verg. 5 — 7. — (4) The question of Tltomat,
• The olfSoTc Kol 1 jlv SSby oiSare of T.E. and
Griesbach is found in A, C, D, N, r, A, and
the majority of cursives; but Tisohendorf
(8th edit), Tregelles, Meyer, Westoott and
Hort, and R.T., with N, B, 0*. L, Q, X, 33,
157, and some versions, read, oiSare n^v
U6f.
dioiting from Christ that he was going to tha
Father, and that hie death was their " way "
as well as his own way thither.
Ver. 5. — Thomas — true to the character
elsewhere attributed to him in this Gospel,
of anxious, intellectual striving after truth
and reality, with a certain despondency and
morbid fear of issues which he could not
grasp, and yet vrith a great love to his Master
— saith to him, We know not whither thou
goest ; i.e. we are still in vague perplexity.
"Whither? oh, whither?" Art thou going
-to the dispersed among the Gentiles?
Art thou going to restore f:he kingdom to
Israel? Thou art to be "lifted up;" but
how and where art thou to be lifted up?
Thou art going — that is all we know, and
this ignorance of ours makes us doubt " the
way." ' How do we know the way T Is not
a knowledge of the goal absolutely neces-
sary to bring into proper light for ua the
way, the strange mysterious way, thou art
taking ? There often seems in the language
of scepticism much common sense, and in
the dry light of science u straightforward
honesty; and in reading the memorable
reply of our Lord many have felt a lack o(
directness and recognition of the difSoulty
of Thomas. But is it really so ?
Vera. 6, 7. — Jesus saith to him, I am th«
Way, and the Truth, and the Life : no on*
Cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye
had learned to know me, ye would have '
known (absolutely) my Father also : from
henceforward ye know (by (jersonul experi-
ence) him, and (or, perhaps, even) ye have
seen him. The whole sentence must be taken
together. The whither of Christ is obvious
enough, and throws consequent illumination
upon the way thither. " The Father's
house " is the whither no one cometh unto the
Father (but) except through me. Christ ex-
> The Ka) before wws of T.E. is omitted
by E.T., on the authority of B, 0, L. T.R.,
with (K), A, C", L, and numerous versions,
reads, Swd/ieBa tV iShu eiSeVai. R.T., Ti-
sohendorf (8th edit.), with B, C*, D, quota-
tions from Cyril, Tenullimi, etc., read
olSajxev.
' In order to avoid the supposed inference
that the disciples had not known Christ,
N and D read iyvtiicaTi for iyr^Keire, and
yviiffeffde for iyi/SiKftTe. Tregelles, West-
cott and Hort, and E.T., with B, C, L, Q,
here read &v ^Seire, and Tischendorf (8th
edit.) reads. El iyi/dxaTe ifie xal t6v Harepo
/tou^ yvdasaBe, " If ye have learned to know
me" — simple supposition, not resolved in
the negative — " ye shall come to know my
Father also." Luthardt, Godet, Meyer, and
Alford follow the received text : " If ye have
learned to know me, ye would haye learned
to know my Father also."
829
THE GOSPEL AOOORDma TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xiv. 1—31
plioltly Bsyi (I) that the entire goal of this
wondrous way of his is the Father himself.
From the Father he came, to the Father he
was moving, not for his own sake only, but
also as King Messiah for all his subjects.
He suggests (2) that mankind generally, as
well as his disciples, are anxious to find their
way to the Father's house, to the Father's
heart, i.e. to resting and rejoicing ia God, and
satisfaction in their entire conception of him
and relation to him. (3) He declares posi-
tively that this idea of God as Father, this
approach to God for every man, is through
him — through what he is and what he is doing
and has so often described, for them. True,
ho had said, in oh. vi. 37, 44, that the Father
gave to him and drew towards him those
who came to him. A fatherly monition and
inward working of grace opened men's eyes
in Christ to the mystery of true human son-
ship of the eternal Father. The statement
of this verse supplements the former utter-
ance. They may best understand the way
he is taking when they grasp the fact that
he is going to the Father to prepare a place
fnr them, and so he becomes " the Way, the
Truth, the Life," for all who are coming
after him, " following him afterwards " to
the Father. Grotius sums up this great
saying by regarding Christ as " the Exem-
plum. Doctor, et Dator vitse eternse ; " Luther
speaks of it as referring to the past, present,
and future ; Calvin, as " the Priucipium,
Medium, et Finis ; " and Augustine " vera
vitffi Via ; " but each term means more than
this. The way of approach to God is con-
stituted by his simply being the incarnate
Logos, by his revealing the mind and
nature of God, by his laying down his life
for the sheep that he might take it again.
In doing this he supplies the method and
motive of holy living. It is not easv to
say why our Lord should have added " the
Truth and the Life." Maldonatus exclaimed,
" Si Chiistus minus fuisset in respoudendo
liberalis, minus nobis in hujus loci interpre-
tatione laborandum esset." The two further
turms used by himself are probably intro-
duced to throw light upon the way to the
Father. Thus there are numerous assur-
ances that he is the Truth itself, that is, the
adequate and sufficient expression of Divine
thought. " All the promises of God are yea
^i.e. are uttered] and Amen [i.e. confirmed]
in him." He is the absolute Truth (1)
about God's nature; (2) the perfect Expo-
nent of God's idea of humanity; (8) the
Light of the world ; (4) the Expression of
the reality touching the relations between
moral beings and God — all the relations,
not only those of saints and holy angels,
but those of rebels and sinners, whose des-
tiny he has taken upon himself. He if
the Way became he i* the whole Truth
about God and man and oonoeming th«
way to the Father. More than this, and
because of this, he adds, " I am the Life " —
"the life eternal," the Possessor, Author,
Captain, Giver, and Prince of life — the
life in the heart of man that can never
die; the occasion, germ, condition, and
force of the new life. It were impossible to
imagine higher claim. But he leaves his
hearers without any doubt as to his personal
and conscious identification of himself with
the Father. Hitherto he had not so clearly
unveiled himself as in that which he has
here said and is now doing. Hence hisnearest
and dearest only partially knew him. If
they had seen all they might have seen,
they would have seen the Father also. Then,
as though he would close all aperture to
doubt about the glory involved in his hu-
miliation, and the way in which his human
life had revealed the JPather, he says imipTt
— henceforward this must be a fact of your
consciousness, that you do learn and come
to know him by personal experience (ytpd-
iTKfTe) ; and as a matter of fact ye have teen
him (iafixare). Possibly in the mr&pri, in-
volving the notion of a period rather than
a moment, the Lord was including the full
revelation of the glory of self-sacritioial love
given alike in his death and resurrection.
And the important thought is suggested that
neither the knowledge of God can ever be
complete, nor the vision either. Is Thomaa
answered or no ? He is silent, and perhaps
is pondering the words, which will lead him,
before long, notwithstanding his doubts, to
make the grandest confession contained in
the entire Gospel, the answer of convinced
though once sceptical humanity to the
question, " Whom say ye that I am ? " The
other apostles feel that Christ's words have
met the mystic vague fear of Thomas, and
that " henceforward " they all belong with
Christ to the Father's house. They would
go to the Father, and at the right time
dwell in the place prepared for them; but
how can they be said to know and have seen
the Father already— to have passed into the
light or received the beatific vision 7
Vers. 8 — 21. — (5) The question of Philip,
with the reply.
Vers. 8 — 11. — (o) Jesus the full Bevdation
of the Father.
Ver. 8. — Philip has been introduced in
oh. i. 44 — 46; vi. 7; xii. 21,eto. (see notes),
as one early acquainted with the sons of
ZebeJee, with Andrew and Nathanael. He
is described as convinced of the Messianic
character of Jesus, and able, by what he
had seen and heard, to overcome all pre-
judices. Philip, with practical mind, took
part in the conversations and preparations
for our Lord's great miracle on the loaves.
Philip was thought of as a suitable peraos
OH. XIV. 1— 3L] THE GOSPEL ACXX)IIDING TO ST. JOHN,
223
to intiodiiM the Gieeks to Jesni: and
every hint we obtain about him is giapbio
and valuable. Philip saith to him, Loid,
show us the Father, and it snffioeth ns.
This query is a very natural one. Though
under or(&nary circumstances men cannot
with mortal eyes look on God, yet one
of the high purports of the Christun reve-
lation is to make it possible that men may
look and live. Theophanies of Jehovah
are not infrequent. The favoured prophets,
Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Isaiah, Eze-
. kiel,' and others had been favoured with
visions of Divine majesty, and it was not
unreasonable that the practical Philip, who
believed in the invincible assent which per-
soncd experience would give, who not only
had seen in Jesus the Messiah of their pro-
phecies, but bad said to Nathanael, " Come
and tee" and be as satisfied as I am, should
now llihik thiat some gorgeous vision of the
Father's face was possibly within theii reach
and within Ohrist's power to confer — a vision
which would for ever scatter their doubts and
enforce certitude with plausibility. B. Weiss
suggests that some whisper of the Transfigu-
ration-glory had escaped from the favoured
three, leading the other disciples to desire
a corresponding theophany. As Luther
says, " ^s faith flutters up into the clouds."
A dazzling spectacle would satisfy and suf-
fice for aU needs. To see and know the
Father, to have irresistible evidence that
the Eternal Power is one who has begotten
us £tom himself, and both knows and loves
us, is the higheut and most sacred yearn-
ing of the human heart. The desire is im-
planted by God himself. Philip, with his
fellow-disciples, had not yet learned the
sacred truth that they bad already had the
opportunity of seeing in the life of the God-
Man the most explicit manifestation of the
Father. A dazzling phenomenon, outside
of Christ, might have given to the disoijjles
a new impression of awe and fear like that
which fell on Moses and the elders of Israel,
on Isaiah and Elijah ; yet a far more com-
prehensive revelation of Divine perfection,
inspiring the spirit of obedience, reverence,
trust, and love, devotion, and self-sacrifice,
had already been made to them, but their
eyes were holden. They were not satisfied,
or Philip would not have said xat apKit tiiuv.
Yer. 9. — Christ's reply is, Have I been so
long a period (xp^'">'0 ^^h yon, and hast
thou not come to know (lyvaicis) me, Philip 1
(Compare the aorist Seiioy, suggesting one
great complete sufiicing act, with the per-
fect forms, l^yaKdi /ne, iapatiis, i^paiee, im-
> Gen. xxviiL 12, eto. ; xxxii. 24 ; Exod.
iii. ; xxxiii ; xxxiv. ; Numb. xvi. 42 ; Josh.
T. 13 ; Judg. vi. 22 ; 1 Kings xix. ; Isa. vL ;
Esek, Landx.
plying a process continuing from the past
into the present.) The revelation of the
Father, rather than an unveiling of the ab-
solute God whom no man hath ever yet
seen (see oh. i. 18), had been constantly
going on before their eyes. Our Lord first
of all appeals to that fact; and yet fact,
reality as it was, the disciples had failed
even to know him, inasmuch as tliey had not
seen in him the Father. He thus confirms
the statement of ver. 7. " There is an evi-
dent pathos in this personal appeal. The
only partial parallels in St John are ch. xx.
16 (Mary); xxi. 15 (Simon, eto.)" (West-
cott). There U no right understanding of
Jesus Christ until the Father is actually
seen in him. He is not known in his hu-
manity until the Divine Personality flashes
through him on the eyes of faith. We do
not know any man until we know the best
of bim. How far more true is it of God and
of the Father-God revealed in the Christ?
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.
The "seeing" here must be adequate, com-
prehensive vision. How ' sayest thou — em-
phatic— Show us the Father 1 Philip, by the
hints already given of him, might have
discarded the Jewish and crude idea of a
physical theophany. "How eayest thou?"
reveals that sense of failure which Christ
experienced when he sought to realize in the
poor material of our human nature his own
ideal.
Ver. 10. — Believest thou not that I am in
the Father, and the Father in me 1 Philip
had heard in an inverted order these very
words (see ch. x. 38). He might have
grasped their meaning ; two aspects of the
same Divine truth or reality — ^the recipro-
cal fellowship between the Father and the
Son, between the Father and the Effulgence
of the Father's glory who is now the God-
Man. I am in the Fatlier, I the God-Man
am in the Father, as the Logos has ever
been in him and proceeding from him. I,
who was for ever in the bosom of tlie Father
in heaven though on earth, am in the Father
now, as the sun dwells in its own effluent
light ; and the Father is in me, steing I am
the Image of his substance, the Agent of his
purpose, the Speaker of his words, the Doer of
his works. The words Qrinara) which I speak
(\fya, B.T.) unto you— those words which
are "spirit and life" (ch. vi. 63), those
" words of eternal life," according to Peter's
grand confession (ch. vi. 68, 69) — ^I do not
utter (Aa?^) from myself; i.e. they are the
words of the Father, and also the proof
that I am in the Father, but the Father
worketh always and ever more in and
through the Son, these works which may
> The Kol of T.B. is omitted by B.T.. and
others, with K, B, Q, eto.
224
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xiv. 1— 31
seem to be mine as the Bon of man, but are
the operation of the Father himself, he who
abides in the Son. And the Father abiding
in me, doeth' his works. These works of mine
(ep7o) are all signs (ffrjAi"") of my relation to
the Father. They are indications to Philip
of the nature, and quality, and character, and
feeling towards him of the Father himself.
Ver. 11. — Believe me when I say that I
am in the Father, and the Father in me, on
the ground of my simple affirmation. My
words are spirit and life, and carry their
own evidence with them, Christ is not here
antithetically contrasting (as Lange sug-
gests) words and works, as though the words
were his, and tlie works the Father's ; but
he is appealing to their spiritual intuition of
truth which is legible by its own light as
eternal and Divine, and then reminding them
that they may fail in transcendental vision
and fall back on reason and its processes,
which will come nearer to their understand-
ing— Or else (ei Se |U^), if it bo after all that
you cannot take my words afl the Father's
words, as the utterance of the Divine thought,
believe me — believe that I am in the Father,
etc. — by reason of the very works which
are the witness of the Father's power,
holiness, and love. In this last appeal he
turns from Philip to the whole group of the
apostles. Miracles are, if not primary evi-
dence, secondary and convincing evidence,
where the eye has been blinded by the mists
of doubt, and the vision of the Father con-
fused and withheld by lack of inward purity.
Moreover, by Christ's Ipya are meant, not
merely the supernatural portents, but all
the work of his life, all the healing of souls,
all the conversion of souls, all the indubi-
table issues of his approach to the heart of
man. The great epyov is salvation from sin,
the gift "f righteousness, and the life where
before there was moral deatli (see notes, vers.
19,20; eh. a. 37, 38).
Vers. 12—15. — (V) The greater works, and
their cowHtiont and issues. He offers a
fresh giound of consolation, based on the
double consideration, first of his departure
from them and abiding presence with them,,
and thtn on the reflex effect on their own
faith and on the world of their oonsoiousness
of union with him. He throws the arms of
hia love round about, not only the eleven
disciples, but all believers on him, and in a
• This alteration of the text, on the
authority of N, B, D, is accepted by Tisohen-
dorf (8th edit.), Meyer, R.T. and Tregelleg,
it being supposed that in amhs iroitt tci tpya
of the T.B. the ouriis had been added in
explanation, and displaced the aiiTov in some
early manuecripte.
■ense draws them np into his own Divinity.
With these words must be compared the
closely parallel words addressed to them (as
preserved by Matt. xxi. 22, 23) a few days
before. This was a saying at once explain-
ing the reference to the "greater works"
and also to the power of prayer (see
Hengstenberg's masterly treatment of this
Ver. 12. — ^Verily, verily — with a fresh
emphasis he turns now, not from Philip to
the eleven, but from the eleven to all who
will believe on him through their word — I say
unto you, He that believeth on me — observe
here a nominative absolute, which gives
gieat empliasis to the universality of the re-
ference; the form is slightly varied, eij ^/te,
in place of ^oi, ver. 11, — believeth, trusteth
on me, confides in me, by reason of believing
me — he also shall do the works that I do
(see for similar emphasis procured by the
word K^K^Ivos, ch. vi. 57; ix. 37; xii. 48).
The disciples might naturally have reasoned
on this wise : " Our Master is the incarnate
Word, the very Hand and Grace of the
Father; but he is going to the invisible
Father, and will be lost in light. His series
of proofs will be at an end ; we shall only
have the memory of them. The glory of
God is great, but, like a gorgeous sunset, its
flaines will die away into the night." To
rectify such fear for all the ages of the
Church, he adds, " The very works of heal-
ing and helping men, even of raising the
dead, and preaching glad tidings to the
poor and needy, — these will be proofs of the
union of the believer in all time with me and
with my Father." In the case of such be-
liever, as well as in my case, the works may
increase the faith of others. They are not
indispensable, but comforting and reassuring,
and they show that every believer is near
to the heart of the Father and wields the
power of God. But the full force of this
somewhat perplexing sentence is heightened
and to some extent explained by the addi-
tion : And greater works than these he
shall do ; because I am going to the Father.
Greater works than any wrought by the
1/ord in the days of his humiliation are
predicted of Messiah. He is to be the " Light
of the Gentiles" (Isa. xlii. 6; of. Ps. Ixxii.
8, H ; ex.). He is to rule the world, to
cover the earth with the glory of God.
How he was to do this was hidden from thci
disciples, but it would soon appear that they
were the instruments, in his loving handa,
* The iiov is here omitted, with K, A, B,
D, L, numerous cursives and versions, by
Tischendorf (8th edit.), Tregelles, R.T., and
Westoott and Hort.
OH. XIV, 1—31.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
225
for world-victoriei. Nay, more than that,
Jesus (oh. iv. 36 — 38) had told those dis-
ciples that they might reap what he had
sown. These rather than other and more
surprising prodigies of supernatural energy
(as even Bengel supposed was his meaning,
pointing to 9ie healing energy of Peters
shadow, etc.) were the greater works to which
he probably (oh. v. 20) referred, though he
gives a reason which would check all pre-
sumption : Because lam going to the Father.
The contrast, then, is between the humilia-
tion and exaltation of Christ, between works
wrought in his flesh and those that would
be done by him when at the right hand of
power. Without him, separated from him,
independently of his continued and aug-
mented energy working tlirougli them, they
would do notliing ^ch. xv. 5; comp. here
Matt. xxi. 21, 22). In tlie last passage, in
answer to believing prayer, tlie disciples were
told that they would do greater things than
wither up the fig tree, or remove the moun-
tain into the sea. Probably (see Hengsten-
berg) these terms, "fig tree," "mountain,"
"sea," were used in their prophetioo-sym-
bolic sense, and were not hyperbolic pro-
mises, but definite prophecies of the over-
throw of Jhe Jewish state, and the fall of
tlie Roman power under the word of those
who believed on him. These vast privileges
and functions are here attributed to "be-
lievers," not merely to the apostles, or princes
in his kingdom. This extraordinary pro-
mise is no disparagement of liis supreme
authority, but will be proof that he sitteth
on the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Ver. 13. — The great word that follows
may hang closely on the "because" of
ver. 12. Whether that be so or not, the
power of their hands to perform these greater
works is in answer to prayer presented to
himself, and their siiccess is nothing less
tlian his own activity. And whatsoever ye
ask in my Name, that will I do (see Luther).
Here for the first time our Lord uses these
woriis. Frequently (eh. T. 43 ; i. 25) he
h id spoken of the Father's Name, and in
.Matt, xviii. 20 els rh ifioy oi/o/ua occurs ; but
now he suggests a new and vitalizing condi-
tion of prayer. Luthardt lias suggested that
the believer, being "in Clirist," prays to the
Father, who is also in Christ. But the eV is
used here in two entirely distinct senses.
Others have said, taking "Name" as the
compendium of all his perfections, that
asking " in his Name " meant in full recog-
nition of his Person and his relation to
them and to the Father. The Name of the
Son reveals the Father, and by assuming
this most excellent Name, and having its
fulness of meaning avouched by the Besur-
rection and Ascension, the Father was truly
manifested. Others, again, urge that Christ's
toBX.—a.
"Name" is equivalent to "himself;" and
"in my Name" neans "in the full con-
sciousness that he is the element in which
prayerful activity lives and moves " (Meyer).
Surely this passage is the true justification
of prayer to Christ himself, as identically one
with the Father (see Eev. vii. 17) " This
tiling I will do " is strongly in favour of
this interpretation. That the Father may be
glorified in the Son. The end of this prayer-
offering and the Lord's response is that the
Father may be glorified; the Father who
has such a Son is thereby glorified in the
grateful love of his children, and in the Son
himself, who is seen thus to be the link be-
tween him and his Other children.
Ver. 14. — If ye shall ask me ' anything in
my Name, etc., is, omitting the ha clause of
the former utterance, a solemn repetition of
the promise. The only condition being " in
my Name." "Our Lord Christ foresaw
that this article would go hard with human
reason, and that it ^ould be much assailed
by the devil." " What ye ask," says lie, " I
will do. I am God, who may do and give
all things." The peculiarity of the R.T.
lays, indeed, special emphasis on Christ's
own power and willingness to receive and
answer prayer.
Ver. 15. — If ye love me, keep' my com-
mandments. This great saying is enlarged
on in the subsequent section — the relation
of love to obedience, obedience producing
love, and love suggesting obedience and sup-
plying it with motive. Tas hroXas ras e/ids,
"the commandments which are peculiarly
mine " (see Westeott on ch. xv. 9), " as either
a lopted and reuttered by me, or as origi-
nating in my new relation to you." " Guard
thnm as a sacred deposit, obey them as the
only reasonable response you can make to
authoritative commaml." It is somewhat
startling to find the great promise that
follows oonditionatt'd by loving obedience,
seeing that love and obedience in any sin
ful man, love to Chiist itself, are elsewhere
made the work of the Holy Spirit. But we
here come across that which often perplexes
the student, viz. the contrast between the
' The fLe here stands on the authority of
X, B, B, H, Italic, Vulgate, Syriao, and a
large number of cursives. It is introduced
by R.T. and Tischeudcrf (8th edit.). Tre-
gelles, Alford, and Lange omit it, with T.E.
The introduction of it may be easier to
account for than the omission. The Revisers
notice the omission in the margin.
* Tregelles, Tischendorf (8th edit.), and
R.T. read rripiiffers, "ye wUl keep," with
(N), B, L, 54, 78, N reading riipiiiThre. .The
T.R., Laohmann, etc., read TripijiraTe, with A,
D, Q, A, and so large an amount of aathority
that we hesitate to adopt tho revised text.
226
THE GOSPEL ACOOBDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xiv. 1— 81.
general idea of the conBtsnt and continuoiu
work of grace in human hearts, and the
special manifestation in personal glory and
Divine activity of the Holy Ghost on
Pentecost.
Vers. 16— 21.— (o) The greateet Gift— the
other Advocate,
Vers. 16, 17. — Consequent on this obedient
love, conditionated by it, is the Lord's
assurance : And I will ask the Father —
hpuT^v is used of an asking which is based
on close and intimate fellowship ; it is the
word which implies the presentation of
wish or a desire from an equal to an equal,
while atreiv reprosent^ the prayer or seek-
ing which rises I'rom an inferior to a
superior (see note, ch. xvl. 26, and other
usage of the same words, ch. xvii. 9, 15, 20)
— and he will give — make a Divine and free
manifestation of himself by his Spirit, give
to you as your inalienable possession—
another Faraolete, that he may be ' with
yon for evermore. Great deference is due
to the Greek expositors, beginning with
Chrysostom, who translate this word " Oom-
furter," and who point back to the LXX.
irapoLKaKeirt (Isa, xl. 1), and because irapa-
Khiitnt very often, if not always, means
" consolation ; " but the word is passive in
form, and denotes "one called in," or
• called to the side of another," for the
purpose of helping him in any way, but
especially in legal proceedings and criminal
charges, so t^t the word "Advocate,"
Pleader for us and in us, is the translation
that most generally is accepted by almost
all modern expositors. " Another " implies
that Christ had already stood in this posi-
tion while present with them, helping with
tender care their first efforts to stand or
serve. John (1 Epist. ii. 1) distinctly says,
" We have now a Paraclete with the Father,
Jesus Christ the Righteous," etc. And
in this place (ver. 17) the coming of the
Paraclete was his own true return to his
disciples. The following is the substance
of Westoott's " additional note " on this
word : " The two renderings of Farmslete as
'Comforter' in the Gospel, and 'Advocate' in
the Epistle, are found in the English versions,
with exception of Ehenish, from Wickliffe
to Authorized Version and Bevised Version.
Ill the ancient versions, with the exception
of Thebaic, the original word Paracletus
is preserved. Its passive form by all analo-
gous words will not justify here an tictive
or transitive sense, but means ' one called
to the side of another' with the secondary
sense of helping, consoling, counselling, or
aiding him. The classical use is 'advo-
cate,' so used in Demosthenes, not found
> ]) is the tme text, K, B, L, Q, Italio,
OeiitHvS7iiao,B.T.,eto.
in LXX. Philo nses it in the aame sense,
and the rabbinic writers adopt the Greek
word Q'^plBi in opposition to 'accuser.'
The apostolic Fathers use the word in
this sense, but the patristic writers, Origen,
Cyril, Gregory of Nyssa, use it for ' Com-
forter.' In 1 John ii. 1 no other word is
satisfactory but 'Advocate,' and the sug-
gestion is that the only meaning here that
is adequate is that of one who pleads,
convinces, convicts in a great controversy,
who strengthens on the one hand, and de-
fends on the other. Christ, as the Advocate,
pleads the believer's cause with the Father
against tlie accuser (1 John ii. 1 ; Bom. viii.
26 ; Eev. xii. 10). The Holy Spirit, as the
Advocate, pleads the cause of the believer
against the world (ch. xvi 8), and pleads
Christ's cause with the believer (oh. xiv.
26 ; XV. 26 ; xvL 14)." Archdeacon Watkins
has presented a large portion of the Tal-
mudic evidence to the same effect. Thus
from the 'Pirke Aboth,' iv. 11, "He that
keepeth one commandment obtains for
himself one p'raldit, but he who com-
mitteth one sin obtains for himself one
kattegor Qcar'fiyopos)." The word was in-
corporated into the Syrian language, as
seen in the Peshito Syriao translation, both
of the Gospel and the First Epistle of John.
The Advocate who is to be loifh the dis-
ciples for ever, arguing down opposition
and silencing cavil, is the Spirit of truth.
The abundant proof of this great function
of the Holy Spirit is not wanting. There
is Christ's promise (Matt. z. 19, 20 ; Mark
xiii. 9—11). Then in Acts iv. 8 and 13.
whatever Christ had been to the twelve,
that would the other Advocate, Mediator o/
Divine grace, be to the whole Chnioh when
the Lord's earthly manifestation should
terminate. The genitive after " Spirit " some-
times denotes its great characteristio (of.
Bom. i. 4, " the Spirit of holiness ; " Bom.
viii. 15, " Spirit of bondage " and " of adop-
tion;" but in the same context we have
"Spirit of God," "the Spirit;" Eph. i.
17, "Spirit of wisdom and revelation; ot
also Bom. viii. 9, " Spirit of Christ ; " 1 Pet.
iv. 14, " the Spirit of glory ") ; and the idea
is that this other Advocate, even the Spirit
of truth, shall reveal truth to the disciples,
convince them of truth, as Christ had done.
Whom the world cannot reoeive. There are
antipathies between " the world " (as con-
ceived by St. John) and "truth," which
will render the world strangely unsuscep-
tible of Divine teaching. Still, since the
whole process of conviction is the distinct
effect of the Holy Spirit upon the world (see
ch. xvi.), the \i0eu/ must not mean that th«
world cannot aeo^ its convincing power,
but cannot exert its power of convincing.
Through apostles, who are his organ* aai
OB. XIV. 1—31.] THE GOSPEL AOCORDINO TO ST. JOHN.
repreientatirea, the world will be aonTinced,
and not apart from them. Beoanse it aeeth
him not (6eaif>ei)— does not behold him in his
external revelations — and knoweth him not
by personal experience, " is not learning to
know him " as these diciples even hitherto
have been able to do in Christ. The world
has proved by its rejection of Christ that it
cannot behold the Divine energy in him,
nor perceive by any inward experience his
nature or the real nature of God ; but ye,
said Christ, are now learning to know huu;
for he abideth with you. He has begun his
abiding presence with yon, and shall be in
yra; and this state of things will con-
tinue to the end of time. " The future
shows that the whole matter belongs to the
domain of futurity " (Hengstenberg). The
world cannot " receive," because it is depen-
dent on visible things, and it cannot Imow
because it cannot behold. You have no
need to hehnld, and can and do knaia by
another process. The passage is very diffi-
cult, because, if the world cannot receive the
Spirit by reason of its own unspirituality
and ignorance, how is the threefold con-
viction to be realized ? May xjfieiv be re-
garded in the sense of KaTaXipL^avfiv, "to
seize hold of"? Eost and Palm give the
following instances of this use of \an&avktv
in Homer: 'Od.,' vi. 81; viii. 116; 'II.,' v.
273; Herod., iv. 130, eto. (cf. ch. lix. 1;
Rev. viii. 5). If so, the whole of this
passage would read, "He will give you
another Helper or Advocate, that he may be
with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth
whom the world cannot teize (or take from
you), because it behuldeth him not, neither
knoweth him ; but ye are learning to know
him, because he, according to the eternal
laws of his being, dwelleth with you, and
will be in you, and be altogether beyond
the malice of the world."
Yer. 18. — I Will not leave yon behind as
orphans, bereft. of my paternal guarilianship.
Though the disciples were his brethren,
yet, as we have seen, he calls them (ch. xlii.
33) renAa his ".little children;" and (Heb.
ii. 11) the apostles reckoned him as Arthur
(in ' Guinevere ') does when he speaks of
"our fair Father Christ." His departure
might be the signal for the most utter sense
of desertion, exposure, and peril; and even
the promise of another Advoeatia would
hardly console them before the time would
arrive when he would receive them unto
himself; but, says he, I am ooming to yon.
Much unnecessary comment has here arisen
as to whether this coming was the last
triumphant rapouaia of which he speaks in
part in ver. 3, — thiB would be incompatible
with the assurances that then the world
would and will see him : "Every eye shall "
then b« prophetic Kid " sea him," and " be-
fore him shall be gathered aU nBtioni;" of
whether this coming be simply his resur-
rection with his transitory appearances in the
flesh ; for both of these representations would
fail of the full consolation which would termi*
nate their orphanhood. Surely he speaks of
his own spiritual coming in the bestowment of
the othfT Advocate, who, by being with them
and in them, would prove to them, notwith-
standing his own apparent departure, that
he had come again in his glorious fulness of
love. In the thought of the early Church
the Lord was the Spirit : the glorified Lord,
the Christ, who had " all power in heaven
and earth," was manifested, was veritably
present, in all the work of the Spirit of God
in his Church. The Spirit was not only the
Unity of the Father and the Son, the one
Self-consciousness of both, but the one Con-
sciousness of the Son of God and Son of
man, the uniting Energy which represents
the one Personality of the Christ, the
Spirit-power which blends all the members
of the mystical body with . the Head.
Throughout the Acts of the Apostles we see
that all the great operations of the Holy
Spirit are but the energies of the living,
reigning Lord.
Ver. 19. — Yet a little while — a few hours
only — and the world — which cannot take from
you (or even appreciate or receive) the Holy
Spirit — ^beholdeth me no more. Their power
of beholding me will be gone by their own
act, they will have cursed and driven ma
away with the liellish cry, " Crucify him ! "
they will have slain and buried me out of
their sight : but, notwithstanding this, you,
by my coming to you in the power of the
Spirit, wiU veritably behold me. Even more
than this, because I live thongh I die> ye
shall live also, in your intense spiritual apper-
ception of my continuity of life, of which
you will have ocular and spiritual guarantee.
Jesus here passed over the concrete fact of
the Besurrection, to return to it afterwards.
■\Vp know that the resurrection of his body
an! lii« victory over death became (1) the
condition of his sending the Spirit, (2)
the proof of his being the living One whom
death could not hold, and (3) the ground of
the higher appreciation of the relation they
sustained to him. But he fixed their atten-
tion on his continuous life (in spite of
death), and their consequent life under the
shadow of his Divine protection, without
specifically mentioning the Besurrection, of
which he had (in synoptic narrative) given
them explicit but misapprehended pro-
phecies. This version seems to be prefer-
able to making the last clause Sti, etc, a
reason of the Beapetrf ^e — a view advocated
as possible by Meyer and Luthardt ; or than
the view which limits the 2ri (a to the
iaepfiri: "T* MB me becauM I Uva, md
228
THE GOSPEL ACCOSDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xit. 1—31.
as a coneeqnence of thii vision ye shall
lire also."
Ver. 20. — In that day of glorious recom-
munion with you, begun in the Besurreotion-
Burprises, whach will aid your faith and
triumphantly establish the mysteries and
marvels of Pentecost, yon shall know what
you now most imperfectly apprehend by
faith, that I am in my Father, as One lifted
up into God, and that I act entirely with
and for and as my Father, fulfilling all
that I have told you of my personal rela-
tionship with him ; and then, ho adds, you
$hall know that as I am in my Father, you
(are) in me, living in and by my power, and
continuously drawing life from me ; and
what is still more, I in you ; i.e. as the
Father has acted in and through my will,
and I have spoken his words and done his
works, so I will energize in you. Your
" greater works " will prove my " greater
power." Your own consciousness of my
presence, and of continuous communion
with me, will reveal to you, as you never
knew before, that I am in my Father, and
also that I am in you. So the apparent
paradox presents itself, that in order to
know the Father, to see the Father, we
must commune with the humanity of Jesus ;
but in order to realize and come into con-
tact with that humanity, we have to grasp
that it is lifted up into God. Because he is
in the Father he is able to be with and
in us.
Ver. 21. — Then for a moment he turns
from the eleven, and stretches out his
searching gnze and far-sweeping love to
every one who hath my commandments as
a sure possession and lofty privilege and
sufficient standard, and keepeth them, thus
proving that he it is that loveth me; re-
turning thus back to ver. 15, where he said
that love would induce and ought to com-
pel to obedience ; and he adds another and
wonderful benediction : He wiU be loved
by my Father, in a sense more intense than
that in which God is said to love the world
(ch. iii. 16). God the Father loves those who
love the Son, i.e. love the object of his own
superlative affection. But who can this
wondrous Being be who adds, as a climax of
privilege and honour, as though it were more
even than the love of the Father, I will love
him, and will manifest myself in him (not
airoKa\vij/a or (favepiiaai), not merely " dis-
close an undiscovered presence" or make
evident a hidden glory, but I will take
special means to disclose my Person and
nature and goodness to him? Christ will'
do this to those who have and keep his com-
mandments of self-forgetting love and per-
fect consecration. This remarkable word,
inipaylra, implies that the scene and place
of the higher manifestation will be "in"
(if) the oonsciousness of the loid. "The
kingdom of God is within men."
Vers. 22— 31.— (6) The question of Judat.
and the conditions of our Lord's self-mani-
festation, followed by appeals, promises, and
the gift of peace.
Ver. 22. — This reference to " manifesta-
tion " once more occasioned another anxious
inquiry. Tliomas liad not known whither
the Lord was going, and was ignorant of the
true meaning of that way of departure from
. them ; and the Lord had told him that he
was going to the Father, and that he him-
self was the Way for them to find their access
to the Father's heart. Philip had longed
for some vision of the Father which would
suifiee for the " whither " and " way," and
was surprised to find that be had had
already, in the Saviour's own Person, a
sufficient revelation of the Father ; but that
he and others had not known him nor his
Father; and now Jesus promises a fuller
manifestation of himself, and therefore of
the Fatlier. Here Judas, not Isoariot (the
Lebbseas, or Thaddxus, of Mark iii. 18 and
Matt. X. 3 ; the Judas brother of James of
Luke vi. 16 and Acts i. 13 — all the several
cognomina intended to keep this apostle's
name entirely distinct from that of the
traitor), saith to him. What has come to
pass that thou art about to manifest thyself
nnto us, and not to manifest thyself to the
world t Hast thou altered thy plan? Is
the world to be left unvisited by thy glory ?
This question, in some form or other, is
constantly pressed upon the Lord. This
seeking for a sign, this eager desire for
a great display of power, or judgment, or
glory, this restoration of the kingdom to
Israel, was the cry of the Jewish heart.
Christ's sublime reply to it is given in the
restatement of the spiritual law of the
kingdom and glory of God. Once more he
goes back to the law of love, issuing in
obedience.
Ver. 23. — Jesus answered and said to
him. If a man, let him be whosoever he
may, love me — there is the germ and root
of all — ^he will keep my Word (\iyoy '). In
ver. 21 we see the complementary state-
ment, "He that has and keeps my com-
mandments loves me ; " here, " He that loves
me keeps my Word." In ver. 21 obedience
proves inward love, and may indicate to the
world the fact of the Father's love and my
own response. Here our Lord is laying
down the principle of relation — the law of
close intimacy, the conditions of higher
' Here \6yovs must have been read by
Tyndale, Cranmer, and the Authorized
Version; but T.E., R.T., Lachmann, Tre-
gelles, Westcott and Hort, Tischendorf (8th
edit.), etc., read \iyor.
OH. XIV. 1— 31.J THE GOSPEL ACCOEDIKa TO ST. JOHN.
229
knowledge. The keeping of the Word it a
certain consequence of holy love. And my
Father will love him. 80 far Christ lias
only reiterated the great statement of yer.
21, but instead of saying, " I will love him,
and manifest myself," he added, We will
oome— the Father and I— to him, and take
up our abode,* make for ourselves a resting-
plaoe in his dwelling (Trap" aiiTip); of. the
analogous and wonderful parallel in Eev.
iii. 20. There is a clear utterance of Divine
solf-conaoiouaness. It is worthy of note
that such an expression as this sounds »
profounder depth of that consciousness
than any phrase {K6yos) already delivered.
Apart from the stupendous corroborative
facts elsewhere on record, this seems, to
mere human experience, either awfully true
or infinitely blasphemous. The Father and
I will come together in the power of the
Spirit, and we will dwell within the loving
and obedient soul. This phrase "suggests
the mystical union of the Divine Personality
with that of those who have entered into
spiritual relation with Christ through love
and obedience.
Ver. 24. — We have three statements about
love and obedience: (1) Love involves
obedience (vers. 15, 23), or obedience natu-
rally is included in love ; (2) obedience
(having and keeping commandments) is the
great proof of love (ver. 21); and (3) (ver.
24) " he that loveth not," i.e. the absence or
negation of love seems necessarily to forbid
or discountenance obedience — the language
differs slightly. He that loveth me not
keepeth not my words — i.e. the various utter-
ances into which my one Word may be sub-
divided in detail — and the \6yo!, the one
all-revealing Word, out of which all the
K6yoi proceed, is not mine(as self-originated),
but is the Father's that sent me. With-
out love to Christ the world has none of the
conditions on which the self-manifestation of
Christ really depends.
Vers. 25, 26. — These things (in antithesis
to the " all things " of which he is about
to speak), namely, the great consolations and
instructions just delivered — ^not the whole
course of his ministerial prophetic teaching
— have I uttered, and these things I am still
continuing to address to you, while remain-
ing with you; bnt the Paraclete (Advocate),
of whom I have spoken as the "Spirit of
truth," and whom I now more fully define as
the Holy Spirit (this is the only place in this
Gospel where this full and elsewhere often-
used designation occurs), whom the Father
will send — in answer to my prayer (ver. 16),
and as he has already sent me — ^in my Name.
' Xloni<roii4ia is preferred by modem
editors, with K, B, L, and numerous our-
■ives, to ■wot^ffo/uy of T.B.
This shows that, while the disciplei are t«
approach the Father " in the Kame," in the
fulness of perfection involved in the filial
Name of Jesus, so the Father sends the
Paraclete in the same Name, in the full
recognition of Christ as the Sphere of all
his gracious work. Meyer emphasizes by
it the Name of Jesus ; " in my Name," say
Grotius, Lucke; "at my intercession" or
" in my stead " (Tholuck, Ewald) ; " as my
Representative" (Watkins). But the great
Name of Jesus is " the Son " (Heb. i. 1 — 5).
In the Sonship which he realized and dis-
played, the Father himself was manifested.
The Spirit is sent from the Father fully
to revc al the Son, while tlie substance of
the teaching and meaning of the life of our
Lord, in his Divine training of soids re-
vealed the Father. He (Ike?)/os, a masculine
and emphatic pronoun, which gives per-
sonal quality and dignity to the Spirit, and
points to all that is here predicated of his
agency) shall teach you all things that you
need to know over and above what I have said
^\e\d\riKa), and he will assist you to know
more than you do now. He shall remind
yon of the all things which I have said to
you. The teaching of Christ, according to
St. John's own statement, was vastly more
extensive than all that had been recorded,
the impression produced far deeper than
anything that could be measured ; yet even
this would have been evaporated into vague
sentiment, if the veritable things, the mar-
vellous and incomparable wisdom, uttered by
the Lord had no^ by the special teaching
of the Spirit, been recommunicated to the
apostles by extraordinary refreshment of
memory. The supernatural energy of the
memory of the apostles, and their profound
insight, is the basis of the New Testament,
and the fulfilment of this promise. This
sacred training vrill not teach specifically
new truths, because the germinant form of
all spiritual truth had been communicated
by Christ ; nor would, the instruction create
a fundamental deposit of tradition as yet
unrevealed ; nor is it to be such an intensi-
fication or addition to things already said
as to contradict the teaching of the Lord ;
but tlie Holy Spirit will bring to the remem-
brance of the apostles all that the living
Logos had spoken. Hence the mystic, the
traditionist, and the rationalist cannot find
support for their theses in these great words.
The irdvTa, however, gives a bright hint of
the completeness of the equipment of the
apostles for their work.
Ver. 27. — " Then follow the last words as
of one who is about to go away, and sayi
'Good night,' or gives his blessing" (Luther).
Feaoe I leave with (or, to) yon. Peace (ei>
piivri) answers to the (Di'jB') thdlom of or-
dinary converse and greeting, and signiflei
230
THE GOSPEiL ACCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xnr. 1—31.
PTOspeiity, health of soal, aeienitjr, farewell.
This 18 the sacred bestowment and DiTine
legacy of the Lord. " Peace " is always the
result of equilibrated forces, the poise of
antagonistic elements, held in olieck by one
another. Of these the most placid lake, hid-
den in the hills and reflecting the sunshine
and shadows, is a remarkable Ulustration. So
the peace Christ leaves is power to hold the
wildest fear in pause, to still a clamour or
hush a cry — ^it is the coming of mercy to a
sense of sin, of life to the fear of death.
But when he added. The peace that is mine
I give to you, we are reminded of the tre-
mendous conflict going on in bis own nature
at that very moment, and of the sublime
secret of Jesus, by which the will of man
was brought, even in agony and death, into
utter harmony with the will of God. The
a<l>iriiit and SiSw/u of this verse show how
the ordinary salutation may become invested
with immense signiflcanee. There are mo-
ments when into one human word may be
condensed the love of a lifetime. Christ
does but pour through these common words
the fire of his eternal and infinite love. Not
as the world giveth, give I to yon, both as
to manner and matter and power. The mode
of giving is real, sincere, neither formal nor
hypocritical. "I say it, and I mean it."
(Meyer, in opposition to Godet, thinks this
unworthy of the Saviour at this moment;
but Godet is right.) The matter, sub-
stance, and value of the prosperity and
peace I give stretches out into eternity ; and
I give it, I do not merely talk of it or wish
it. "Christ's farewell greeting is forerun-
ner of the beatific salutation which shall
accompany the eternal meeting" (Lange).
Then, returning to the Divine words of ver.
1, lie seems to say, " Have I not justified all
that 1 have said?" — Let not your heart be
troubled, harassed by these mysteries or by
my departure, neitiier let it be terrified
(SetXtdTu'). This is the only place in the
New Testament where the word occurs,
though it is found in the LXX.; Sei\6s
and Sei\la, in the sense of timidity from
extrinsic fear, may frequently be found.
He must have seen some rising symptoms
of the carnal weakness which would pro-
strate them for a while.
Ver. 28. — Now, however, he leads them a
step further. The disciplesareto dismiss their
trouble and fear, because (1) of the many
mansions that he is going to prepare ; (2) be-
cause he was the " Way " to' the Father ; (3)
because they have had a theophany in him ;
(4) because they shall carry on the work of
Christ and fulfil all the prophecies, (5) and
do all this under the power of another Advo-
cate or Helper; (6) because he, the Holy
Spirit, will indeed reveal him as he (Christ)
had revealed the Father; and (7) because
the Father and Son would come and take
up their abode in the loving and obedient
heart. But the Lord does more — ^he bids
them not only to dismiss their fear and
harassment, but even to "rejoice." Ye
heard that I said, I am departing, and, in
that very act, I am coming to yon. If ye
loved me, ye would have rejoiced — a sup-
position involving uncertainty with a pros-
pect of decision. Perfect love would cast
out fear. But why? Because' I go to the
rather, the theme of the whole discourse.
But why should this cause yon to rejoice ?
Because the ' Father is greater than I ! It is
not easy adequately to explain this memor-
able saying. The Arians made use of it to
prove, from our Lord's own lips, that his
Person, even his pre-existent Divinity, was
less than the Father's; that his essence,
admittedly generated by the Father, was
created by him, and was not the same as
that of the Father. The same view has
been held by the rationalistic scliool. The
Socinians and modem Unitarians have in-
sisted on the entire dependence and purely
human oliaracter of our Lord. The Son of
man and Son of God are to many merely the
self-chosen titles of the greatest of the sons
of men, who thus is supposed to put himself
on a level with ordinary men who may learn
to call God their Father. But is it ? Could
any man, unconscious of a far closer rela-
tion with Qod than that of the greatest
saint, dare to say, as if to relieve anxiety on
that head, " My Father is greater tlian I" ?
Is there not in the very phrase a suggestion
of Divine sufficiency and relation to the
Father which altogetlier precludes tlie
purely humanitarian position ? (1) A theo-
logical view which has largely prevailed
among those who have held the homoousia
of the Father and the Son, is that the Lord
was here speaking of his human nature
only. The Athanasian symbol says," Equal
to the Father as touching his Godhead,
and inferior to the Father as touching his
Manhood." But the "I" is here used of
his whole Personality, as in ch. viii. 58;
X. 30, and throughout the discourse he is
speaking of himself in the Divine-human
Person in which the eternal and temporal,
the infinite and finite, are indissolubly
blended. (2) Others have supposed that he
referred to himself as in a state of humilia-
tion. Hengsteuberg says the Lord was
speaking of the pre-eminent greatness of the
Father, which came to an end at his de-
parture. Cyril, Luther, Melancthon, De
Wette, Tholuck, Luthardt,and Alford think
> Zlirov is omitted by B.T. and Westcott
and Hort, with K, A, B, D, E, L, eto.
' Nov is omitted by B.T. and moderm
editors, with A, B, D, L, X.
OH. XIV. 1—31.] THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN.
231
that Jesus spoke these vordg of the hu-
miliated Christ in his oondition of a ser-
yant— obedient unto death. The Son, the
Logos of God, was that Mode or Personality
of Deity by which " God " created the uni-
veree, governed mankind, and proceeded by
■peoial manifestation — incarnation, life, and
death— to redeem the world. Calvin had
said, while the Arians have abused this
testimony, the orthodox solution of the
Fathers was neither harmonious nor sound ;
the true signification of the passage, accord-
ing to him, being found in the mediatorial
of&ce of the Christ, and in his status ex-
iuanitionit. But this would not exhaust
the meaning, for in this very passage he
does doBcribe the Father as greater even
than the exalted Christ ; and in oh. i. 1 — 3
as greater even than the pre-existent Logos.
And BO (3) we are led to see that there is
indeed a subordination of rank and order in
the Son, involved in the very notion even
of an eternal generation; and compatible
with the equality of Being and of essence
which he shared with the Father. This is
undoubtedly confirmed by ch. xvii. 3, 5;
1 Cor. XV. 27; Phil. ii. 9— 11; 1 Cor. iii.
23 ; xL 3 ; and has been through the whole
history of Christological speculation con-
ceded (Bishop Bull,' in his three chapters
on the "Subordination of the Son," has
shown, by abundant proof, that before and
after the Council of Nicsea, the Fathers
held "that the Son has indeed the same
Divine nature in common with the Father,
but communicated by the Father in such
sense, i.e., that the Father alone hath the
Divine nature from himself, but the Son
from the Father; that the Father is the
Fountain, Origin, and Principle of the
Divinity which Is in the Son"). This
is abundantly needful to avoid at once
the errors of britheism, and to maintain the
real unity of the Divine Being. Christ's
going to the Father was a ground of re-
joicing, because his exaltation through
death and resurrection to the position of
power and majesty unutterable, and the
lifting up of his Divine-human Personality
to the midst of the throne, gives to Mm, in
his relations with his disciples, the efiScacy
of the greatness of that Divine nature
which, by its own characteristics, could not
have become incarnate. The unrevealed
God is greater than the revealed. The
lifting up of perfect humanity into the
glory which the Son had with the Father
before the world was, should have been the
cause of joy to the disciples. It is the well-
spring of joy to the Church (see Suicer,
' Thesaurus,' art. Mei{oviTris ; Bull's ' De-
• ' Defence of the Nicen'e Creed,' Oxford
edit., bk. if.
fence of the Nicene Creed,' bk. iv. ; West-
cott's catena of passages in ' Additional Note
to ch. ziv. ; ' Lange and P. Schaff, ' Comm.
on John').
Ver. 29. — And now I have said it to you
before it come to pass— I have told you of
my departure and what is involved in it —
that when it is oome to pass, ye may believe.
Christ often appeals to the etfeot which the
fulfilment of his own predictions will pro-
duce in the minds of his disciples (ch. i 51 ;
xiii. 19). They will, when the series
of events wiU unroU themselves, believe
that he has gone to the Father, to do all
he said he would do, to be all he said he
was. This means undoubtedly more than
a spiritual consolation whereby they may
endure his separation by. death from their
society. It is the announcement beforehand
of the Resurrection and Ascension, by which
their faith in his exaltation would be fanned
into burning flame and made » revelation
of Divine love to the universe.
Ver. 30. — I wiU no longer talk muoh with
you. This seems strange when there follow
ch. XV. — xvii. ; but it gives a hint of the
abundance of instruction, of Xxthia, of i^yoi,
which John at least had heard, of which he
has only given tlie specimens of a few short
days of intercourse. For the prince of the >
world (see cli. xii. 31); the lord and master,
by base usurpation, of the world of men.
This term is continually found in rabbinical
writings for the great central power of evil
in the world. The activity of evil was then
at work. Satan entered into Judas; the
spirit of evil was rampant in all the machi-
nation of the leaders of the people. The
eagles of this impure host were gathering.
The last conflict impended. The prince of
the world, who shall be cast out, judged
and conquered, eometh, and hath nothing in
me. The conflict between the second Adam
and the devil culminates. Christ looks
through the whole army of his opponents,
and feels that he has to wrestle with the
ruler of the darkness of the world, but at
the same time is sublimely conscious that
there is nothing in him on which the evil
can fasten, Christ certainly claims a sin-
lessness of inner nature which no other
saint has arrogated to himselt^ Accusations
of the world were numerous enough, but
those who brought them were ignorant.
Now he has to do with one who knows
him, but not so well as he knows himself.
The double negation, ouk tx" oiStv, must be
• Toirov, omitted by Tischendorf (8th
edit.), Tregelles, R.T., etc., with K, B, D,
L, X, r. A, numerous cursives, versions, and
Fathers. The word hujus is found in many
manuscripts of Old Latin and Fatheia, aai
is found in T.B., Griesbaeh, eto.
232
THE GOSPEL ACXJORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xiv. 1—31-
noticed—" absolutely nothing." Thns he
Tirtually repeats hia own utterance, " I am
not of this world." This great word pre-
supposes again the uniqueness of Christ's
Personality and oonsoiousness. With every
other man the higher the conception of the
Divine Law and claim, so much the deeper
becomps the sense of departure from it. In
Oliriet'a case his lofty knowledge of the
Father only makes him know, and even
compels him to confess, his reconciliation,
bis obedience, and his inward sinlessness.
Ver. 31.— But that— dxV W is elliptical
(Weetcott translates, " But I surrender my-
self, that," etc.; and Meyer, "But hecometh,
that," etc.), not dependent on iy(lpf<r8e — ^the
world may know — that Tery world over
which this alien spirit has so long tyrannized
may know, if not now, yet ultimately — ^that
I love the Father. Then it is the world
which is to be nevertheless drawn to him by
his being "lifted up "(ch. xii. 52)— the world
which the Father loves so much as to save
and redeem from the power of the enemy. And
even as the Father commanded me — which
is nndonbtedly in harmony with the entire
representation of the nfi(oy6Trisot the Father
— so I do. My love is strong as death.
Though the princeof the world has no right
oyer me, I go at the Father's bidding to do
his will, to suffer, but to win, and through
death to destroy him that has the power of
death. Arise, let us go hence — words which
are also found in Matt. xxvi. 46, and are
a touch of the eye-witness that nothing will
obliterate. A second-century theologian
would not have introduced such a feature.
They leave the guest-chamber, and so the
remainder of the discourse was delivered in
the brightness of the Paschal moon, under
shadow of the walls of Jerusalem, or in
some comer of the temple area, or some
convenient place on the way to Gothsemane.
He said these words, however, before he
crossed the Kedron (ch. xviii. 1). Appa-
rently on the way thither he once more took
up his parable.
HOMILBTICS.
Vers. 1 — 4. — Comfort under separatum. There is no break between this chapter
and the preceding.
I. Mark our Lord's sympathy with his disciples. "Let not your heart be
troubled." 1. The best of OocPs people may he at times in a desponding and distrustful
mood. 2. Jesus takes delight in comforting his saints and lightening the burden of a
heavy heart. " Come iinto me, and I will give you rest."
IL Mark the remedy fob the despondent mood of his disciples. " Believe in
God, believe also in me." It is faith. Jesus invites them to confidence. 1. There
must he faith in God, who has provided a home for his children on high. There is great
comfort in the thought of the Fatherhood of God. 2. There must he faith in Christ,
who, as the Mediator, will realize what the Father hat promised. (1) As the true
Object of our faith, Christ appears here as necessarily God in conjunction with his
Father. (2) The belief that brings comfort to the disciples is not a mere assent to
liropositions, but trust in a Person, distinguished by love, faithfulness, and power.
111. The aroumentb fob consolation. 1. The existence of heaven as the home of
the saints. "In my Father's house are many mansions." (1) Heaven is a definite
locality. Jesus is there in his glorified body. (2) It is the Father's house, where God
is seen as Father. (3) It is the home of a family. Heaven is a social state. The
children of God are all there. (4) It is a large house, for it has " many mansions."
(a) This does not signify that there are different degrees of happiness in heaven, (b)
but that there is room in heaven for the whole family of God. (5) It is a prepared
place for a prepared people, ordered by the Lord himself. " I go to prepare a place for
you." (a) This implies that Jesus will go first to heaven. (6) He enters within the
veil as " Forerunner." What strong consolation is in this blessed truth ! 2. Another
argument for consolation is the promise of Ghrisfs return to receive his disciples. " And
if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and I will receive you to myself ;'that
where I am, there ye may be also." (1) Christ's coming is not (o) at Pentecost, (6)
nor at conversion, (c) nor at the day of judgment, (d) but at the death of each disciple.
(2) The believer will be ultimately received into intimate communion with Christ in
glory, (fl^ Heaven is wherever Christ is j therefore " to depart and be with Christ is
lar better." (J) Christ will be the Centre of the believer's joys. 3. Another argument
/W- tonsolation it that the diieiplet knew the way to heaven. "And whither I go ya
OH. MV. 1—31.] THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. 23S
know, and the vraj ye know." (1) Heaven was the goal. (2) The way wag com-
munion with himselL
Vers. 5 — 7. — Thoma^s questioning. It turned upon the ability of Christ to bring
the disciples to the end of the way.
I. Thomas's obscueities. " Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can
we know the way?" 1. He imagined that the Messiah's reign was to he on earth.
Where, then, could be the royal home to which the Messiah was about to depart, ami
into which he was to gather his saints? 2. The question illustrates the peculiar temper
of a disciple who is not destined to receive the higher blessing of those who " have not
seen, and yet have believed."
II. OuE Lord's solution of Thomas's diffioultibs. " I am the Way, the Truth,
and the Life: no mnn cometh unto the Father, but by me." The answer is larger
than the question. To know Christ is to know the goal and the way to it. 1. Jesus
is the Way to heaven. (1) He is the only Way (Acts iv. 12). (2) He is the new
Way (Heb. x. 20). (3) He is the old Way (Heb. xi. 40). (4) He is the Way that
joius two worlds. (5) He is the Way of access to the Father. "No man cometh to
the Father, but by me." 2. Jestis is the Truth. (1) He is the Teacher of the truth
which directs to the way. (2) He is the Revelation of God to the world. (3) He is
the eternal Truth. 3. Jesus is the Life. (1) He is the Giver of the life which carries
the believer to heaven. (2) He is the living Way. (3) He is that eternal Life that
was with the Father and was manifested to us (1 John i. 2). (4) He is the abiding
Source of spiritual life. 4. The Father is the End of the way. " No man cometh to
the Father, but by me.'" Christ's mediatorship is an essential fact in Christianity. 6.
The manifestation of Jesus is the manifestation of the Father. " If ye had known me,
ye would have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have
seen him." This manifestation will be fuller as the day of Pentecost is at hand, with
its shower of spiritual blessiugs and its wide enlargement of knowledge.
Vers. 8 — 21. — Philip's questioning. This disciple, one of the earliest, seizes upon the
last word of our Lord and asks for a bodily sight of the Father.
I. Philip's demand to see the Father. "Lord, show us the Father, and it
sufficeth us." 1. It is hard to decide how much of ignorance is compatible with saving
grace. 2. Evidently Philip thought of such a reoelation of God as was vouchsafed to
Moses in aiiswer to the request, " Lord, show me thy glory." 3. He believed that such
a revelation would solve all his difficulties and doubts. 4. How strange that Philip
ihould not, in three years, have found what he aspired after I "He that hath seen me
hath seen the Father." 5. Yet his request implies that it was in Christ's power to
satisfy his demand. (Matt. xi. 29.)
II. Our Lord's answer to Philip's demand. "I have been so long time with you,
and yet thou hast not known me, Philip." 1. Philip was longer with Jesus than most
of the disciples. The words have a touch of sadness and disappointment, as if Philip
liad failed to benefit by all the teaching and experience of three years. 2. The answer
im/dies the impossibility of seeing the invisible Father with the eyes of the body. 3. But
the Father is seen in him who is his express Image. " He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father." He sues the Father's love, faithfulness, and power. The life ol' Christ
is the true manifestation of the Father. 4. Jesus points to two proofs of his union
with the Father. (1) His teaching. " The words that I speak unto you, I speak not
of myself." All was a revelation of God. (2) His miracles, " And the Father that
dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." The works were a revelation of the Father's
power, as the words were of his character. The disciples ought to deduce the Divinity
of Christ's nature from his works. '' Believe me for the works' sake."
III. Christ's departure will be the signal for the revelation of new power
IN THE APOSTLES. " He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also ;
and greater works than these shall he do ; because I go to the Father." 1. Ohrist
endowed his disciples with power to work miracles like his own. 2. He endowed them
with power to do still " greater works " — in Pentecostal conversions — which were of a
far more exalted nature and with more enduring results than miracles of power. The
prophecy began to be fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, and is still in process of fulfil-
234 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xiv. 1—81
ment in the expanding growth of the kingdom of Gkid. 3. UiiB higher productivenesi
of the disciples is to depend upon Chrisfs higher position. "Because I go to the
Father." The ascended Lord has received the " all power " of heaven and earth for the
use of his Church. 4. Prayer mil he the disciples' part in these greater works. "And
whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified
in the Son." (1) Mark the true condition of successful prayer. It must be " in Christ's
Name." (a) It implies that it is by the blood of Christ we draw near to God ; (jb) that
we pray in the strength of Christ ; (c) that we believe we shall obtain from Christ in
heaven whatever vre ask of him. (2) Mark the large scope of prayer : " Whatsoever
ye shall ask." There is no limitation save what is implied in subjection to the will of
God. (3) Mark the certainty of the answer of prayer : " I will do it." Does Jesus
hear his own prayer? As the Organ of Divine power, he gives the answer. (4) Mark
the design of this prayer : " That the Father may be glorified in the Son." The object
is, " Thy kingdom come."
IV. The bouboe whence this peatbb of power debites its VAMDrrr. It is the
Holy Spirit, the Comforter. 1. Mark the moral condition of this new blessing. "If ye
love me, keep my commandments." (1) Obedience is the necessary fruit of love.
"Love without obedience is dissimulation; obedience without love is but drudgery
and slavery." (2) Our efficiency depends upon our fellowship with him in a loving
obedience. 2. Mark the glorious provision that is made for Ohrisfs absence. " And
I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide
with you for ever." (1) It is Christ's prayer that procures for us the Holy Spirit.
So long as Christ is in heaven, in his intercessory power, we shall never want blessing.
(2) It is the Father who gives the Holy Spirit He is, indeed, the Father of all
comfort. His Fatherhood is the pledge that the prayer will be granted. (3) The
blessing is the Comforter — " the Spirit of truth." (a) This title implies his distinct
Personality, (5) his true Divinity, (e) Mark his various relations to believers, (o)
He is "with them" in fellowship. (/8) He abideth by them in personal comfort, (y)
He is "in them" in indwelling power. (S) His presence will be perpetual — " that he
may abide with you for ever." Christ's historical presence was now to be measured by
a few hours or days. The Holy Spirit will be with the Church till the end of the
world, (e) He cannot be receivai by an unreceptive, unsympathetic world. "Whom
the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him." The world
cannot see or know spiritual things, which demand the faculty of spiritual discernment
(1 Cor. ii. 14). {() The receptiveness of the disciples, so different from the moral
blindness of the world, had its origin in the Spirit's indwelling, and would be still
further strengthened by the fuller measures of his grace.
V. The consolation bhitlied by Cheist's spieitual pbesenoe in the futdbb
EXPEBIENOE OF HIS DISCIPLES. " I wiU not leave you orphans."- 1. Our Lord thinks
of them as "little children" who needed (1) guidance, (2) support, (3) comfort. 2.
His departure was just at hand. " Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more ;
but ye see me : because I live, ye shall live also." (1) The world was to see him no
more after his death. After his resurrection he appeared only to his disciples. (2)
His disciples would see him ; they would " behold with uncovered face the glory of the
Lord" (2 Cor. iii. 18). (3) The ground of this faculty of vision lay in their fellowship
with his life, (a) It is the fulness of life to see God as he is (1 John iii. 1, 2). (b)
Christ's life is the foundation and guarantee of the life of behevers. 3. The day of the
gift of the Comfwter luill he the signal of fresh and enlarged blessings. "At that day
ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." (1) The Com-
forter will impart the knowledge of the mystical union in all its spiritual completeness.
He will witness with the spirit of believers that they are children of God. (2) The
sincerity of love will be manifested by a steadfast obedience. "He that hath my
commandments, and keepeth them, loveth me." (a) Mark the need of knowledge to
obedience. (6) The need of obedience to loving happiness. (3) The promise to
obedience. "He shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest
myself to him." (a) The Father loves all who love the Son, his own beloved Son.
(b) The Son loves those who love the Father, and makes through that very love, ■
more perfect revelation of himself. Thus this higher manifestation more than suppliei
the place of his bodily presence.
OH. ziv. 1— 31.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 235
Ven. 22 — 24. — The nature and conditions of Chrisfs mam/estation. The last een-
teoce of our Lord suggests the question of Judas.
I, The question of Judas. " Lord, and what has happened, that thou wilt mani-
fest thyself to us, and not unto the world ? " 1. The questioner, who is otherwise knoton
as Lehlieus or Thaddxus, mistakes the nature of Christ's manifestation. He imagined
that it would be a theophany associated with the establishment of a temporal kingdom.
2. Be imagines that Jesus has made some sudden change in the scope or sphere of the
Messianic manifestation. He knew that it would affect the Gentiles as well as the
Jews. He is at a loss to understand the change in the Messianic programme.
II. Cub Loed's explanation of the oonditionb of his manifestation. " If any
man love me, he will keep my words : and my Father will love him, and we will come
unto him, and make our abode with him." 1. The conditions are love to Jesus, proved
by obedience, and crowned with the love of the Father. The power of receiving the
revelation depends upon loving obedience. Thus the Divine fellowship is always con-
ditioned. 2. The want of love in the world made the manifestation impossible to it.
" He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings." This was the true answer to the
question of Judas. 3. The manifestation, of Christ is spiritual rather than temporal.
" The kingdom of God cometh not with observation ; the kingdom of God is within
you." God dwells with the believer ; the believer dwells with God. The first is the
condition of the second. ^
Vers. 25 — 27. — The promise of a fuller revelation and of an abiding peace. The
disciples had much yet to learn.
I. The office of the Holt Spkit. " But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in my Name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all
things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." 1. As the purpose of
the Son's mission is to reveal the Father, so the purpose of the Spirifs mission is to
reveal, the Son. 2. Ee lias a double office : (1) teJaohing new tnith ; (2) bringing old
truth to remembrance. The sayings of Jesus will be the groundwork of all the Spirit's
operation.
II. The legacy of peace. " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you :
not as the world giveth, give I unto you." The words breathe the sweetness of a fare-
well blessing. 1. Mark the blessing promised. "Peace." (1) It is the inward security
of the soul based upon reconciliation with God. (2) It is Christ's own peace (a) which
he enjoys ; (6) which it is his prerogative to give ; (c) it is allied to the " peace on
earth " sung at his birth ; (d) it is identified inseparably with him who is continuously
"our peace" (Eph. ii. 14). 2. Mark the method of its bestowal. (1) It is left as a
legacy before his departure from the world. Precious legacy to a sin-troubled race t (2)
It is a gift, not earned by man ; but, like salvation itself, altogetlier of grace. (3) It is
superior to all the world's gifts. "Not as the world giveth, give I unto you." (o)
The world's peace is not lasting. (6) It gives the greatest pleasure at the first, (c)
This peace is absolutely superior to all legacies of the world, such as houses and lands.
3. Mark the effect of peace upon the heart-trouble. " Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid." (1) Peace guards the heart against care, (2) and makes the
heart strong For service and fearless in suffering in the face of the world's hostility.
Ver. 28. — The propriety of the dimpled gladness at Chrisfs exaltation. His dbpab-
TUBB calculated TO CAUSE JOT, NOT SORROW. " If ys loved me, ye would rejoice,
because I said, I go unto my Father." 1. 7}r^le love rejoices in another's good rather
than in <mis own. Our Lord's woris imply that the disciples were selfish in seeking
his further continuance with them on earth. 2. The ground of a legitimate joy at his
departure. " For my Father is greater than I." (1) He would share in heaven the
omnipresence of the Father, and be thus able to bless his people in every place. He
would he their omnipresent Redeemer and Friend. (2) His exaltation, in union with
the Father, would enable him effectually to carry out his redemptive work, (a) The
woidfl, " My Father is greater than I," are not inconsistent with the Son's Deity, as
Arians afSnn ; for what mere man or mere creature would ever think of saying that
Gk)d is greater than himself? Is it not a truism to say so? The very faot that Christ
ttsad these words implies his coasciousness of possessing a Divine nature, (b) The Lord
236 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [cH. xiv. 1—31.
refers here, (a) not to the inferiority of his human nature, (jS) nor to his mere Mediator-
ship, as implying a serrant's position, (7) but to his subordination as a Son to the
Father, in his essential Godhefid. He asserts, in fact, his Divine essence.
Vers. 29 — 31. — The crisis at hand. Jesus is about to end his discourre in the
chamber.
I. HiB PREDICTION OF EVENTS IB DBSIQNED TO BTRBNOTHEN THE DISOIPLES' FAITH.
" And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye
may believe." 1. The events foretold are his departure and all involved m it, as well
as the mission of the Gomforter. 2. What a wise provision he made to support the faith
and patience of his followers / For his separation from them would be the greatest of
trials.
II. The imminence or the crisis. " The prince of this world cometh, and hath
nothing in me." 1. Satan was approaching in the persons of Judas and the chief
priests, whose counsels he inspired. They were all instruments of the great enemy.
There was likewise in our Lord's mind a presentiment of his approaching agony in
Getlisemane. 2. Tet Satan had nothing in Jesus that fell under his power. It is
sin that gives Satan the power over man. Our Lord's words imply (1) Christ's perfect
sinlessness, (2) and the absolute voluatariness of his death.
III. The P0BPO8E OF his death. " But that the world may know that I love the
Father ; and as the Father gave me commandmeat, even so I do." 1. His obedience to
death was an evidence of his love to the Father. 2. It was likewise an act of dhedience
to the Divine commandment. " Lo, I come to do thy will, 0 God."
HOMILIES BY VABIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 1 — 3. — The revelation made to faith. The dark shadow of our Lord's approach-
ing agony and death was now upon his heart. Tet he thought tenderly of the sorrow
of his disciples on their own account. Hence the sympathizing and consolatory tone of
bis last sustained and leisurely conversation with them. Hence the special revelation
with which they were on this occasion favoured. And hence, too, the intercessory prayer
which was at that juncture of their need offered so fervently on their behalf. The
words which comforted them have proved consolatory to Christ's people in every age,
and especially to those in affliction of spirit.
I. The object op faith, as enjoined by Christ. Faith was the condition of receiv-
ing the revelation and enjoying the promise which the Lord Jesus had to communicate.
Now, it is a very common thing in our days for men to eulogize faith. But it is not
infrequently forgotten that the virtue of faith depends upon its object. To believe is
good, if we believe what is worthy of credit. To trust is good, if we trust one deserving
of confidence. Our Lord enjoins faith : 1. In God. If there be a God, surely we can
need no argument, no persuasion, to induce us to believe in him. We believe in our
imperfect earthly friends ; how much more reason have we to believe in our perfect
God ? Especially does this appear when we consider, not only what God is, but what .
lie has done to justify and to elicit our faith. 2. In Christ. How shall we connect
faith in the Saviour with faith in the Father ? Probably thus : we need some faith in
God in order to believe in Jesus whom he sent, and then, trusting in Christ, we attain
to a fuller, stronger faith in the Father. The apostles and disciples, whom Jesus
slathered round him in his earthly ministry, had such experience of his truth, his
tenderness, his fidelity, that they might well trust him entirely and always — trust him
so as to receive his declarations, to rely upon his promises, to do his will. How natural
and proper is it for the Christian, who knows alike bis own need and the sufficiency of his
Saviour, to place in him an absolute and unfaltering trust 1 If such trust was becoming
on the part of those who knew Jesus in his ministry, how far stronger are the induce-
ments which our experience of our Saviour's grace and power furnish to our confidence 1
We look back upon what Jesus suffered for us, upon his victory as our Representative,
and upon his long unseen ministry ol grace ; and we respond to his summons, and renew
our faith in his words and in his work.
II. The bevei.ation Chkist makes to faith. This unfolding of Divine counsels ha>
OH. XIV. 1— 31.J THE GOSPEL ACCOBDmG TO ST, JOHN. 237
reference to man's life and history as a whole ; not only to the Been, but to the unseen,
the etirnal. Temporary sorrows and difficulties all but disappear when they take their
place as incidents in an immortal existence. 1. The universe is our Father's house and
temple. How far otherwise is it regarded by many, even of the inquiring and intelli-
gent 1 To not a few the world is mindless, loveless, has no origin that can be under-
stood, and no aim ; aad has, therefore, a very feeble interest. As God's house, it has
been built and furnished by the Divine Architect, who has arranged it to suit the needs
of all his children. As God's temple, it is the scene of his indwelling and manifestation,
of his holy service and his spiritual glory. It is the place where he dwells and where
he is worshippud, who' is Christ's Father and ours. What sweet and hallowed associa-
tions are wont to gather around the house of the human father I Similarly to thu
Christian the universe is dear, because there the Divine Father displays his presenci,
exercises his care, utters his love. That rebellious and profane voices are heard in the
house which is consecrated to obedience, reverence, and praise, is indeed too true. Yet
the Christian can never lose sight of the true purpose, the proper destination, of the
world ; in his apprehension it has been formed for the Divine glory, and it is conse-
crated by the Divine love. 2. The universe is further represented by Jesus as contain-
ing many and varied abodes for the spiritual children of God. Why is the great house
so spacious and commodious ? Because it is constructed to contain multitudes of inhabit-
ants, and to afford to all a scene of service and of development. " Many abiding-places "
are for the use of many guests, of many children. There are many citizens in the
city, many subjects in the kingdom, many chiWren in tlie household, many worshippers
in the temple. Among those of whom we have little knowledge are the angels, thrones,
principalities, and powers. Among those known to us by the records of the past are
patriarchs and prophets, apostles, saints, and martyrs. There is room for all — for the
young and the old, the ignorant and the learned, the great and the despised. No
reader of Christ's words can doubt that his purpose and his promise included untold
myriads of mankind. His life was given a ransom " for many." He designed to " draw
all men unto himself." He foresaw that many should enter his kingdom, from tho
East and from the West. In the Book of his Revelation by John, it is foretold that
"a great multitude, whom no man can number," shall assemble before the throne of
glory. The pilgrim shall leave his tent, the captive his prison, the voyager his ship,
the warrior his camp, and all alike shall repair to " the house which hath foundations,
whose Builder and Maker is God." It is a glorious spectacle, one which reason is ton
dim-sighted to behold, but which is clear to the eye of faith.
III. The pkqjiise Chbist gives to faith. Many of our Lord's earlier sayings
had been vague ; now, in anticipation of his departure, his language is plain and clear.
1. Jesus has goi;e to prepare. Not indeed for himself, but for his people. When earth
has no longer a place for them, a home will be found to have been made ready for their
reception elsewhere. There is much that is mysterious in the exercise of our Saviour's
mediatorial grace in the sphere of his present action ; but we have no difficulty in
believing that he concerns himself above with the work which he commenced below.
2. He will come again to receive. Shall we take this assurance to refer to his resur-
rection, or to his second coming yet in the future ? Or has it not rather reference to
that perpetual coming of Christ unto his own, pf which his Church has always and
everywhere had experience? When the earthly service of a faithful disciple is finished,
then Jesus comes to welcome that beloved and approved one to rest and recompense. Con-
cerning our dear ones w ho are dead to earth, we have the assurance that they have not been
overlooked by the Divine and tender Friend of souls. 3. He assures his people of his
blessed fellowship. The language in which Jesus conveyed the assurance must have
been peculiarly affecting to those who had been with him during his earthly ministry.
They knew by experience the charm of their Lord's society, and the strength it gave
them for work and for endurance. What more attractive and glorious prospect could
the future have for them than this — the renewal and the perpetuation of that fellow-
ship which had been the joy and the blessing of their life on earth? But the same is
in a measure true of every Christian. What representation of future happiness is so
congenial and so inspiring as this — the being " ever with the Lord " ?
IV. Thb peace which 18 THE FRUIT OP PAiTH. Much was at hand which was
likely to occasion alarm and dismay. Events were about to happen which would crush
*88 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xiv. 1—31.
many hopes and clond many hearta. This was well known to the Master. Hence hia
admonition to his disciples, " Let not your heart be troubled." An admonition such
as this, when it comes alone, is powerless. But Christ, by revealing himself and hi«
porposes to the minds of his brethren, supported the precept he addressed to themi
What might well distress and even overwhelm those who were without the support
and consolation of a sustaining and inspiring faith, would be powerless to shake such
as built their hopes upon the sure foundation of unchanging faithfulness, immortal
love. Those who have faith in Christ are the possessors of true peace — the peace which
" passeth understanding," the peace which the world can neither give nor take away. — T.
Vers. 4 — 6. — The way to God. The course of the conversation here is not hard to
follow. First, there is the assertion of Jesus, following upon his revelation of the
heavenly dwelling-places, that his disciples knew well tlie road he was about to travel.
He had often of late spoken of his approaching departure from this world, and even of
the manner of it. Secondly, there is the difficulty, started by Thomas, that they knew
not the goal, and therefore could not know the path by which it should be reached.
This difficulty may have been partly an unspiritual stumbling ; the twelve were think-
ing of an earthly road and an earthly destination, and were confusing the approach to
the Father with the approach to a city or a mansion, in which latter case, indeed,
a traveller needs to know first his goal and then his route. Partly, too, the perplexity
may have been owing to a deep depression, by reason of which the twelve did not do
justice to their own knowledge and standing, and took a lower tone than they should
have done. Then, thirdly, there is our Lord's explanatory reply. In this he gives
what we may call a turn to the conversation, passing in thought from himself to them.
The Father's house is for both — for the elder son and for the younger members of the
spiritual family. To know the road thither — this is the matter of chief concern to all.
Thus Jesus is led to communicate to them the great revelation of the sixth verse — :to
point to himself as " the Way," and to represent himself as the sole and sufficient means
of approach to God.
I. Chbist is thb Wat to the knowledge of God. It is not so much by
explanatory language that Jesus reveals to his people the character of the Father ; he
does not merely point out the way. But in his own Person, his life and -ministry, he
displays to us the attributes of Deity which it most concerns us to know ; and thus
he is the way. As incarnate God, as the one Mediator, he presents the Father before
the view of his spiritual family.
II. Christ re the Way to the favoub of God. To understand how holy and
how righteous is the Divine Buler and Judge, is to understand that sinners forfeit his
favour. Our Saviour is the divinely appointed Way to reconciliation and harmony with
him whose laws all men have broken. He removes obstacles otherwise insurmountable,
bridges chasms otherwise impassable, makes of himself a path of safety and of pro-
gress, so that the passage to the Divine friendship becomes possible and safe. On this
account, probably, Christianity is, in the Book of the Acts, repeatedly spoken of as " the
way," i.e. the path by which sinful men return to the affectionate interest and regard
of a righteous God.
in. CHEffiT IB the Way to the Fatheb's fellowship. It is, indeed, with a view
to this that the former is desirable. It is moral union which is chiefly important.
And the Spirit of Christ exercises over the nature of believing men that power and
grace which transform into the Divine likeness. In coming thus unto the Father a man
becomes a son indeed ; he experiences the grace of true adoption ; he is made in the
likeness of his Lord.
IV. Chbist is the Wat to tee Fatheb's fbesence and home. This perhaps is
both the ultimate sense of the language, and the first meaning attached to it by those
to whom it was addressed. Jesus was himself about to go to the Father, and he
wished his beloved friends to understand that he would not go alone, that in due time
they should enter the sacred presence and know the mystic joy. And since it was
difficult for them to believe and realize this, he drew their regard to himself, and led
them to cherish the hope that in his society and through his mediation they should
be introduced to all the honours and to all the immortal employments of the Father"*
■ house. — T.
•tiL xiT. 1— 31.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 23fe
Ver. 6. — Christ the Truth. Often in the New Testament do we find our Lord Jesua
assooiateil with truth. Those who saw him as he was beheld hira " full of grace and
truth." His promise to the disciples who studied him was that they should know the
truth, and by the truth should be made free. Wheu the crisis nf his ministry and the
hour of his sacrifice arrived, he sammed up the whole purpose of his mission in the
declaration that he came into the world in order to " bear witness unto the truth."
Hence in the Apocalypse he is named as " the faithful and true Witness."
I. What is the truth to be found in Christ? All truth is beautiful, worthy
of revcronco and of quest; but there are grade's of truth. There is a common notion
that upon matters of little moment truth is attainable; but that, the higher we go in
our inquiries, (he more is it imperative to be content with doubt and uncertainty ;
whilst upon the most wonderful and sacred of a]l themes truih is absolutely beyond
our reach. This accounts for much of men's absurption in trifles. How many are
content with the knowledge of individual facts and unimportant generalizations, just
because the sceptical spirit of the time indisposes them to believe in the possibility of
grasping the truth upon the greatest subjects of all 1 Yet it is a persuasion as
unreasonable as it is dreary, that man is not made to know the truth. Pilate asked,
perhaps with a cynical and wearied indiflference, " What is truth ? " But multitudes
are like him in the conviction, the prejudice, that to this query there is no reply.
Positivism tells us tliat phenomena and their invariable connections may be known, but
tliat it is a waste of human time and power to seek for what really is, for what accounts
for all that ap[)ears. Yet there are times when the most hopeless sceptic longs for
truth. And especially are we constrained to desire truth regarding our own nature,
truth regarding the character and purposes of God, truth regarding the Divine purpose
in our being and our life, truth relating to eternity. The small syllogisms by which
men attempt to prove that truth, on all matters upon which we really care for truth, is
beyond our reach, impose upon none of us. And Christianity is the highest reason,
because it offers that which our limited and unaided experience cannot acquire — the
truth, which may take to one mind the form' of spiritual beauty, to another the shape
of a law of infinite righteousness, but which is what alone can satisfy the craving
nature of man.
IL How DOES Christ bevbal the truth? The most obvious answer to this
inquiry is, that our Lord's recorded words are the embodiment of religious truth both
speculative and practical. And he distinctly and boldly claimed to tell his auditors
"the truth." Certain it is that upon all matters of highest interest we are indebted
more to Jesus than to all others. The intuitions of genius, the conclusions of medi-
tation and of learning, cannot be compared with those Divine utterances of the Prophet,
of Nazareth, which, though in form and in language so simple, have been recognized
by the thoughtful as consummate wisdom — as, in fact, revelation, and nothing less than
revelation. Sit at the feet of the gre^t Teacher, and you will learn more truth from
his lips than can be acquired from studying the treatises of thinkers and the aphorisms
of sages. Yet it is observable that Jesus does not say, " I teach the truth; " he says, " I
awi the Truth." This may be paradoxical, but it is just. The truth upon the highest
of all themes cannot be put into words. Human language is not always adequate to
express human ideas, human emotions ; how can it be expected to utter the thoughts
and the principles which are Divine ? There are subjects to which the close precision
of words may seem adapted ; they are capable of verbal vesture. But how much there
IS which no words can tell — even those words which, as their. Speaker said, are " spirit
and life "I
" Truth in closest words shall fan.
When truth, embodied in a tale.
Shall enter in at lowly doors."
There was but one way in which man could learn God, and that was by God becoming
m»n. " The Word became flesh." We learn Divine truth in the ministry, the life, of
God's Son. The truth as to God's character we read in the deeds of Immanuel, so
gentle, yet so grand and God-like. The truth as to God's purposes of love we learn
from Christ's sacrifice, from Christ's cross. The truth concerning our salvation w3
know when we witness Christ's victory over sin and death. It is the complete picture
«40 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN, [oh, xrv. 1—81
which portrays the complete original ; he who would acquaint himself with the whole
truth of God, as far as God is related to man, must take into his mind the perfect and
glorious representation offered in the gospel. There is no other way in which the
truth can be grasped and held by the finite, created nature. Enow him who m the
Truth ; and then, then only, do you know the truth itself.
III. Bt what mbakb is thb teuth to be oained? If what has been said be
accepted as a just expression of the fact, and a just interpretation of the text, then we
' are on the way to a solution of the practical difficulty. There is no place for scepti-
cism— for that iuperficial and often unTeflecting denial of the possibility of attaining
trutl^, which leads some men to despair, but more to indolence of mind or to senstiality
of life. And yet truth is not to be found by a mere passive submission to human
authority; nor by a process of scientific inquiry applied to matters with which that
])rooess has no affinity. But it is to be found by those morally prepared for the
discovery by humility and reverence ; it is to be found by those who come to Christ,
to listen to him, to watch him, to win him by the wide receptiveness of faith, and by
the luminous sympathy of lore. — T.
Yer. 6. — Christ the Life. The broadest and most impressive distinction in nature
is that between what is inanimate and what lives. Beautiful as are earth's landscapes,
grand as is the rolling sea, awful as is the storm, still there is an interest in life far
deeper than can be found in the passive and the non-f^entient creation. The power which
living things possess of taking iuto thtmsclves, and of making their own, the matter
of which their own structure is composed — the growth of framework and of organs, the
exercise of function, the obvious working out in the individual of an end appointed;
the reaction of living things upon the lifeless world, and the mysterious connection ot
life with feelirjg, and in its higher forms with mind; above all, the union between the
living being, man, and the rational, accountable, immortal spirit ; — all these render life
intensely and imperishably interesting. It is not, as at first sight may seem to be the
case, a fall in dignity when Jesus, having" asserted himself to be " the Truth," goes on
to claim that he is also " the Life." In fact, the true is the theoretical, and the liviig
is the practical, in which latter the former finds its true expression, interpretation, and
end. In a universe governed by infinite reason and righteousness, the highest truth
and the noblest life must be for ever linked in perfect union.
I. Christ is in himself the Possessoe or pbkfect spiritual life. Such was
the testimony of evangelists and apostles. " In him was life ; " " The life which was
with the Father was manifested unto us," etc. The same witness was borne by the
Lord himself. " I am the Resurrection and the Life ; " " I live." Such language declares
the independence of the eternal Word, his underived authority, his supremacy over all
who live by and through him. No man can dare to say, " I am the life ; " a creature
of Divine power, born but yesterday, and every moment depending iijion providential
care, he cannot but shrink from a claim which would be as absurd as it would be profane.
But Jesus could say, " As the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son
also to have life in himself."
II. Christ is the Principle of spntiTUAL life to men. As far as we can trace
it, life always comes from life. A mysterious principle, in its origin of lineal derivation,
enables the living being to appropriate to itself its appointed nourishment, to discharge
its proper functions, to do the work assigned to it in the economy of nature. Without
this principle the lifeless. matter is powerless. Now, the spirit of man is the breath of
the Almighty. Informed by this Divine energy man lives, spiritually as well as
naturally. But there is a life which is distinctively Christian ; and this is always trace-
able to Christ himself. He communicates the life which he possesses. Imagine the
earth as it is in the chill, hard grasp of winter ; and in your fancy watch the change
which takes place when that grasp is relaxed. The sun shines more warmly, the breezes
- play softly over the fields and the forests, and radiant spring smiles upon the earth,
which beneath that smile begins to live. The corn springs up, the fiowers bloom, the
leaves burst into greenness, the grove lately still and silent echoes with the songs of
birds, and all creation flushes, blossoms, murmurs into life. Such is the change which
the coming of Christ brings to the soul, brings to the world. " Newness of life," life
" more abundantly," the movement of emancipated energies, the chorus of new-born
OH. XIV. 1—31.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 241
joy, the brightnesB and the smile of a glorious hope, — ^theso all tell that Christ, " the
Life," has come. His advent, his sacrifice, his resurrection, his Divine outpouring
of blessing;, were the means by which his spiritual vitality was communicated. , The
same Christ who gave the life at first, sustains, enriches, and develops it, and will iu
his own lime also perfect it. It is his work to slay death itself, and to pour the vitality
which streams from the bosom of the Eternal through all the channels of the spiritual
organism. It must not be overlooked that it is not the mere bodily presence of the
Saviour upon earth that ensured tliis result. It is his spiritual presence which secures
the fulness of Divine life to humanity. From the Day of Pentecost, when the Spirit,
i.e. the Spirit of Christ, was poured out from on high, life has entered human souls in
new measure and with new fruits, and in many a spot the desert has rejoiced and
blossomed as the rose.
III. Christ is thus to man the Aothob of an immortality of blessedness.
The life of created organisms, both vegetable and animal, is perishable and brief. The
life even of a species, a race, is but for a season. There are good reasons for regarding
the spiritual life as above the action of this scientific law. To that law the body, a
part of nature, is subject ; from its action the spirit is exempt. There are those who
hold that endless continuance of being is the purchase of the Saviour's redemption. But
certain it is, that what makes life good and desirable is due to the Spirit of the livin<4
Redeemer. He has " brought life and immortality to light by the gospel." He has
said, "Because I live, ye shall live also." A mere enduring sentiency is valueless;
eternal progress in the knowledge and fellowship of God himself, — this is life indeed. It
is in this sense that he who liveth and believeth on Christ shall never die.
IV. That Chbist is the Life of men is preoiocb tidings wobtht of all accepta-
tion. Spiritual death is indeed dreadful to contemplate ; to experience it is the most
awful doom that man can know. Yet the Scriptures represent sinful men as spiritually
dead — " dead in trespasses and sins." To those in such a state it seems, if they know
themselves and know not Christ, that existence is a curse. With what sweetness must
the gospel come to such ! To them it is the bringer of hope; for to them Christ is the
Bringer of life. The welcome message is, " Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from
the dead, and Christ shall give thee light I " — T.
Ver. 12. — The greater works. Our Lord Jesus when on earth was during the whole
of his ministry a Worker. He spoke of his works, and of his resolve to work the works
of the Father. In the text there is no disparagement of these displays of power — power
to teach, to heal, to rule, to conquer. They were works worthy of him who wrought
them, and they answered the purposes for which they were intended. They were not
only advantageous and beneficent to men ; they were a witness to Christ's claims, for
he himself made the well-founded appeal, " Believe me for the works' sake." Yet in
this passage our Lord affirms the superiority of the works of his disciples to his own.
L An unexpeoted and wondebFul superiority. The master may naturally be
expected to excel the servant, the teaclier to excel the scholar, the leader to excel the
follower. The reverse, however, was designed in the Christian dispensation. This very
marvellous arrangement is to our mind a proof of the Lord's confidence in himself, and
in the certainty of his expectations regarding the future of his cause. This is one of
those many and instructive instances in which God's ways are not as our ways.
II. A reasonable superiority. Below the superficial difficulty just mentioned
there is a deep-rooted reasonableness in this arrangement. As explained in the text
the conditions of this superiority are twofold. 1. They who do the greater works are
believers on Christ. Faith is ever the inner power of works, both material and moral.
It is the union with the Lord himself that makes his people strong to do the greater
works ; so that, in fact, they are not their works, but his, who works in and by hii
own faithful servants. Faith as a grain of mustard seed enables a disciple to remove
mountains. 2. They who do the greater works are possessed and inspired by the Holy
Spirit. The Lord himself assigns the reason : " Because I go unto the Father." The
ascension of Christ secured the bestowal of the Spirit, and the influences of the Spirit
enabled the richly endowed and blessed to do great marvels. " Strengthened with all
might " by the Holy Spirit, they were made fit for the great enterprise committed to
them. Feeble in themselves, they were strong in their Loid.
JOHN. — n. B
242 THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN. [0=- ^^- 1—31-
m. A PBOTBD SUPERIORITY. When Jesus uttered this asgurance, it was received by
those who heard it in faith, because thoy credited the Divine Speaker. But we have
the evidence of the facts that followed the proclamation of the gospel, and of the facts
of Christian history. By " greater works " we do not understand works more striking
and marvellous in themselves, but more glorious in their effects upon human society and
upon the progress of God's spiritual kingdom. The contrast between the signs and
wonders recorded in the four Gospels and those recorded in the Acts of the A postles
is mainly in the spiritual results by which they were accompanied and followed. As
their Lord foretold, the apostles received power to heal the sick, to expel demons, to
raise the dead. They spake with tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. The
author of the Epistle to the Hebrews best explains these greater works, when he writes
of the great salvation, that it " was confirmed unto us by them that heard, OtoA also
bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, and
by gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will." Thus it was that the moral
and spiritual changes, wrought by the agency of the apostles, were astounding to a mind
capable of measuring and appreciating wonders of this kind. The works of this nature
wrought by them were great indeed. Souls were awakened, taught, counselled, renewed,
and saved. The few who were spiritually blessed by the ministry of Jesus were but
the firstiruits of a great harvest reaped in the ministry of his apostles. A vast variety
of classes was reached. Gentiles as well as Jews received the gospel ; great centres of
civilization were attacked by the aggressive, apostolic host. Complete change of cha-
racter was effected in unnumbered instances by this consecrated and inspired agency.
Social improvements followed in the train of Christian evangelization — ameliorations
which were the earnest of the most amazing transformations which the world has
witnessed. Fully to realize these " greater works," it is necessary to take a survey
of the history of Christendom. The glimmering dawn has been followed by the
glorious day.
IV. An instructive supebioeitt. These greater works which we witness, and in
the production of which we are called upon to bear our part, have practical lessons of
value for us in this spiritual dispensation. 1. They remind us of the dignity, power,
and glory of the Saviour. Promised by him, they are evidences alike of his faithfulness
and of his power. He by his Spirit reveals his presence in his Church. 2. They
impress upon us our own responsibility. The provision having been made for the
continuance of these spiritual operations, Christ's people are called upon to prepare
themselves to act as agents in the establishment and extension of his Church on earth.
The posseshion of spiritual gifts ought not to minister to our pride ; it should remind
us of our dependence and of our duty. 3. They encourage us to cherish a bright and
glorious hope. What works have yet to be wrought before the purpose of God is
achieved, before the sufferings of Christ are rewarded, before the work of the Church
is completed! — ^T.
Vers. 13, 14. — Christian prayer. Great works involve great gifts. Our Lord, having
assured his disciples that in the coming dispensation they should perform marvellous
achievements, transcending; even his own deeds of might and grace, now proceeds to
explain how they shall be qualified for service so arduous and effective. Prayer shall
be offered, and prayer altogether special and Christian; and in answer to such prayer
the virtue and efficiency needed shall be bestowed.
I. Thk prater which Christ sanctions. 1. The petitions here encouraged are
such as the disciples of Jesus offer. Not that any human being is forbidden to pray,
out that there is special encouragement for those who are Christ's own scholars and
friends, and that there is a special guarantee on their behalf. 2. The comlition affixed
to the direction and promise of the text is very instructive. What is asked must be
asked in Jesus' Name. This was a new condition, one which up to this time it was not
in their power to fulfil, but which henceforth would be felt by them to be most natural
and appropriate. In explaining this condition, it must be borne in mind that Jesus
was ex|)laining the unity of his people with himself ; so that on the one hand they
were called to bring all their desires into harmony with his will, and on the other hand
they were encouraged to trust in his mediation and advocacy. 3. The breadth of thi
Lo^'b promise deserves attention. When prayer is offered by those whom he dewribes.
as. XIV. 1—31,] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 243
and in the manner which he prescribes, there is no limitation set. The expressions
" whatsoever" and "anything" indicate alike the yastness of the Lord's resources and
the liberality of his heart.
II. Thk answer which Christ promises. 1. It proceeds from himself. " I will
do it," says the Master. In making this declaration our Lord asserts his own Deity —
makes himself " equal with God," who alone hears and answers prayer. Wonderful
indeed is such language, as coming from One who was about to be betrayed and crucified.
2. It corresponds with the petition. The very thing which the Christian desires, Christ
promises to give. Such an assurance places all the resources of Omnipotence at the
disposal of the lowliest disciple. It corresponds with the apostolic assertion, " All
things are yours."
III. The pukposb which Christ contemplates. The ultimate end of Christian
privileges and Divine blessings is to be sought in God himself; and such an end affords
to the soul a full and final satisfaction. When Christ's people receive the supply of all
their need, through the advocacy of the Eedeemer whom the Father has appointed,
that Father's wisdom and benevolence are seen in the brightest light. It raises our
conception of the dignity of prayer when we understand and feel that its effect is not
merely upon ourselves, that its effect does not terminate here. There is an even higher
purpose in this Divine arrangement that Christian petitions shall be answered ; it is a
revelation of the character and of the wiU of the eternal Father himself. — ^T.
Ver. 15. — Love, the Christian motive to ohedience. In these simple words our Lord
revealed the great principle which was to be the life. and salvation of the world. That
love to him, in response to his love to them, was to be the motive by which their future
conduct was to be inspired and governed ; such was the revelation the Divine Jesus
made to his most intimate and sympathetic friends. And however indistinctly they
might apprehend the importance of this principle, these disciples, by acting upon it
themselves and by urging it upon others, were to be the agents in impressing upon the
Church that was to be, a doctrine which was to be fruitful in spiritual blessing to the
new humanity. For of that humanity the law is obedience, and the motive is love.
I. It is assumed by Christ that obedienck to himself is aoknowlbdoed as the
LAW OP HIS people's CONDUCT. 1. Obedience had been the very watchword of the
older dispensation. The Law was given by Moses. The public and private life of the
Israelites was governed by Divine statute. The government of Israel was a theocracy,
and Jehovah was an absolute and a righteous Sovereign. 2. The religion which Jesus
founded was none the less practical and authoritative. He came not to destroy the
Law, but to fulfil it. He was not only a Saviour ; he was a Lawgiver and a Lord. His
precepts, counsels, and admonitions are binding npon all the subjects of his kingdom.
And he is Lord of all. 3. Christ's commandments are distinguished from others by
their spirituality, their moral authority, their universal application. They are fitted
for all nations and for every age.
II. It IB ASSUMED BT ChEIST THAT HIS PEOPLE OFTEN FIND IT HARD TO OBEY HIS
WILL. It is sometimes di£Scult for every man to obey. It is very often difficult for the
self-confident and wilful ; and not for them only, but also for the indolent and the
frivolous. Boys find it hard to bend their will to a father or a master. Men find it
hard to give up their own will, &nd accept that of another as their law. Yet there are
motives which constrain obedience. The soldier or sailor who is impressed into the
seivice may obey the officer from compulsion ; the slave may obey the driver from fear
of the lash ; the well-paid official may obey from a motive of interest ; the workman
may obey for the sake of daily bread ; the miner, the diver, may obey with the pri ispeot
of reward ; a subject may obey with the hope of favour from his king. Many motives
may enable a man to master himself and to bend his will.
ni. It is assumed by Christ that his people cherish fervent loyb to himself.
1.' Our Lord's character, conduct, and sacrifice are such as may well excite our love.
His perfect goodness, his pity and kindness, his sufferings and death, all appeal, as
nothing else can do, to the human heart, and claim its best affection. His love passeth
knowledge. 2. As a matter of fact, the love of Christ to mankind does elicit the
response he desires. Hard natures are softened, masculine characters are rendered
gentle, even rough and naturally unemotional persons are melted by the wonderfuj
244 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST, JOHN, [ch mv; 1—31.
power of the cross of Christ. The spirit of Christianity is a spirit of love, and bai
effected a blessed chan^;e in the moral condition of humanity. Without disparaging
the sterner virtues, our religion has exalted those which are more tender. Jesus has
been, and is, loved as none other in the history of mankind.
rV. It is asserted by Christ that his love is the one great motive to obedi-
ence. 1. Willing ami cheerful obedience is tlie only obedience which is acceptable to
our Divine Lord. Earthly governors say nothing concerning the temper in which
obedience is rendered ; all they ask is compliance with their edicts and laws. Observ-
ing the threats and penalties attached to disobedience, we may well conclude that the
spirit of the Lawgiver is, " If ye fear me, keep my commandments." It is not so with
the Lord Christ. He values the spiritual consent, which expresses itself in outward
acts of service. 2. Love is a powerful, because a persnmil, motive to obey. He who
is capable of affection can feel the force of the appeal made by the father, the superior,
whom he both reveres and loves. They who deny a personal God sacrifice this motive.
They do not believe, as the Christian does, that obedience gives satisfaction and pleasure
to the supreme Power of the universe. They simply yield to unconscious and unap-
proving law. 3. As love is sincere, its expression will be practical. To profess love
to Christ, and at the same time to disregard his will and to defy his authority, is
hypocrisy. We are exhorted to prove the sincerity of our love. 4. Law and love, as
blended in Christ, are the revelation of the highest morality. They are not to be set
over against each other, for they are in perfect harmony. It is the highest righteous-
ness to love Christ ; it is the purest love to obey him ; for his will and his heart are
alike Divine.
v. The peactical acknowledgment of this principi.e bt Christ's apostles was
THE EARNEST oT ITS UNIVERSAL PREVALENCE. The Lord did not rely in vain upon this
new motive. It speedily proved its power to work unparalleled marvels. It enabled
men to love one another, to labour for the welfare of their fellow-men, to welcome
persecution when engaged in the effort to fulfil the commission they had received. And
from their time it has been evident that Divine love is in the spiritual universe what
gravitation is in the universe of matter. Christ is the central Sun, and the power of
love causes every loyal soul to move as in even revolutions around him. And the
purposes of Divine wisdom and compassion shall be completed when Christ's friends
shall be his subjects, each one fulfilling his appointed service, yet all in happy harmony
with one another because in perfect obedience to him.
Application. These words of our Lord.are a rebuke and an admonition : 1. To those
who think they love, but do not obey. 2. To those who think they obey, but do not
love. 3. To those who are conscious that they neither obey nor love the Saviour. — T.
Ver. 16. — "Another Comforter." This desia;nation of the Holy Spirit brings forward
into prominence his work on earth and his relrition to men. And this is the aspect in
which the Spirit of God has most interest for us. The theologian properly studies the
Third Person of the Trinity in relation to the Father and the Son. But to the Christian
desirous of appropriating the blessings revealed by religion, there is great encourage-
ment in this designation, "another Comforter."
I. The PROMISE is suggestive op human needs. Why should a " Comforter " be
provided? There must be something in the condition of men which makes the promise
of a Divine Friend so appropriate and welcome. Men suffer fropi ignorance and proneness
to error and delusion. They are encompassed with temiitations which act powerfully,
sometimes fatally, upon their frail and feeble nature. And those who are bent upon
attaining true knowledge and practising true virtue are exposed to the bitter hostility
and opposition of the world.
IL The promise is bugqestive op the ohakaoter and the ofpiobs of Christ
HIMSELF. In promising another Comforter to coma upon his own departure, Jesus
was really claiming to be a Comforter, whose loss must needs be sorely felt. And such
he wa«. He had been very much in the society of his disciples, was always sympa-
thetic, always wise in counsel, always faithful in admonition, always gracious in
encouragement. Nor, indeed, did he cease to be the Paraclete, the Advocate, of hit
p^ple, when he quitted the world which he visited in order to befriend and saTe it«
guilty and helpless inhabitants
OH. XIV. 1—31.] THE GOSPEL ACCX)BDINO TO ST. JOHN. 24S
III. The pkomise is bttooestive of the wobk of the Holt Spieit m the Church.
The Paraclete is One who is called to the side of him who is in need, an Advocate
who undertakes the cause of the defenceless, a Patron exercising a wise protection, a
Strengthener or Comforter communicating his power to the feeble. It is implied in the
designation that the Holy Spirit is a Person, and that he is Divine. He teaches, guides,
assists ; he is living, acting, gracious. . As he came on the Day of Pentecost — the
promise of the Father — so he has ever resided in his Church, to quicken, to purify,
to bless.
IV. The peomisb is buqqestive of the peouliab adaptation of the Spibit to
THE WANTS OP THE RANSOMED HUMANITY. Our Lord's missinn to earth, and in the
body, was a local and temporary mission. In both respects tlie mission of the Com-
forter was more suited to the condition of the Church. Whilst the ministry of Jesus
was confined to one land, the influences of the Holy Spirit are felt wherever the gospel
is preached, wherever Christian society is established. Whilst the ministry of Jesus
lasted but for a few years, the abiding mission of the Comforter endures for ever.
Wherever and whenever human spirits call, in necessity and under the prompting of
faith, upon the unseen Grod for strength and help, the Spirit of might and wisdom and
grace, ever near and ever compassionate, comes to their aid, and proves himself their
Comforter indeed. — T.
Ver. 19. — Hidden, yet revealed. The "little while" doubtless refers to the very
short time which was to elapse before Jesiis' removal from the view of men. Thence-
forth, he taught, the world should lose sight of him, but he should be plainly appre-
hended by the gaze of faith.
I. Upon Christ's departure the world ceased to see him. 1. Whilst Jesus was
upon earth, the unenlightened and unspiritual saw but little of him. It had been
foretold that men should " see no beauty in him." " His own received him not." They
saw in him a Friend of sinners, a carpenter's son, One unlearned. But they saw in him
no Divine glory, for they had no spiritual eyesight with which to discern it. Some
there were who wished to behold bis form and features, t.g. Zacchsaus, Herod, the
Greeks, etc. But generally speaking, the Jews, because there was no sign such as they
desired to witness, cared not to see anything of him. In his humiliation Jesus disap-
pointed the expectations of the carnal, and offended their prejudices. 2. After Jesus was
crucified, he was not — to the apprehension of the world. Those who had seen but little
of the Lord during his ministry, after his departure saw nothing of him. His enemies
thought they had succeeded in altogether expelling him from the world he came to
save, and they had no further concern with him. And ever since, to the irreligious,
Jesus is invisible and as it were non-existent. Perverted by prejudice and self-
suf&ciency, their minds are open to what interests them, but are closed against any
communication with the Saviour and the Lord of men.
II. When Christ was hidden prom the byes of thb duspimtual, he was been
BY HiB FRIENDS MORE CLEARLY THAN BEFORE. There were those who learned to see in
Jesus after his departure more than they had seen during his residence on earth. Just
as the sailor can see a distant ship which the landsman's eyes cannot discover; just as
the scholar can read a difficult manuscript which is unintelligible to the unlearned ;
just so there were those who, during Christ's ministry of humiliation, saw him to be
full of grace and truth. Lowly, penitent, devout souls recognized his authority and
felt his love. And after his departure, taught and illumined by the Spirit, they beheld
indeed their Friend and King. Like the blind man whose eyes Jesus opened, they saw
their Benefactor, believed, and worshipped. Stephen saw him in the hour of martyrdom ;
Saul saw him by the way. Christians see their Lord, in all the glory of his moral
attributes, in all the adaptation of his mediatorial grace, in all the authority of his
world-wide rule. Christians see their Lord so as to correct their views of all beside,
and especially to moderate their earthly affections by the recognition of his superior
excellence. Christians see their Lord as the Guide of their present course, and ap the
Object of their aspiring hope. He is now discerned by the eye of faith, and this vision
is the pledge and the preparation for a vision fuller, clearer, and immortal. Faith shall
give place to sight. The confident expectation of the Christian is that expressed by
the apostle in the simple but 80ul-«tiiiing words, " We shall see him as he v." — ^T.
246 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. ut. 1—31
Ver. 19. — Life in Christ, Sir Philip Sidney when on his dcath-hed reviewed the
reasons upon wliich we base our hope of a conscious existence hereafter. First, he had
related to him the arguments adduced by heathen philosophers, and then the declara-
tions and promises to be found in Holy Scripture. When the dim light yielded by the
former source brightened into the glorious daylight of Christian revelation, the dying
hero's mind was satisfied, and he died in hope of life immortal. Upon the decease of
dear friends, upon the approach of age, nay, often in the silence of the night, the
question comes before our mind — Shall we live hereafter ? Christianity alone can give
a clear and satisfactory answer to this question. And that answer does not take the
foiin of argument. But our religion teaches us to connect our individual prospects
with our Divine Redeemer, and with our personal relation to him. Jesus himself
teaches us to do this, and nowhere more succinctly and effectively than in these' words :
"Because I live, ye shall live also."
I. The ground of the Christian lifb is m the life or the Lord himself.
1. The true life of the Saviour was not suspended by his death upon the cross. 2. Its
continuance was manifested by the glorious resurrection from the dead of him over
whom death had no power. 3. Christ's life is revealed in the apocalyptic vision as
powerful and benevolent. He spake as the one Being who had known death only to
vanquish it, and who had the keys of death and of the unseen world. 4. The means
and the power of the spiritual life are provided by wisdom and the loving kindness of
the living Lord. The outpouring of the Spirit is the life of the Church.
II. The life of Christians is accordingly akin to that of theib Lord. 1.
By "life" here and elsewhere in Scripture we are not to understand the mere continu-
ance of being, or even of consciousness, which would be an interpretation very deroga-
tory to our Lord, but the life or the sensitiveness and energy of the spiritual nature. 2.
This life partakes in the moral qualities of him from whom it is derived. Even in the
physical realm the life which is derivative partakes of the character of its origin. As
Christ lives in holiness, in wisdom, and in love, it is reasonably to be believed that
such attributes of spiritual life are reflected in the character of Christ's people. And
this is actually the case ; the " notes " or symptoms of the Christian life are not to be
mistaken.
III. The spiritual life is the immortal life. In a memorable conversation
which our Saviour held with the Sadducees, this great principle was plainly asserted :
" God is not the God of the dead, but of the living; for all live unto him." Through
Christ, those who believe on hini, and live in fellowship with him, share the life of Gk)d,
and are partakers of the highest kind of immortality. As surely as Christ lives, who
purchased his people with his blood, laying down his life that their life might be hid
with him in God, so surely they shall be delivered from the death which is tlie doom of
the unbelieving and the ungodly. Jesus says to us as we pursue the walk of faith —
and the words reach our ears like music in the darkness of earth's night — " I will see
you again." And our hearts, cheered and emboldened by the promise, reply m loving
confidence, in exulting aspiration and hope, " We shall see him as he is,"
" If my immortal Saviour lives,
Then my immortal life is sure :
His Word a firm foundation gives;
Here let me build and rest seonre."
T.
Ver. 23. — Fidelity rewarded. Christ's manifestation in the body, in the earthly life
was one thing; his manifestation after his departure to the Father was quite a different
thing. This change, or rather development of the Divine plan, was difficult even for the
apostles to understand. Observe how simply and yet how fully, in answer to Jude's
perplexed and anxious query, I he Lord explains the condition and the method of his
own manifestation of himself in the approaching spiritual dispensation.
I. Fidelity to Chbist is the condition of the Divine manifestation. This
fidelity is both emotional and practical ; it is displayed in the heart and in the life.
1. Love is the inward principle and motive. The personal nature of the Christian life
is here strikingly exhibited. " If a man love me " — language this which brings the
individual believer close to th« living Christ. What a rebuke to all merely sacerdotal
cH. xrv. 1—31.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 247
and ecclesiastical views of religion I If a man be spiritually enlightened and quickened,
he will love Christ; both because Christ is in his own character and ministry deserving
of the purest, strongest love our nature can offer, and also because " he first loved
as " — because his goodness found its highest expression in devotion and in sacrifice. 2.
Obedience is the evidence of love. Law and love do not always seem to harmonize ;
yet human relationships furnish examples of their combination. Obedience here takes
the form of keeping the Master's word. This involves our (1) 1 incoming acquainted
and familiar with his Word ; ('2) retaining his Word in memory and often recalling it ;
(3) leverenciiig his Word as in itself authoritative, and as in, many ways binding espe-
cially upon us ; (4) obeying cheerfully and constantly the Word which is believed to be
authoritative and Divine. The Christian's love is not sentimentality ; it is a feeling
which prompts to that obedience which, the relation of the Christian to Christ being
considered, is the proper fruit of grateful affection.
IL The Divine manifestation to the faithful takes the fobms of loyb and
FELLOWSHIP. It must not be forgotten that the love and kindness of God are presumed
as preceding and as accounting for the dispositions and purposes above described. But
whilst the Divine pity is the cause of the Christian's newness of heart and life, it is
also true that the dispositions and habits which become the Christian are the condition
of the enjoyment of those amazing privileges which Jesus here describes. 1. There is,
then, a sense in which the Father's love is the reward of the affectionate obedience of
Christ's people. The filial dutifulness and affection are approved, and the approval ii
manifested by the tender affection of the paternal heart. 2. In addition to, and indeed
in proof of, this display of Divine love, there is assured Divine fellowship and indwell-
ing. How different is this representation from the imaginations of human fancy, the
expectations of human reason I Yet it is in the highest degree honourable to God, and
it tends to inspire and to elevate man. The Christian welcomes his Maker, his Saviour,
as his Guest and Friend. — T.
Ver. 27. — The bequest of peace. This promise of the Saviour sank into his people's
hearts. From the first, inward peace, peace of conscience and of spirit, was valued as
among the choicest possessions of the members of Christ's Church. They gave their
children names such as Irenaeus and Irene, which signify simply " peace." In the course
of their communion services it was their custom to greet one another with the saluta-
tion, " Peace be with you I " In the catacombs of Rome may still be read on many a
Christian's tomb the brief but touching inscription, In pace (" In peace "). So did they
value the gift and legacy of their beloved Lord.
I. There is in human life much that is fitted to distueb and to desteot
PEACE. 1. Looking back to the past, many are troubled at the retrospect of their own
errors, follies, and sins. 2. Looking round upon the present, many cannot fail to dis-
cern in their actual circumstances occasions of distress and alarm. 3. Looking forward
to the future, anxious minds are perturbed by forebodings and fears.
II. The wobld is powerless to impart or to restore peace to the troubled
HEART. The consolations of the world are delusive, its promises deceptive. 1. There
may well be here a reference to the ordinary greetings of the East. " Peace 1" is the
common salutation, and has been from time immemorial. Like all such greetings, it
often was and is altogether thoughtless and insincere. Our Lord's "peace" is some-
thing quite different. 2, But there is a deeper reference, viz. to the pretence of peace
as given by the world, to which no reality corresponds. The world says, "Peace,
peace ; when there is no peace." Superficial, deceptive, utterly false, is that insen-
sibility to terrible realities which frivolity and scepticism offer to the troubled soul.
Far better storms of fear and care than such a calm as this! For terrible is the
awakening, when the judgment of the All-righteous draws near.
III. Christ's peace, and his alone, is valid and lasting. 1. This is spiritual
peace. It is not to be supposed that the Christian is exempt from the cares and the
calamities of life, that outward circumstances and human society are all to combihe
in order to his preservation from the troubles which are incidental to human life. But
there may be calm within even while the storm rages without. The heart may be set
free from fear. 2. This peace proceeds from the restoration of right relations between
the soul and Qod. It is peace of conscience, the substitution of harmonv with the
848 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. mv. 1—81.
government and the will of God for that state of discord which is the experience of
the nature that is alienated from the eternal Ruler of all. To be right with Gcd is the
fli-st condition of human peace. Such concord it is the work of the Redeemer to bring
about. 3. This peace is both a bequest and a gift of Christ. It is a legncy, because
it was dependent upon the Lord's departure, and the subsequent establishment of a
spiritual dispensation. It is a gift, because apart from the Saviour's provision there was
on means by which this blessing might be secured and enjoyed. The peace in question is
not to be earned by any effort or sacrifice of ours; it is the bestowment of the infinite
love and grace of the Divine Mediator. 4. This gift is essentially his who.bestows it.
1'he peace which he enjoys he also imparts. That peace which flows from obedience
and submission to the Divine will was naturally the proper possession of the Son of
God ; and it is that same peace which Jesus conveys to the heart that trusts and rests
in him. 6. The peace of Christ is all-sufficient. In plenitude and in perpetuity it is
aloneu
** The world can neither give nor take,
Nor can they comprehend.
The peace of Ood which Ohrist has brongltt—
The peace which knows no end."
'Vers. 29 — 31. — Anticipation. Before giving the signal for removing, Jesus in spirit
glances forward. What does he see in the immediate future ?
I. The future shall verify his words, and so stebngthen his disciples' faith.
He had explicitly foretold his death, his resurrection and ascension, and the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit. They did not disbelieve him, but they were slow to grasp the pur-
port of his words. Fulfilment should render his predictions plain, and should confirm
the feeble faith of those who through strong faith were to do their work as his witnesses
to the world.
II. The future shall bbino on the conflict between Jesus and the power of
EVIL A conflict WHICH MUST ISSUE IN VICTORY FOR ChBIST AND HI8 PEOPLE. The
prince of this world had before now assailed the Prince of Light, but had departed for
a season. But the hour of the }iower of darkness was at hand. An absorbing conflict
was about to take place, in which the adversary of God and men should find nothing
in him on which to lay hold, and in which Christ should certainly overcome.
III. The future shall unfold to the world Christ's relation to the Father.
It should be seen that what Jesus did and suffered was one long act of affectionate
obedience to God. This deep significance of the facts which occurred at the close of
the Redeemer's ministry was hidden firom the world ; but the eyes of men should be
opened to discern it. And for the benefit of all time it should be seen that love and
obedience are mightier than sin, than Satan, than death. — T,
Ver. 1. — Faith banishing fettr. We have here —
I. Faith specially enjoined. 1. As to its Obfects — CM and Christ. (1) These
are its proper and highest Objects. Faith must have an object. QoA and Christ are the
proper Objects of faith. It cannot ascend higher, and must not remain lower, than
this. Faith in the Father and Son, in the Creator and Saviour. This alone is worthy
of an immortal and responsible spirit. This is the basis of true religion, the element
of spiritual progress, the foundation of Christian character, and is alone capable of
drawing out the soul into perfection. (2) Faith is enjoined in both personally. It is
not, " Believe in something about God or about Christ," but " Believe in both personally."
It is most important to realize the personality of the Divine BeiLg as he is in his
spiritual, eternal, and infinite existence, or as manifested in the flesh, so that our ideas
of him may not evnporate into vague generalities ; hence faith is directed to a personal
God and a personal Christ. (3) Faith is enjoined in both equally. " Believe in God,
believe also," etc. This is a .>.trong, but by no means uncommon, circumstantial
evidence of the Divinity of our Lord. This equal demand of faith inevitably and
unquestionably indicates equality of nature, authority, and honour. On the supposi-
tion that Christ was a mere man, to couple himself thus with the supreme Being as tht
Object of human faith, would be nothing less than a wilfiil misdirection and blasphemy.
m. HV. 1—31.] THE GOSPEL AOCORDINa TO ST. JOHN. 249
(4) Faith in one involves faith in the other. This is not an arbitrary, but a moral and
philosophical, injunction. Such is the relationship between God and Christ that faith
in one inrolves faith in both. Whether faith begins from the human or Diviue side,
it will find itself embracing the Father and Son, or neither. Thus, when Christ
appeared in our world, those who had genuine faith in God readily believed in him,
and those who had not rejected him. Faith in the visible and incarnate Son was a
test of faith in the invisible and eternal Father. 2. The objects of faith are pointed
out in their natural order of sequence. (1) God is the supreme Object of faith. Hence
he is introduced first. Christ, as a Teacher, ever pointed to Divinity, as contemplated in
the Father or in himself, as the supreme and final Object of human f dth. (2) Christ
meets the present requirement of faith. First he points to the highest goal of faith,
then to himself as the Way which leads to it. Therefore, " Believe also in me " is not
retrogressive, but progressive, in relation to faith. Before the appearance of Christ,
faith was weak, struggling and crying for help, for a resting-place, for a medium
betwten heaven and earth. Pious souls yearned for it. Jacob dreamed of it, and in his
dream saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven. Christ responded to this cry and
fulfilled this dream. In him faith found a present Help, Encouragement, and a Resting-
place. He is the real Ladder between heaven and earth, over which souls by faith may
reach the glorious heights of the eternal throne, and embrace him who sits upon it.
(3) In Christ /ai% t» Ood alone can he perfected. "Looking to Jesus," etc. He is
the lowest and the highest rung of the ladder — the lowest touching the lowest parts of
the earth, and the highest touching the eternal throne. " The Son of man, when he
comes, shall he find faith," etc. ? Little of it he found ; but ever since, he creates,
feeds, helps, and perfects it. By his perfect life and self-sacrificing death and inter-
cessory work, he is become the Author, Example, the Inspirer and Perfecter of faith.
3. The exercise of faith is the only way of Divine realization in the soul. (1) Faith
is the power which alone can see the Divine. (2) Faith is the power which alone can
realize the Divine. (3) Faith is the power which alone can appropriate the Divine.
There is a God, but not to us but by faith. There is a Saviour, but not to us but by
faith. Without love we are nothing, and it is equally true that without faith we are
nothing — ^nothing to God and Christ; and they are nothing savingly to us, but by
faith they are ours. Hence the soul's chief duty is to believe.
n. Faith is enjoined as the antidote of trouble. " Let not your heart," etc.
This implies : 1. That Christians, while in this world, are exposed to trouble. These
are : (1) General. " Man is bom to trouble." Chiistians are men, therefore by
birth, nature, and circumstances, are heirs of the common troubles of humanity.
Enumeration is unnecessary, as we are all educated in the great university of trouble,
and are very proficient in its arithmetic. (2) Special. As Christians, the disciples
had their special trouble now arising from the impending departure of their Lord.
This event already cast its dark shadow upon them. The little society, to all appear-
ances, was on the verge of disorganization. The departure of their Lord would leave
such a vacancy so that trouble, sorrow, doubts and fears, threatened to invade them as
a sweeping flood. The road to Canaan is ever through the wilderness, and the way to
life through tribulation. 2. Tliat trouble naturally attacks the heart. Hence our
Saviour says, "Let not your heart," etc. The heart is the seat of emotion, the avenue
of good and evil, and is impressible to every passing influence, and troubles which
would be rejected by reason will be admitted by the trembling and undefended heart.
3. Faith in Ood and Christ fortifies the heart against trouble. " Let not your heart,"
etc. It was the aim of Christ now to strengthen them agninst the impending trouble
and shelter them from the thunderstorm of sorrow and jierplexity which had already
begun to break out. This he does by fortifying their heart. This fortification is to be
in^e by faith in God and Christ. For heart-disease there is but one remedy, and it is
infallible, prescribed by the infallible Physician. " Believe in God," etc. This will fill
the soul with elements of comfort and security, and while fiiU of these, it is impreg-
nable to trouble. What are these? (1) Consciousness of the Divine indwelling.
Believe in €k>d and Christ, and they are yours. By faith the Divine Father and Son
become the tenants of the heart and soul. " We will come imto him, and will make
our abode with him." What powerAil inmates I How near, sympathetic,, and able 1
Who can take the heart with these within ? (2) The possession of adequate hnowUdge.
250 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xiv. 1—31.
Ignorance is weakness and trouble, knowledge is strength and happiness. Christ
reveals himself to faith, and gives every necessary information. He gave this witti
regard to his departure, and faith followed him through the gloom of death, and
especially through the effulgence of his ascension up to the right hand of power, and
waited hi.s return to fetch the spirit home. In the light of Jesus faith can see the
invisible, and see the Divine movements proceeding in the direction of the soul's good;
and where it cannot trace, it can trust. (3) Consciousness of Divine care and love. A
sense of loneliness and even apathy is a source of great trouble to a sensitive heart ; but
the possessor ol faith need not feel this. His heart is filled with the sweet conscious-
ness of a Saviour's love, and a Patiier's tender and constant care. (4) Infinite su/iplieH.
It is an old tactic of the foe to attempt to stop the supplies by besieging the heart with
doubts and fears, and these threaten it with physical and spiritual destitution. But
this can never be in the presence of a strong faith* If the water without become dry,
there is still a perennial fountain within ; and should the rivers about Jerusalem cease
to flow, there is still "a river, the streams," etc. The supplies come from above, and
often meet faith midway, and often the suppliant can scarcely rise from his knees
under the delightful burden of his prayer's speedy answer. (5) The possession of
glorious prospeett. Much of our present trouble or comfort depends upon the future.
If it be gloomy, there is trouble ; but if bright, there is joy. Tlie future of Christian
faith is bright and full of hope. Faith often penetrates the intervening gloom, and
opens the portals of immortality and the door of our Father's house, and returns with
her wings laden with blessings, tinged with the light and beauty of the happy place,
her garments perfumed with delightful aroma from the gardens of spices, her face
beaming with the awaiting glory, and sings many a sweet song of the future amid the
present discord of earth. The God and Saviour of the past and present will be those
of the future, and he who prepared for us homes and friends on our entrance to this
world, shall meet us with even more surprising and congenial preparations on our
entrance into other scenes. The departures of dear friends by death, to faith, are only
apparent and temporary ; they are only removed from the cold and damp kitchens of
earth to the grand drawing-rooms in our Father's house. Death does not really
separate the possessors of faith, but leads them into a more permanent and closer
union. With the^'e elements of comfort the heart is not only fortified against trouble,
but filled with joy and ecstasy.
Lessons. 1. The freedom of the heart from trouble depends upon its own state and
action. With the heart we grieve, and with it we also believe. If the heart is idle
and stagnant, it will be filled with trouble; but if active in faith in God and the
Saviour, it will be filled with hope and joy. 2. The means of fortifying the heart
against trouble are within our reach. The remedy for heart-trouble is ever at hand.
The ingredients of the Divine prescription might be difficult to procure, but they are
easy and near. " Believe," etc. 3. To keep troubles out from the heart is far tasier
than to drive them out once they are in. Hence our Lord's special injunction is, " Let
not your," etc. Prevention is ever better than cure, and the prevention of trouble is
the constant activity of the heart in a large and genuine faith in God and Christ. — 3. T.
Vers. 8, 9. — The desired vision. We have here —
I. A Divine vision requested. " Show us the Father." This implies : 1. A speciaC
vision of God. (1) A material vision. Such as Moses wished when he prayed, " Show
me thy glory," and such as Moses had when he saw that glory on the mount. The
request of Philip did not mean much more than this, although the language in itself
is capable of a wider and a higher meaning, and ultimately led to this. (U) A vision
of Ood as the Father. " Show us the Father." It is not " Show us the Creator, the
Governor, the Judge," but " the Father." How natural for an embodied spirit to wish
an embodied representation of its Divine and invisible Parent I No view of God could
be so charming and attractive as this. 2. That such a vision is the great want of man.
(1) This want is deeply felt. It is the deepest cry and the profoundest prayer of the
human heart. The heart, in spite of sin and estr,ingement from God, has net lost all
its aspirations for the Divine, but the echo of God's voice is still there, and the shadow
of his image, and the most plaintive wail of the heart is for a fuller knowledge and a
clearer vision rf the Father. The ritualism and idolatry of the world were its intonae
OH. xiT. 1— 31.J THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 251
but mistaken struggles for this. (2) This want was generally fdt. " Show us the
Father." It was not the cry of one, but the cry of all to a more or less extent. It
was the common prayer of the human family, expressed in every age, in different
ways, and through different mediums. God is the universal Father, and to know and
realize him was a universal want. (3) This want was now especially felt by the
disciples. " Show us the Father." They had heard so much of him in the ministry
of Jesus, and this had excited in them an intense desire to know more of him, to enjoy
a closer fellowship with him, and even to have a direct vision of him in his endearing
character, and especially would they feel this desire now as Jesus was about to leave
them; then they sighed for a vision of their Father. 3. That such a vision, they
believed, Jesus was fully able to furnish. " Lord, show us," etc. Of his ability to do
this they are quite confident, of his willingness they have but little doubt ; hence the
prayer is direct, confident, but reverential. Their request is addressed to the proper
Person, and their confidence is well founded. Jesus was able and willing to furnish
them with a vision of the Father, and struggled hard to prepare them for it. 4. That
such a vision would be most satisfying. "It sufSceth us." (1) Most satisfying to
faith. Faith had become weak and struggling ; her eye was dim by gazing on the
invisible, and panted for a present and real vision of the Divine, the Source of light
and love. Such a vision as requested would invigorate and even satisfy faith. (2)
Most satisfying to conscience. The conscience by sin is become guilty, burdened, and
turbulent. The righteousness and reconciliation of God in Christ alone can appease it,
and a full view of God in real character and disposition as a kind, loving, and forgiving
Father can alone satisfy it. (3) Most satisfying to the heart. The orphan-cry of the
human heart is for the Divine Father. There is in . it a craving which nothing can
satisfy but the Divine Father, a vacant seat which no one else can fill. But a clear
vision of the Father will give full satisfaction to the spiritual nature of man.
II. This Divine vision had been given. 1. It had been given in Christ. "He
that bath seen me," etc. (1) In Christ the nature and relationship of Ood were mani-
fested. Being essentially one and equal with him, " the Image of the invisible God,
the Brightness of his glory, and the express Image of his Person," he had a unique
capacity of revealing his nature and glory as a personal, infinite Spirit, and the Spirit-
Father of the human race. (2) In Christ the character of God was manifested. Not
only as the Creator of men, but as their Father ; and in his life, actions, and conduct
the power, wisdom, justice, holiness, love, and mercy of the supreme Father shone with
constant and Divine brilliancy. (3) In Christ Go^s will was manifested. lu his life
on earth he was an embodiment of the Divine heart and a revelation of the Divine will
and purposes, and the Divine vision was exhibited in our nature, so that it was near,
clear, and in the most attractive and congenial form. 2. It had been given, but not fully
realized. (1) Because Christ was not fully known. To realize fully the vision of the
Father, Christ must be fully known. To see the Father, Christ must be seen and
recognized. The very request, " Show us the Father," is a confession of their ignorance
of Jesus ; for if they had known him, they would have known the Father. (2) Jesus
was not fully known, although the greatest advantages to know him had been enjoyed.
" So long a time with you." It would not be a long time to be with many, but a long
time to be with Jesus. An hour with him was an age of the highest tuition. Their
progress is not commensurate with their advantages. (3) It takes a long time to know
Jesus ftilly. It was so in this instance. They were very ignorant, short-sighted, and
material in their notions of his mission and reign ; so that to know him cost them
repeated failures and struggles, and^cost him repeated revelations. 3. TTieir confessed
ignorance of Jesus called forth from him very significant and valuable expressions.
"Have I been so long time with you," etc.? (1) There is here afeding of surprise
and even grief. Christ struggled hard to reveal himself, his Person, character. Divinity,
mission, his inmost thoughts and heart. Some are a&aid to be really known — recogni-
tion pains them ; such are impostors. But it pained Jesus not to be known. His chief
object in making himself known was to make known the Father. He was the only
Medium of this knowledge and vision. (2) There is here a gentle rebuke. It is
addressed to all, especially to Philip. " And yet hast thou not known me, Philip ? ■*
Theu, one of my first followers, who gavest such an early promise of spiritual insight
into and recognition of my character and mission 1 And thinU of the long time I have
262 THE GOSPEL ACCOBDIN& TO ST. JOHN. \aB. xiv. 1—31
been with you, and the advantages enjoyed ! " And yet hast thou not," etc. ? There
is here a gentle rebuke. With whip of small cords faith is lashed to greater activity,
to higher flights, and to open her eyes on the vision so much desired. (3) There is
here a fuller revelation. " He that hath seen," etc. I'he light is intensified, and the
vision of the Father in him is directly pointed out, so that they gain by their failure
and learn by their confessed ignorance. It is a step towards further knowledge. They
are drawn out towards him and he towards them, and their minds are fixed upon him
as the only Medium of the desired vision.
III. This Divine vision can be only kbalizbd bt faith. "Believest thou not,"
etc.? 1. By faith alone the £on and the Father can he seen and known. In the days oi
his Hesh the Godhead of Jesus could not be seen in his Person by the material eye. To
the carnal and material sight he was only an ordinary man. Faith alone could see his
glory and Divinity. Divinity in the Father or the incarnate Sou can only be seen and
known by spiritual insight — by faith, the eye of the soul. 2. To faith, Christ and th«
Father are in essential, close, and Divine union. In this spiritual vision the Son is
seen first in the Father, then the Father in the Son. The order depends upon the
standpoint from which faith looks ; but whether viewed in their essence, nature, and glory,
or in relation to the scheme of redemption, the Son is seen in the Father and the
Father in the Son. 3. Faith in relation to this vision is supported by the strongest
evidence. (1) The personal evidence of Christ. "Believe me," etc. This is the
highest evidence of the highest WitneBS. He is the true and taithful Witness. The
Son of God is in the witness-box. And his dignity and known character deserve and
demand faith and confidence. (2) The evidence of his ministry. "The words that
I speak unto you," etc. His ministry as a whole, and some of his special sayings, they
unquestionably point to the Father. His speech betrayed him; the echo of hia
Father's voice was in his. Any one who had the least knowledge of the Father would
at once recognize him in Christ. (3) The evidence of his miracles. " He doeth the
works ; " " Believe nie for the very works' sake." His teaching and actions pointed
to the same Divine Source. There is a perfect consistency. Although conscious of
perfect veracity, yet he is willing to be judged by his works, all of which were of such
a nature and character as to reflect most brightly the Father's glory and power.
4. The evidence of faith is promised a substantial increase. (1) In the performance
by the apostles of the same works. This would bring the evidence home to them ; the
Divine voice would speak in their own; the Divine vision would appear within them ;
and they themselves would be the direct mediums of the Father's power and glory.
(2) In the performance by them of even greater works than those performed iy the
Lord. This was literally fulfilled in the experience of some, if not all, of the apostles.
Some of their works were more marvellous in some respects than his own. They were
greater in number, wider in their influence, more extensive and mighty in their
spiritual results and triumphs. Christ is spiritually mightier in believers than in his
personal ministry ; in them he still works and reveals the Father. (3) In the exercise
of prayer. " And whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name," etc. In prayer faith is
strengthened and transfigured, and the Father is revealed to the soul. It brings it into
immediate fellowship with him, and there is a spiritual commerce carried on between
tliem. To establish this between the soul and the great Father was one of the chief
aims of Jesus. (4) All this was the result of the complete fellowship of Jesus with the
Father. " Because I go unto the Father." Thus was completed his fellowship, in his
human nature, work, and mission, with the Father ; and the blessings of that fellowship
would flow to believers in ever-living streams. He went nearer to the Father that the
Father might come nearer to them ; that faith might glow in the smiles of his coun-
tenance, and be satisfied with the Divine vision for which it craves, and the soul become
ecstatic with the full answer of one of its profounde^t prayers. " Show us the Father."
— B. T.
Vers. 15 — 17. — Love a/nd obedience. Notice—
I. Obedience to Christ as the natural ooNSEQUBNcnt op lovb to him. "If y«
love me," etc. Where there is love to Christ, there is scarcely any need of a command
to Lbey him ; but it will follow as the stream from the fountain, or light and heat from
the sun. Where there Lb love to Christ: 1. There is a recognition of his Divim
OT. XIV. 1—31.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 253
authority. Where there is no authority, there is neither right nor power to command.
There may be commands, but they are weak and powerless. Love to Christ recognizes
his personal and administrative authority — ^bis authority over the heart, the wiU, the
intellect, the conscience, and over all the physical and spiritual nature. His kingship
is freely owned by love. 2. There is a recognition of a close and essential connection
hetween him and his commandments. The king is in his laws. Christ is really in his
commandments ; they are expressions of his will ; they are his will, spoken or written ;
they are parts of himself; they are, in fact, be himself acting upon and addressing man's
moral nature. 3. This recognition is ever practical. " If ye love me, ye will keep,"
etc. Genuine love ever manifests itself in genuine and practical forms. It does not
begin and end in mere sentiment, in good wishes, in sighs and tears, but is essentially
practical, and practical in the most pleasing way to its object, in the way requested.
"Te will keep," etc. Filial love ever manifests itself in filial obedience. 4. This
recognition is most thorough and comprehensive. " Y^ will keep my commandrnents."
Not some of them, but all. The obedience is commensurate with the Master's
expressed wilL Love is very careful to keep whatsoever is commanded, however
apparently small and insignificant. It keeps a sharp look, out whether a command
bears the Divine signature and the seal of Divine authority. It seeks not its own way
of obedience, but is thoroughly satisfied with the one prescribed by the great Lawgiver.
" What wilt thou have me to do ? " is ever the question of love to the Master. 6. This
recognition is devotional. " My commandments." They are kept from love to him,
from respect for his authority, from sympathy with his nature and character — kept
because they are the recognized expressions of his will. Some of them are positive,
the reasons for which are - not stated ; but love will obey them simply because they
are his, and obey them for his sake. Jesus is now physically absent, but is ever present
in his commands. Love to him finds its manifestation in ready and willing obedieDce
to these. Personally he is now above practical hatred or love, but in his expressed
will he is still the Object of both. Love is loyal to him behind his back, and ever true to
the absent Saviour ; to it his laws are " more to be desired than gold, and sweeter than
honey."
- II, Love to Christ as the neobssabt basis of obedience! to him. "If ye love me,"
etc As obedience is the essential consequence of love, so love is the essential basis
of obedience. It is essential : 1. To make obedience real. Obedience which does not
proceed from genuine love to Christ has no reality in it ; it is not the genuine offspring
of the heart, the real act of the soul ; it lacks the essential motive and inspiration of all
Christian deeds. It is formal, mechanical, legal, and empty. 2. To make obedience easy
and delightful. Obedience not arising from love is forced, burdensome, and even
painful — ^painful to the man himself and to others. Obedience which springs from fear,
selfishness, legality, self-praise, or from mere custom, is insipid and wearisome ; while
the obedience of love is easy, natural, and pleasant. To such the words of our Lord are
full of truth and significance: "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." The least
duty, in the absence of love, is really heavy; while the heaviest, with it, is really light.
Many have counted it joy to suffer, and even die, fur Christ. They rejoiced in chains,
and sang in flames. Theirs was the obedience of love, the offering of affection, and the
tribute of a willing heart. 3. To make it spiritually and personally valuable. There
is no spiritual value in unloving obedience. It may be acceptable witli men, and pass
as a genuine coin in human markets, but it is a couatorfeit in the spiritual and Divine.
It may benefit society, but will not spiritually benefit the man himself; and however
extensive, minute, and ostentatious its performance may be, it will not score in heaven.
It is found wanting in the balance of God, and even in that of the enlightened con-
science. " Though I speak with the tongues of men," etc. Love alone can impart
spiritual value into obedience, and fill it with life and Divinity.
II L Li>viNO obedience to Christ EusuBiNa the Divinest blbssinos. "If ye love
rae," etc. ; " And I will pray the Father," etc. It brings into the soul the richest
llessings, and in its interest the mightiest spiritual agencies. 1. The Holy Spirit. (1)
Tlie Holy Spirit as the Father's Gift to them. "And he shall give," etc. The Spirit is
sometimes described as coming of himself, or sent by Christ, but here as the Gift of the
Father. All these descriptions are true and highly significant, but not one of them
more endearing and attractive than the Spirit as the Father's Gift to his obedient and
254 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xiv. 1— 8t
loving disoipleB. (2) As his GKft to them in consequence of ChrUfs prayer. "I will pray
the Father, and he shall give," etc. There is an inseparable connection between the
Father's gifts and the Son's prayers. When the Son prays the Father gives, and gives
because he prays and what he prays for. What an inestimable blessing to the disciples
is the intercession of the object of their love I (3) As his additional Gift to them It
is not that the Spirit is given instead of Christ, but is given in addition to him. It is
another instalment of Divine love. The Father gave the Son, and this, one would think,
was as much as even infinite benevolence could afford to give. But this was only the
bei^inning of his munificence. Here is "another," and there wiU be another and another
still. 2. The Holy Spirit in some of his special characteristics. (1) As a Comforter,
an Advocate, or a Sdper. It was some of the special functions of the Spirit to comfort,
to intercede for and in, and help believers. And these were the special purposes of the
precious Gilt. (2) As the Spirit of truth. Its Source and Essence, its veiy Spirit,
and the Bevealer of truth to the soul. Christ was " the Truth," its incarnation and out-
ward expression. The Holy Spirit is its inward Revealer, and who can reveal and com-
municate truth to the Spirit of man as well as the Spirit of Truth himself ? (3) This
was specially required hy the disciples now, and required by disciples at all times ; and
one was already sick at the prospect of the Lord's departure. They would immediately
and through life meet with inward and outward troubles, and they required consolation
and help. ^They would, through ignorance and weakness, be exposed to errors and
mistakes, and they required inward guidance and light; and these are promised. "He
shall give you another Comforter, even the Spirit," etc. There is a most fascinating
correspondence between the Father's Gift and the disciples' need. 3. The Spirit as
knoum to them, hut not so to the world. On the part of the world there was a terrible
inability to receive him — inability arising from spiritual blindness and agnosticism.
The world only receives what it can see and handle. It walks by sight and sense, there-
fore cannot receive the " Spirit of truth." But it was not so with the disciples. The
Spirit is promised to them : (1) As a present Acquaintance. " Ye know him ; for he
abideth," etc. Not a stranger is introduced to them, but one at least partially known.
The Spirit was known to and actually with them in Christ and his teaching. They
were prepared to receive him, not as the world. (2) In his closer fellowship. " And
shall be in you," In the Person and life of Christ he was rather without them ; but in
his special advent he would be within them — in the heart, will, conscience, and reason.
(3) In his perinanent indwelling. " And shall be in you and with you for ever," as
their ever-present Light, Help, and Comfort.
Lessons. 1. Love is the great law of Chrisfs kingdom. It is established on this.
There is no compulsion, no carnal weapons ; but he reigns through love, and he is
the only King whose subjects, without an exception, love passionately. 2. Loving
tAedience to him is most spiritually enriching. It insures the richest blessings and the
most powerrul spiritual agencies ; for the prayers of Christ and the gifts of the Father
are not made at random, but made to loving and obedient souls. 3. The f,'preme
importance of possessing love to Christ. Where this is present all besides will naturally
and inevitably follow. " If ye love me," etc. — B. T.
Vers. 18 — ^21. — I%e comforts qf Christ. Notice some of the comforts left by Jesus
to his disciples. " I will not leave you desolate [or, ' orphans,' or, ' comfortless ']," imply-
ing that he would leave them some suitable and substantial comforts.
I. Thb comfort of his ooNTiiiuotis COMINO UNTO THBM. " I come imto you." 1.
This was really the case, in spite of some appearances to the contrary. They thought
that he would leave entirely and for ever by death. This was a mistake, and Christ is
very careful to correct it. " I come unto you," Many of our troubles and sorrows arise
from our mistaken notions of things. Things are not always what they seem. The
disciples thought that Christ was going away from them by death, while in fact he
was coming unto them, spiritually nearer to them in sympathy and fellowship. On
the cross and in the grave he was coming unto them; and he was coming nearer and
nearer unto them in all the trials and dangers of after-life. And thus he comes
unto all believert, even when they think that he leaves them. 2. This was literally
the case at hit resurrection. He came unto them, and they embraced their risen Lord,
a, I3U» wa* specially the ease on the Day of Pentecost. When hii promise of the Spirit
BH. XIV. 1—31.] THE GOSPEL ACCOEDINa TO ST. JOHN. 255
was fulfilled, sad in the fulfilment of this promise, they realized the presenut of Christ
more than ever ; and, instead of the outward Christ, they hencefoi'th enjoyed him in
them as a Divine power, light, and inspiration. " Christ in you, the Hope of glory."
4. This will hefuUy the case at the last day. He ever comes in his Word, in his Spirit,
in the dispensations of providence, in the shadows and sunshine of life, and especially
in the gloom of death, and each coming is a source of comfort and joy ; but his great
coming at the last day will crown all, and swallow every other coming in itself, and
will perfect the mutual fellowship for ever.
II. The comfobt or a coNTiNnous vision of Jesub. 1. This is denied to the world.
" Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more." The world had seen him out-
wardly. But even this vision would be soon withdrawn. There is an undertone of
sadness in his announcement of this. The best opportunity the world ever had would
soon be lost for ever. The world cannot see the spiritual and eternal; only the
material and outward. Only this it saw of Jesus ; hut even this was about to be with-
drawn. 2. HHiis vision is granted to the disciples. "■ But ye see me." He assures them
not merely that he would continue to come unto them, but that they would confinue
to see him — see him even after his departure ; and if not, it would be their own fault.
They had professed to have the power of spiritual vision, faith, which they doubtless
had, and they had been well strengthened by his teaching and miracles. Now it was
about to be tried, and he had no doubt of the ultimate success. Material and circum-
stantial changes cannot entirely intercept the vision of faith. There may be an eclipse,
but not total; and if total, it will not continue long enough to be specially noticed. It
was so now in the case of the disciples with regard to their impending trial. After the
terrible but brief gloom, " the Sun of Bighteousness " appeared to faith brighter than
ever. So clear and full was the vision to the disciples that they could see nothing else.
It filled their horizon with his presence and glory. They saw him in every object
around and above them — ^in the gloom of earth and in the glory of heaven ; saw him in
all the circumstances and trials of life and in the sufferings of death, in nature, provi-
dence and redemption. Christ, in fact, was their " all in.idL"
III. The comfort of a coNTiNtjons life. 1. The life qfJestts. " I live." Christ's
life was continuous. It is true that he really died, but it was the act of his own will.
He was the Prisoner of death, hut only for a short time, and that by his own permission.
By reason of the fulness of life in him, he could well afford to ignore death. He lived
in death, and through death he attained his mediatorial Ufe in its glory. Death was
made by him to serve life. The disciples were afraid that would be his final end ; but
this fear is dispelled by the announcement, " I live." Of the truth of this they had
ample proofs in due time. What a comfort it is to believers to know that their pious
dead are still living, and especially to know that their Eedeemer liveth 1 They are not
orphans. 2. l^eir life. " And ye shall live also." Next to their concern for his life
was that for their own. They were afraid that his death would involve their death,
and they would naturally and sadly ask — What will become of us, of our fond hopes,
dreams, and aspirations ? They are set at rest by the statement, " And ye shall live
also." 3. Their life as united with his. " Because I live," etc. We have here : (1) The
nature of their life. A life like that of Jesus; a Divine and spiritual life, different from
and superior to the physical and its circumstances. They are directed to the spiritual
nature of their life as a source of consolation. (2) The infinite cause of their life. It
is a great source of comfort to have an adequate reason for an important statement such
as the one made here by our Lord, " Ye shall live also." One would naturally ask —
Why and how is this ? It appears strange, if not impossible. There is sufficient answer
in the statement of Jesus, " Because I live," etc. Physical life is dependent upon the
life and will of God; and spiritual life by faith is entirely dependent on the life of
Christ as its Divine Source, its efficient and meritorious Cause, its infinite Support and
Guarantee. (3) The perfect certainty and safety of their life. In the degree they
would believe in the life of Jesus they would realize their own, and have confidence in
its safety. The life of faith is as certain and safe as that Divine life from which it
emanates, and by which it is protected and supported. Safe in all the trials and
dangers of life, and even in death itself. It is " hid with Christ in God." (4) The endless
eontiniiance of their life. " Ye shall live also." The cravings and aspirations oj
immortality are fully satisfied in the life of Jesus. There is no room for any fear wltk
256 THE GOSPEL ACCX)RDINa TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xiv. 1— 3L
regard to the great changes of the future. The life of faith is commensurate in dur»-
tioD with the life of Christ, with which it is inseparably connected They had th«
comfort of a continuous vision of an ever-living Saviour, and of their life eternally safe
in connection with his.
rV. The comfort of a fttlleb bbalkation of Divine fellowship. 1. ThefeUov/'
ihip of Christ with the Father. " Ye shall know that I am in my Father." This as
yet was but Imperfectly known — a source of perplexity to them. 2. Their fellowship
with Christ, and Christ with them. " Ye in me," etc. 3. Their fellowship with th«
Father. This is an inevitable consequence of their fellowship with Christ. To realize
all this would be to them a source of great comfort and spiritual peace and joy. Then
they would not consider themselves orphans, but h ippy and rich children in the warm
embrace of an almighty and infinitely kind Father. (1) It is possible to have an
interest in Christ without fully krmving it at the time. The disciples had much now
of which they were not aware. Their spiritual possessions were greater than know-
ledge. (2) Faith naturally presses forward to a fuller knowledge of Divine ihings. It
craves for it, and is never disappointed. If we want an increase of kaowleJge, let us
strive for an increase of faith. Believe, and you shall knovr. (3) T/iere are periods
when Divine knowledge is specially attained and realized. " In that day ye shall," etc.
The morning of Christ's resurrection was such a day, and Pentecost was another ; and
in individual and social experience of believers thero are many such days, when faith is
rewarded with knowledge, and culminates in spiritual realization. Then the language
of the soul is not "I believe," but "I know" — "I know that my Redeemer," etc.; "I
know whom," etc. Then there is in the soul k spring-tide of spiritual comfort and
peace, and an ecstasy of inspired confidence.
V. Thb comfort of a olbabbb manifestation or Christ. "I will manifest," etc.
1. This is a sdf-manifestation of Christ. He is the Kevealer and the Kevealed.
Different mediums and agents are employed; still he is the Source and Subject of the
revelation. During his personal ministry on earth he chiefly manifested the blather and
the Spirit; but after the Ascension he manifests himself through the Spirit and the
ministry of his Word. He manifests himself in his humanity and Divinity — in his
human and Divine relationships ; in short, in all his past, present, and future agency
with regard to the great scheme of human redemption. His manifestation in the flesh
was comparatively small, and only introductory to the great spiritual manifestation of
himself in the soul and in the spirit of humanity. 2. This self-manifestation of Christ
is inseparably connected unth loving obedience to him. "He that haih my command-
ments," etc. Love to Christ manifests itself through obedience to his commands, and
through this loving obedience Christ manifests himself to the soul. With every loving
act comes a fresh vision of the Saviour. 3. This self-manifestation of Christ is
inseparably connected with a corresponding experience of Divine love. " He that loveth
me shall be loved," etc. Love begets love. Human love to Christ is repaid with
Divine interest. It returns in living streams of love to the experience from the Father
and the Son. And this Divine love is the sweetest and most powoiful medium through
which Christ manifests himself. It is a manifestation of him in itself. 4. This self-
manifestation of Christ is gradual and progressive. It was so in the experience of the
disciples. There was a vast difference between the Christ of Pentecost and Jesus of
Nazareth. And it is so in the experience of believers ever since. Jesus once really
seen by faith will never be permanently lost sight of, but the constancy and clearness
of the vision depend upon the degree of faith and love in the soul. He will manifest
as we believe and love. 6. This self-manifestation of Christ will be ultimately corn-
plete. " I will," etc. It will not reach completion till the last day. To fully see him,
he must fully appear; to fully know him, we must be like him ; and to he like him, we
must see him as he is. But even then we shall not see all his beauty nor comprehend
all his Being. Were this the case, our happiness would cease. Eternity will not exhaust
his glory, although fully employed in its exhibition. But at his final coming there
will be such a full manifestation of him as will exclude every elen.ent of unhappinesa,
and fill the soul with satisfaction for ever. We shall be satisfied with each draught of
revelation, and look forward with serene confidence and ecstatic joy to the next and th«
■•xt.
L The sympathy «/ Christ with his people is most tenderly consideriOt,
OS. MV. 1—31.] THE GOSPEL ACCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. 2E7
It was 80 here. His disciples did not tell him that they were afraid of orphanage and
desolation, but he knew it ; and in answer to their inward thoughts and feelings, h«
tenderly said, " I will not leave you," etc. 2. EU sympathy with his people it ever
practical. It is not mere sentiment. It is not only negative, but ever assumes an
affirmative form. He did not stop with saying, " I will not leave," etc., but proceeded
to say, " 1 come," etc. And all this was fulfilled in their experience; and it is 'ever
so. 3. As Ohrigt is manifested in the soul, we at once realize aU we need. When the
sun appears in the sky, all the landscape around is in full view. So, when the Sun of
Righteousness arises in the soul, the spiritual universe is all ablaze. We see an ever-
living Saviour and an ever-loving Father in closest fellowship, and our life by faith
in closest fellowship with both. When Christ manifested himself to his disciples, they
never thought of orphanage and desolation afterwards. 4. Let us take care of the
condition cf our spiritwA comfort and realization. "He that hath my cominand-
ments," etc— R T.
Ver. 27. — 7%e special legacy <f Jesus to his disciples. Notice—
I. This legacy in itb rich contents. " Peace I leave," etc. 1. The great system
of reconcUiation. The gospel is pre-eminently the gospel of peace. It is peace on
earth, and good will to men. This gospel Christ committed to his apostles as its
special ambassadors, and to them was given " the ministry of reconciliation, to wit,"
etc. 2. This great system in its blessed effects on them. Our Lord sums up these
effects in one word, " peace," and it is most significant and expressive. It involves :
(1) The peace of the soul with Ood. By sin it is at enmity with him, out of harmony
altogether with his character and will, but by acceptance of the Divine system of
reconciliation, peace with God is effected. This the disciples enjoyed. They could say,
" Being justified by faith, we have," etc. (2) The peace of the soul with itself. By
sin it is at war with itself; there are painful discords, unrest and guilt throughout its
empire. But peace with God brings peace within. Then there is order, good govern-
ment, and harmony in the soul. They enjoyed inward peace. (3) Their peace with
each other, and a peaceful disposition towards all. There is nothing more remarkable
in the history of the disciples than the almost perfect unity and peace which reigned
among them, which was the wonderful result of the Divine system of reconciliation,
and the personal tuition and influence of their Master. This he leaves with them. 3.
This legacy of Christ has the peculiarity of being absolutely his own. "My peace." (1)
He is its Author. Think of it as a work, he made it; or as a scheme, he wrought it out ;
or as a purchase, he paid the price ; or as a gracious interference between offensive man and
ofiended Deity, he is the Mediator ; or as a Divine principle, he imparts and inspires it.
He is the Peace-maker and the Peace Offering. It is his so thorou^jhly, that with pro-
priety the apostle says, " He is our Peace, who hath made both one," etc. (2) He is
its absolute Proprietor and Dispenser. Being its absolute Author, he is also its absolute
proprietor, and has an absolute right to withhold it from or give it to whomsoever he
pleases. (3) It is suvh as he himself enjoyed. " My peace " — the peace which is mine ;
the peace of his own soul, resulting from perfect obedience, self-sacrificing love, serene
sonfidence in and fellowship with the God of peace ; the peace which reigned in his own
heart, which was exemplified in his own life, which was its strength and happiness. This
he gave, and the gift was absolutely and practically his own. 4. ITiit legacy is very
precious. (1) It is precious in itself. What is more precious than peace in families,
in neighbourhoods, in Churches, and empires? Take it away, society would soon
become a Bedlam, and the world a hell. But higher in its nature, more extensive and
lasting in its influence still, is spiritual peace — peace of heart, mind, and conscience.
" The peace of God, which passeth," etc. (2) It is precious as t^ is the most needful
blessing. It is ever so, and it was so now with regard to the disciples. Jesus was
about to leave them, and they were surrounded with dangerous elements, and were to
live in a hostile world. With regard to their personal and ofScial wants, peace was an
essential blessing. Nothing is more precious than what we absolutely need^ and cannot
do without. The disciples could do without many things, but not without this. How
could they be the heralds of peace without the message ; and how could they give it to
others without its being given to them first ? This Jesus gave them. (3) It is very
precious as coming from him. A gift derives value from the giver; and peace coming
MHN.— n. •
258 THE GOSPEL ACOOEDIN(J TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xiv. 1— 3L
from him is a guarantee of its genuineness and worth. We value the gift of a dear
friend, especially his parting gift and his dying keepsake. This is. the parting gift of
Jesus to his disciples ; as if he were to say, " I have no riches, no fortune, no estates, to
give you ; hut I give you something far better — ' My peace.' " He gave them the most
precious part of even himself — his peace. (4) It is very precious because it could not
be hdd of any one else. The rarity of a thing makes it precious ; and so rare is this
peace that it could not be obtained of any one but Jesus, " the Prince of Peace ; " and
could not be obtained of him but as the gift of his grace. His peace, like his com-
mandment of love, is new and original. (5) This legacy is given them as an absolute
and personal possession. " Peace I leave with you, my peace," etc. They seem to be
trustees under his first clause, but actual possessors under the second. The ministry of
reconciliation I leave with you, to publish and offer to others ; but " my peace " I give
unto you as your personal property — ^your support and inspiration in life, your solace in
death, and your fortune for ever.
II. In the DISTINaUISHINO rBATUEES OF ITS OHABACTEB AND BESTOWMENT. " Not
as the world giveth," etc. Here is a contrast. There is no comparison. They knew
something of the world as a giver ; and for fear they would look at him in the same
light, he asserts a great contrast. 1. In the reality of the gifts and the giving. The
world gives shadows ; Christ gives substances. The world gives that which is not bread,
and satis6eth not ; Christ's gifts are good, perfect, and satisfying. The world gives in vain
wisies and empty salutations — " Peace be with you ; " but Christ gives substantial peace.
The world pays in promissory notes, but they are all dishonoured ; Christ pays in hard
cash. No sooner he says, " My peace I give unto you," than that peace is given and
felt as a living principle in the soul, and all his promises are fulfilled. 2. Jn the part of
man which is supplied. The world gives to the body ; Christ to the soul. The world
gives to the outward and transient in man ; Christ to the inward and eternal. The
world only supplies music for the physical ear, and sceneries for the physical eye ;
Christ supplies music for the soul, and spiritual sceneries of unspeakable beauty to the
eye of faith. The world supplies the lowest part of man — his passions and animal
propensities ; but Christ furnishes the highest part of him — his reason, faith, con-
science— and satisfies his immortal aspirations and wants. 3. In the manner of the
giving. The world gives its best first, and there is a sad deterioration; but Christ
keeps the best wine to the last. The world gives laughter which ends in weeping,
joy which ends in sorrow, pleasures which end in pain, bright hopes which end in dis-
appointment, a heaven which ends in hell; but Christ gives good things even at first,
and they improve with time. He gives pleasures which sweeten with experience, joys
which intensify with years, delights which increase with ages, prospects which brighten
with eternities, and hopes which are divinely realized. Weeping is converted into
laughter, the pains of birth into the pleasures of a new life, the pangs of repentance
into the ecstasies of pardon, the gloomy doubts of faith into the brilliant visions of
heaven, the streams of peace into an ocean of joy and happiness, and the struggles of
the warfare into the hosannas of a final victory. " Not as the world," etc. 4. In per-
manency.. The world only lends ; Christ gives. What the world gives, it soon takes
away ; but Christ leaves his peace with his people, and gives them " that good part," etc.
The world at best only gives a life-interest, and that life very brief and uncertain ; but
Christ's gifts are eternal possessions and real property. The lease of his gifts is not for
the life of the body, but for the life of the soul. The world's fountains soon get dry, but
those of Christ are perennial. " Whosoever drinketh of thio ^■ater shall thirst again :
but whosoever drinketh," etc.
ni. In ITS PBAOTicAL EFFECTS UPON HIS FOLLOWERS. " Let not your heart be,"
etc. 1. They were exposed to special dangers. (1) Prom within, arising from their
innate depravity, the imperfections of their spiritual nature, the youth and weakness
of their faith. They were as yet but babes in Christ ; they were exposed to inward
trouble and doubts. (2) Prom without. They were in a hostile world, and sent forth
as sheep among wolves. The departure of their Saviour and the terrible tragedy of
his crucifixion were in the immediate future, and all this was but an introduction to
more personal attacks and hostilities. 2. To strengthen their heart against trouble and
fea/r was now Christ's chief aim. "Let not your heart," etc. There may be trouble
without much fear; still tbej are near relations, and ever attack the heart. Tke
OH. XIV. 1—31.] THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN. 259
heart, as the seat of emotion, is the most vulnerable avenue to these foes. They were
rushing in torrents upon the disciples already. The mere talk of his departure had
filled their heart with sorrow. It was his chief aim to strengthen their heart. 3. 2%is
aim he accomplished ty the hestowment of his own peace. " Peace I leave with you,"
etc. He prescribes and furnishes the remedy — " peace." The Divine element which
had been so infallible against fear and trouble in himself. " My peace I give unto you."
This Divine peace is the only element which can successfully cumbat trouble and fear.
It sets the whole soul to music ; and the music of the soul, like the music of heaven,
makes sorrow and sighing to flee away. Filled with Christ's peace, like him, they
would be calm in the storm, joyful in tribulation, patient in suffering, and jubilant in
death.
Lgssonb. 1. All the movementt of Jesus were in order to Ness. He came to the
world to bless. He was in it for a while to bless, and left it in order to bless his people
all the more. The legacy of peace could not be fully enjoyed while the testator was
alive. 2. When Jesus l^t his disciples, he left the best part of himself with them.
" My peace I give," etc. He left infinitely more than he took away. He took himself
personally away, but left his peace — the cream of his life, and the life of his death. 3.
To enjoy his peace is to enjoy him in the highest sense, and to enjoy all we require in this
world. It will raise us above our troubles and fears, into the calm sphere of Divine
love, fellowship, and protection. — ^B. T.
Ver. 1. — 2Vo»6Ze on the surface, peace in the depths. I. As affeal to a fauiliar
BXFBRIENCE. Most of the disciples, perhaps all of them, were well acquainted with
the sea of Galilee. Some of them had earned their livelihood on its waters. They
knew it in calm and in storm ; and when their Master spoke of hearts being troubled,
there was everything in this word " troubled " to make them think at once of the sea
they had so often to do with. Their hearts were not to be as the waters of the lake,
instantly responding to every breeze that set them in agitation. The surface is a mass
of tossing billows ; it cannot for a momeut resist the wind ; but the wiud tries in vain
to blow its turmoil down into the depths. So we cannot help the surface-trouble ; but,
whatever the changes of life, our hearts are kept in peace.
II. Future trials foreseen. We must recollect a little of the after experience of
those whom Jesus here addresses. They were nearing a time of tempest and troubling,
well perceived by him, altogether unexpected by them. They were to lose the visible
presence of their Master. Persecution awaited them. They would have to go far from
familiar and secluded Galilee out into all the world, to preach the gospel to every
creature. So far the disciples had been like mariners, dropping down the harbour and
making seaward under One whom they reckon as Captain. He is still with them, and
they reckon on his continuing with them. And so he will, but in another guise from
that which they expect. Thus Jesus would do his best to make them reaidy. The
greatest of all dangers is that which for a while they will think of least, even the
danger of trouble penetrating to tlie heart, and leaving not one single calm and blessed
region in the whole of their experience.
III. The sure way to unbroken calh. it is well for us when we come to
estimate the perils of life according to the standard of Christ. Some people get no
enjoyment out of life from their nervous apprehension concerning all sorts of temporal
dangers. They are ever mounting sentinel ao;ainst foes that no sentinel can keep out.
But here is a peril only too easily overlooked — that of neglecting a real faith in God
and in Christ. Bemember the story of the man who was running full speed across
a field to escape a thunderstorm. All at once he was gored by a bull, whose nresence
in the field he had altogether forgotten. This is a sample of the prudence "of some
people. The man had no certainty of escaping the lightning wherever he might go.
But he cotild easily have escaped the bull by keeping out of the field where it was.
Thus men thinking to save their lives, lose them. If the roots of our life are deepening
and extending and intertwining into the life of God, then the fabric of our best interests
cannot faU. We mnct Im careful, too, to act on the double reference. Jesus does not
stop wHh Baying, " Believe in God." Nor does he begin with sayii^, " Believe in me."
Jesus opens up all the resources at once. Jesus himself had believed in his Father,
. The disciples had to pass through tempests; Jesus himself had to pass through hwni-
260 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xit. 1— 3L
caneB and toraadoes, and say to himself, "Let not thy heart he troubled ; believe in
God." Believe in Jesus for the very works' sake. They will take him to prison ; they
wUl crown him with thorns ; they will fasten him to the cross, and he will die ; and
still believe. Believe in Jesus, who himself has trod all the path, from earth's deepest
sorrows to heaven's fullest joys. Who has better right to say, " Let not your heart be
troubled; believe in God, believe also in me"? — ^Y.
Ters. 2, 3. — The work of the ascended Jesus. And yet manifestly it is only part of
the work. So much is spoken of as needed to he spoken of here. Jesus tells us that
which will best blend with other things that have to be said at the time. Who can
imagine, who can describe, anything like the total of what Jesus has gone from earthly
scenes to do ?
L Consider the occupations op those who were left. Just one word gives
the suggestion that these were in the mind of Jesus as he spoke, and that is the word
" mansions." The settled life is thought of rather than the wandering one. Jesus knew
full well what a wandering life his disciples would have, going into strange and distant
countries. They would have to travel as he himself had never travelled. The more
they apprehended the work to which they had been called, the more they would
feel bound to go from land to land, preaching the gospel while life lasted. To men
thus constantly on the move, the promise of a true resting-place was just the promise
they needed.
II. The future companionship op Jebus and his people. To those who have
•come into the real knowledge and service of Jesus nothing less than such a companion-
ship will make happiness ; and nothing more is needed. Jesus needed not to have
a place in glory prepared for him ; he had but to resume his old station, and be with
his Father as be bad been before. This is the great element of happiness on earth — not
so much where we are as with whom we are. The most beautiful scenes, the most
luxurious surroundings, count as nothing compared with true harmony in the human
beings who are around us. And just so it must be in the anticipations of a future
state. While Jesus was in the flesh, his presence with his disciples was the chief
element in their happiness ; and as they looked forward to the future, this was the main
thing desired, that they should be with Jesus. As Paul puts it, " Absent from the
body, present with the Lord."
III. The preparation op a common home. Is this to be taken as a real preparation,
or is it only a way of speaking, to impress the promise of reunion more deeply ? Is
there now some actual work of the glorified Jesus going on which amounts to a nece8-
sary preparation for his glorified people? Surely it must be so. We are not to go
into another state, as pioneers, to cut our own way. We are not as the Pilgrim Fathers,
who bad to make their own houses, and live as best they could till then. It is clear
that a kindly Providence made the earth ready for the children of men, storing up
abundance for all our temporal need ; and in like manner Jesus is making heaven ready.
Earth was made ready for Jesus to come down and live in it, and for him and his dis-
ciples to live together in. And when his disciples ascend to a higher state, all things
will be ready then. — T.
Ver. 6. — Ample supply for three great needs. Jesus here suggests three great needs.
He has spoken of journeying, continuous movement into ever new places — in one place
to-day, in another to-morrow, and the day after in still another. Even while we are
moving about in the same locality, so far as natural life is concerned, we — the real
we — must be ever moving forward into higher and still higher states. That Jesus
should speak of a way was therefore evidently appropriate. But there are two other
needs — the need of truth, all that gives a sense of reality, stability, security ; and the
need of life, all that gives energy, persistence, enjoyment. Or we might say that Jesus
here indicates three aspects of the universal need, of which first one aspect and then
another rises into prominence. But, whatever the aspect of human need may be, in
Jasus there is something to correspond, for full and immediate supply.
L The Wat. There is a way which we must take— the way along which tim* take*
our bodies ; the way of physical development, maturity, decay. But side by side with
the way which cannot be chosen, and in striking contrast with it, ia the way which
•n. xiT. 1—31.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 261
must be cbosen. For that way we are reaponsible; none oan compel us to take eren
one step in It. And what that way shall he dependi on where we want to get. Those
who want to be with Jeaus hereafter must be with him here. And those who want to
be with the Father hereafter, having knowledge of him, and receiring of his fulness,
can only gain this through Jesus. There is no other name given whereby men are to
be saved. No one else has a sure and certain path into the future. In Jesns there is
a provision, the very neglect of which only sets in a most melancholy light the various
provisions which men make for the life of time. Men who can walk diligently
enough in the way of ordinary industry, in the way of frugality, in the way of intellectual
activity, yet stumble and retreat at once when the Way Christ Jesus is put before
them.
II. The Tbttth. How much useless disputing, how many weary doubts, are saved
to those who can put a real faith in Jesus I Everything practical and possible is known
by knowing him. Truth is a very large word, but all that it suggests is amply compre-
hended in Jesus. • In Jesus only do we find the real, the abiding, and that which can never
be shaken. How simplified our inquiries become the moment we can rest in the all-
sufficiency of Jesus! "Where is Jesus?" not "What is true?" becomes the main
question then. All that lies outside of his intent and his support is seen to be but as
a passing dream. All investigation of the problems of the universe is in vain apart
from him. All phenomenal realities, all human sciences, only find out their use as
they become subordinate to the truth as it is in Jesus.
III. The Life. Jesus becomes the Existence of the believer. In him he lives and
moves and has his being. Through Jesus we are bom again into newness of life, and
being born again, we find in Jesus the atmosphere, the nourishment, and all the
ministering associations of our new lifei We need all the energy and perennial freshness
of his own vitality; and if we truly have Jesus, whatever we may lack, we shall not
lack life.— Y.
Ver. 9. — Acquaintance and yet ignorance, I. Philip'b AOQnAiNTANCE with Jesus.
Philip would have spoken with the utmost sincerity and not without justification if he
had said that certainly he knew Jesus. In Bethabara beyond Jordan he had heard the
voice, " Follow me," and he had followed wherever he was allowed to follow. In a
certain sense it was perfectly true that Philip knew Jesus. In the darkness he would
have recognized the Masters voice and even his footsteps. In that which is the mere
surface of humanity the knowledge was ample enough, but the moment Jesns seeks
the depths, Philip's knowledge fails him. Philip says, " Show us the Father," in the
simplicity of most utter and guileless ignorance. He is looking on the very thing he
wants to see, and yet knows it not.
II. How PAB ABB WE INOLINBD TO MAKB PHILIP'S KEdUBST? If it Were possible
for Philip to do so, we may be sure he would press on us the need of making this
request. So far as we can judge, he was a man who delighted in bringing others to
Jesus. Philip himself came to make the request because so very often he had heard
Jesus speak concerning the Father. According to Jesus, so much depended upon the
Father, and the Father had a right to ask so much. How, for instance, could the dis-
ciple pray, " Our Father which art in heaven," as a real prayer unless first of all the
Father had been shown to him ? Philip must often have used the words of the Lord's
Prayer. And yet here is proof of how little he had entered into the meaning. After
the Father had been shown to Philip, only then would he begin to feel how great a
thing true prayer is. There would be in it a power and a gladness it never had before.
Thus it is clear we all need to have the Father shown to us. Not all our regularity in
prayer and not all our importunity can bring down on us the highest blessings, if we
know not to whiom we are praying. Successful asking, successful seeking, successful
knocking, implies that we ask from the right person, seek in the right place, and knock
at the right door.
UI. How FAB ABE WE EXFOSEO TO THE AN8WEB OF Jesus ? The word of Jesus, b«
it observed, is not a word of blame. The natural man is not to be blamed that ha
cannot see what is only to be seen by the spiritual man. The answer is rather meant
to make plain to us very important truth. 1. How easy it it to think we know Jeaus !
Know about him, at least. And it is easy to know a great deal, in a certain way. 2,
262 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [ch. xiv, 1—31
But to know Jesus, as he wants to he known, is not easy, Philip's experience proves that.
If length of acquaintance and closeness of intimacy count for anything, Philip had
enjoyed these. But time is only an element in real knowledge, when some part of the
knowledge, at all events the alphabet and rudiments, is known from the beginning.
Mere lapse of time by itself will not bring knowledge. Through what years of need
and struggle some of us may "have been ignorant of him, who came that he might help
us in our need and struggle I — T.
Ver. 12. — The greater works of the Idiever. L The need of these g beater
woEKB. We know the works of Jesus in the flesh— certainly not all he did ; but still
we know the kind of things he did. And we know, too, that if nothing more had been
done, the greatest things would have been left undone. A diseased and defective body
is bad, a physical leprosy is a great pollution ; but a distracted, passion-ruled heart is
infinitely worse. The miraculous healings and alleviations worked out by Jesus are
very beautiful, but they were only deeds by the way; having in them something
preparatory and illustrative, but always looking to fundamental renovations, which
would bring all other renovations in due course. We should ever aim to look at need
according to the gradation which Jesus gives. We easily become " the fools of time
and sense." What shall it profit a man if he practically learns the secret of vigorous
health, and a long, enjoyable physical life, if it leaves him, all through, self-indulgent
and self-asserting I The abiding ministry of Jesus, through the ministry of those in
every generation whom he chooses and qualifies, is a ministry to the greatest needs of
men. For temporal and physical needs they can often do little or nothing ; but Jesus
fills them with a spiritual energy which works out results, making many increasingly
grateful to them, and through them to the supreme Saviour himself.
IL The pbepbot bubordinatiost of the Son to the Father. What consciousness
there Je here of a plan and an order I What humble and beautiful recognition of the
place of Jesus and of his servants respectively ! Jesus says it without the slightest
hesitation that his servants would do greater things than himself. Here are the words
of One who was ever thinking, first of all, of the glory and will of his heavenly Father.
So the thing be done, what matters it whose is the visible hand ? Nothing good can
he done, whether in higher or lower degree, without the enabling energy from on high.
So long as the greater works are continually going on, and men being regenerated and
sanctified, what we may call the mere reputation of Jesus is a small matter. There is
no fear but what Jesus will get full recognition from those in whom the greater works
are being done. Such recognition is no trivial part of the proof that the greater works
are being done.
III. The cause of the greater works. The apostles do not merely take the place
of Jesus. His departure out of the ordinary conditions of human life is part of the
qualification of his servants for the greater works. He is with -the Father now in a
sense in which he was not while here in flesh and blood. Even as Paul said, " Absent
from the body, present with the Lord," so Jesus, absent from the body, was present
with the Father. Let us, indeed, fully admit that the cause Jesus here gives is one we
are little able to comprehend. But it is the real cause, and we should rejoice in its
being mentioned ; for what we know not now we shall know hereafter. — T.
Vers. 13, 14. — Asking in the Name of Jesus. I. Changed methods of commuhioa-
TioN. The prayers of the disciples were probably very shallow and vitiated expressions
of feeling daring the days when they knew Jesus according to the flesh. We know
something of their misapprehensions and self-regarding ways — and how could these
be kept out of their prayers? For a while Jesus came between them and God ; as he
himself suggested, he was a stumbling-block. But the happy day was coming when
the disciples would be thrown upon the unseen. Intercourse with Jesus in flesh and
blood was pleasant enough, but it had no special enrichment in it, and it had to be
taken with all its drawbacks and limitations as well as its pleasures. No wonder the
digciples so abounded in prayer after the ascension of their Master, All the way in
which he h«d taken them led up to this. Becoming invisible, he did not bec«me
inaocessible ; yea, rather, he became more accea.sible than ever.
IL Speouied topics of supplication. All that is asked miut be asked in th«
CH. Mv. 1— 31.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 263
Name of Jeaus. Asked with confidence and understanding, even as a servant does in
the name of his master. If a known servant goes to the bank with a cheque signed by
His master, he gets the money at once ; for his master has a claim tliere, and the claim
is recognized, as a matter of course. Jesus was One who had great stores of wealth
treasured up in the bank of heaven, and for a. while he made application himself,
whereby to do his wonderful works. He himself, dwelling on earth, had asked in hia
own Person, and for his own direct ministrations from his heavenly Father. And now
that he was going away to the far country, the works had still to be done — yea, even
greater works — and the heavenly treasury had to be in constant requisition. The
greater works were impossible unless as answers to truly Christian prayer.
III. Great encoubagembnt roB all who seek the oood of others. A large
amount of good, of a certain sort, may be done without prayer. There are physical
wants of men and there are physical supplies. But he who would do the highest
good must ever be asking himself what Jesus would do, if he himself could be thought
of just as one of his own servants. We are to live lives of ministry to men as the
servants of the Lord Jesus. Our ministry is to be measured, not by what men ask for,
but by what Jesus seeks to give. We have greater boons at our command for a needy
world than anything nature can supply.
IV. The implied mediation op Jesus. He and his Father are one. Whatever is
asked in the Name of Jesus will be done as by Jesus himself. Notice how soon
opportunity was given to try the reality of all this. Look at the lame man laid at
the Beautiful gate of the temple. He is asking, but his desires do not go beyond an
alms. He has long learned to be contented, if only he can drag on existence. But to
Peter the opportunity is given of something far beyond an alms, and he speaks to the
lame man, not in his own name — that would have been all in vain — ^but in the Name
>f Jesus of Nazareth. Here is a revelation many of us have yet to discover, that we
may become blessed channels of the highest power flowing from the mediation of the
Lord Jesus. — Y.
Vers. 16 — 18. — " Another Comforter." I. An answer to a bequest of Jesds.
The manifestation of the Holy Spirit is a conditional thing. Jesus must ask the
Father for it ; and he can only ask the Father when he perceives the disciples to be
going in the way of his directions. If only the disciples will do what Jesus wants
them to do, he will secure for them the indispensable help. They must not be under
the delusion that the might of the Holy Spirit will be given to aid them in their own
plans and schemes. They must be servants to the plans and schemes of Jesus. The
Father waits for the Son to ask, and the Son waits till he sees his people ready to
receive.
II. The Gift bestowed. Here It is plain we must try to look at things rather than
words — at the whole actual work of the Holy Spirit rather than at special words by
which he is described. And inasmuch as he is called " another Paraclete," we must
consider the incarnate Jesus himself as the first and introductory Paraclete. Well did
•the disciples know how utterly helpless they would have been without the assistance
of Jesus. Truly he was an earthly Providence to them. They never needed to be at a
loss. Anrl all the time they were made to feel more and more their natural insufiSciency.
And doubtless Jtsus saw in their hearts the question rising as to what they should do
when he was gone. If Jesus had not come into their lives, they would not have known
what life can be. But having had a Paraclete, it would be like sinking from light into
darkness to go on without one. Better never to have known Jesus at all, than to
know him and then lose him, and have to go on with no more than they had at the
beginning. More than that, the gift of the second Comforter includes all that was
essential in the first one. Nay, we may say even more. The first Comforter was only
truly operative when he blossomed out, so to speak, into the second one. Jesus was the
Truth, and the second Comforter was the Spirit of the Truth. Jesus gave the seed,
and then the Spirit came hke the breath of spring to stir up the seed into life. There
is much about all this process that we cannot understand ; but that is all the more
reason why we should mark what we can mark — even the sequence of processes and
results. If the second Comforter had never come, the mission of th« first one would
have been the greatest enigma in the history of humanity.
264 THE GOSPEL ACOOBDING TO ST. JOHN, [oh- *!▼• 1— 31-
HL The beoifients of the G-ift. It has been well mid that Jesus is spoken of
as having come into the world. The world could receive him after a fashion, because
it could gaze upon him and recognize him by the senses, as it could any incarnated
human being. But the Holy Spirit comes to the Church, to prepared and humbled
hearts. He comes to complete repentance. Men see that the past has been wrong
and foolish, full of wasted days and powers. Then they begin to study the com-
munications of Jesus, and so they are led on into a reception of the Holy Spirit.
There must surely be much listening to Jesus, much pondering over all the elements
of his incaroate career, before it can be comprehended what the Holy Spirit really is
and does. — Y.
Ver. 19. — Separated, hut not orphaned. I. Jesus ooNTnnTALLT THOUeHTFiTL fob
HIS PEOPLE. These disciples could not for a moment place themselves in the present
position of their Master. They knew not how he was feeling; they knew not what
mental agonies were impending for him. He, on the other hand, the nearer he drew to
his own crowning trials, the more he thought of all the terrible experiences of his
disciples. Thus we see how entirely Divine Providence takes in all human needs.
The time of desolation and perplexity for the disciples was really veiy short. It
extended at the utmost from the arrest in Gethsemane to the morning of the resurrection.
Then separation was swallowed up in reunion, and it was made clearer and clearer to
the disciples that visible communion, however sweet, was to melt away into an invisible
communion, equally sweet and vastly more helpful.
II. The impossibility of ant beal sepabation between Jesus and his people.
The degree of such a separation is indicated by a very strong term. Much separation
would be exaggerated if it were called orphanhood. Those are justly reckoned orphans
who are bereft of their natural supports and defences. Orphans must be provided for.
Those who have once tasted the good word of life in Christ Jesus cannot get anything
to nourish and augment life anywhere else. Hence we see the light in which Jesus
looks upon such as are not yet in any living and abiding connection with himself. He
looks on them as being unprovided for, in any true and proper manner. In comparison
of any real discipline and preparation for the future, they are as the waifs and strays
upon the streets, who grow up anyhow, and drift into a manhood of crime and misery.
There is such a thing as practical orphanhood, without any consciousness of it. It is
surely the intent of the Father of Jesus that we all should be his children; and if we
cannot truly say, " Our Father in heaven," what is that but practical orphanhood? We
have yet to find the fulness of sonship and brotherhood. It is possible to have the
most loving and sheltering of human parentage and yet suffer as the worst of orphans.
All other separations are to lose their sting and curse, because nothing can separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
III. This abiding communion is manifestly ik the fulness of the Tbinity.
Jesus has said that another Paraclete will come, even the Spirit of the truth. Thus he
seems to separate himself, begins to depart from his disciples, and as it were looks over
his shoulder while he speaks. He had, indeed, to honour the Holy Spirit. As the Father
hail glorified the Son, saying, " This is my beloved Son ; hear ye him ; " so Jesus glorifies
the S|>irit, saying as it were, "This is my Spirit; hear ye him." But immediately the
distinction is drawn, there has to be an implication of the unity. Those who had
beard Jesus say, " I and the Father are one," must also be made to feel that Jesus and
the Spirit are one. And thus we are prepared for the undeniable and beautiful
correspondence between the Gfospels and the Epistles. The presence of Jesus is now
universal as the air, and yet only comprehended and profited by when we have received
the Holy Spirit, The Spirit reveals Jesus ; does not bring the distant near, but simply
lifts the hiding veil. Thus the full Trinity is nearest to us of all things, if only we
can be established in living connection with it. — ^T.
Vers. 22—24.— What makes the true manife$tation possible. L The question of
Judas. This question shows how much the disciples had yet to learn; for without
doubt all shared the perplexity of the one. How one fundamental error stops a true
understanding of all the words of Jesusl In a sense, Jesus had been seen of all men
who had eyes to see, but what they had seen had just been the human form. That
OH. XIV. 1—31.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. aC6
Jesus should have kingly honour and kingly power they had not discerned. Bat the
disciples seem to have thought that one day he would assume outward royal pomps,
and then every hody would he forced to recognize him for what he truly was. A glory
uhat could he manif sted to some and not to all was beyond the comprehension of the
disciples. The question of Judas was only the world's own habitual and self-conceited
question, amounting to this — that if there was anything in Christianity, the world wuiild
have seen it long ago. The world's delusive notion is that it can know everything that
is to be known, if only the manifestation is made intense enough.
II. Thb explanation of Jesus. An explanation, indeed, and yet not an explanation
to be understood in the moment of utterance. For these very disciples had yet to
have stirred up in their hearts a true spiritual affection. They did lore Jesus as
human friend love.s human friend ; but doing this, what did they more than others ?
The mutual bond of friendship requiies no high stretch of human virtue. But the
disciples had yet to attain the ayair^, that liryainj which is specially affirmed as the
crowning gift of the Holy Spirit. God so loved the world as to give his Son foi-
the world's redempti hi, and there is a continual effort through many and ever multi-
plying agencies to manifest himself in saving power to the world. But this is done by
all arts of persuasion and warning — ^by persistent shaking of those who are asleep till
they open their eyes, which many of them never do. There is, of course, an increase of
manifestation in the glory of God in Christ Jesus, so that those able to see the mani-
festation at all see more and more, and have an increase of joy the longer they look.
But just as the same eye beholds the sun in its noonday glory and in its earliest dawn,
so the same eye beholds all the manifestations of God in Jesus. If we cannot see the
beginning, we cannot see the continuing. To those spiritually blind, all comforting
manifestations of the Trinity are alike impossible. There must be a breaking down of
selfishness, an opening up of the streams of love, and a gradual increase of them into
copious flow. How many indulge selfishness, well knowing the claims that press oc
them from every side! Shut your eyes and keep thein closed; it is true then that
you cannot see ; but you are not therefore reckoned blind. Only when you are penitent,
and profoun'lly troubled because of deep-rooted selfishness, can the manifestation of
Jesus begin to you. Sulfishness is what makes the world the world ; and as soon as a
counter-current is set up in any human heart, that is a sign of salvation begun, and if
only there be no Demas-lapse into the love of the temporal and the visible, then
manifestations from above will more and more increase. The more we fit ourselves to
see, the more we shall see. — ^Y.
Yers. 25, 26. — How the teaching of Jestis becomes abiding and effectual. I. Tbs
FowEBLGSBNEss OF TBUTH. Jesus Continually remembered this. No one, indeed, had
more complete experience as to the inability of the natural man to receive spiritual
things; and even here, when perhaps the disciples were unusually attentive, Jesus
knew that they would be more than ever perplexed. And there was nothing in the
mere lapse of time to make the meaning clearer, the promises more receivable, the
duties more feasible. Persevering, indomitable students have, ere now, puzzled out
some abstruse treatise usually made plain by a teacher who knows it thoroughly.
They have not been able to get the teacher, and so they have managed to do without
him. But the utterances of Jesus in the Gospels are sealed up, every one of them, to
mere intellectual inquiry. The words are there, with a strange attractive [wwer — unique
words ; and yet the very power that is to make them useful is somehow lacking, or at
all events unavailable. No fresh words are needed; it may truly be said there is
nothing in the Epistles which is not already in the Gospels, so far as principles are
concerned; but something ia needed to bring the human heart and the words of Jesus
into living contact.
II, What uakeb tbuth vital. The energy of the Holy Spirit. He will indeed
be a Paraclete, ever coming in with ample and effectual guidance just at the needful
moment. What riches have been got out of the Gospels by Spirit-guided men I What
a serious accusation if we reject or neglect what has evidently been given to meet the
emergency I GK)d never gives anything unnecessary. Let it not be supposed that the
Holy Spirit is for the difficulties of some, or for occasions when we cannot see our way
to truth unaided. The Holy Spirit is for all ind tlwaya. The truth as it is in Jesus
266 THE GOSPEL AGCORDING TO ST, JOHN. [oh. xiv. 1— SL
can never become a real system to us, individaally, unless as we accept this guidance
provided by Jesus and his Father. How this guidance operates is another matter.
That we may not be able to understand. But neither do we understand how the seed
bursts into life and develops into plant and fruit. What we need is firm faith and
an abiding recollection that the Holy Spirit which the Father sends in the Name of the
Sou is a real and a present power. The difference between the seed unsown and the
seed springing up and moving onwtids to fruit, is an analogue of the difference between
an utterance of Jesus verbally lodged in the memory, and that same utterance opened
lip and filled with perennial power by the Holy Spirit.
III. The twofold aspect or the Spibit's work hebe pbbsbnted. 1. Teaching.
The death of Jesus had yet to come, and then the resurrection and ascension. Every-
thing Jesus has ever spoken must be brought into proper relation with these marvelloui
experiences of his personal life. The Holy Spirit has to explain the sum total of the
incarnation. 2. Reminding. To recollect what we know just when we want it, is one
of the hardest of things. What is the value of knowledge unless it can be turned to
practice just at the right time ? The Holy Spirit may be a help to mere memory, fai
more than we think. — ^Y.
Ver. 27. — A pricelesB Ugaoy. I. The need of some such assueancb. Jesus had
already said perturbing things. We know the disciples were so perturbed, for we find
the Master himself referring to their manilest disappointment and consternation.
" Because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart." And this
was a sorrow that probably included vexation, chagrin, and humiliation. The Master
was quietly demolishing certain castles in the air. This wonderful and profound dis-
course, which has brought light aod comfort to so many generations of Christians,
would bring little of either to those who first heard it and in the first hearing. But
Jesus was thinking of the future rather than of the present; thinking of a day to
come when the disciples would rejoice that he had shattered their delusions and vain
hopes.
II. Jesus points backward to the peace of his own life. He directs his tnends
to his own experience and attainments. He intimates that hia disciples were not
altogether ignorant of the peculiar composure of their Master's life. They had seen
him again and' again in all sorts of scenes and circumstances, but never in a hurry or a
flurry. Goethe's ideal of progress was to go on without haste, without rest ; and Jesus
turned that ideal into reality. The stream of his life was not a rushing torrent, like
some Swiss stream fed from a glacier ; neither was it made up of dull, sluggish, creep-
ing, almost stagnant stretches of water. If the disciples had not sufficiently noticed
this peace, it was just one of the very things the promised Paraclete would bring to
their remembrance. They must have rememlieied how calm Jesus was when the
tempest from the hills came down on the little boat. And then they would remember,
too, how, when just delivered from the tempest, Jesus met the fierce maniac, possessed
of many devils, so strong in his frenzy that he broke the bonds that bound him. Such
was the habitual, profound peace of Jesus, and he never could have done his work
without it.
III. The possibility of this peace becoming ours. We need it not less than
Jesus, and sm-ely we can have it. His word was not a mere word of good wishes and
kindly interest. He did make over something substantial to his friends. He predicted
what assuredly would happen. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is peace, if only
that Spirit is allowed to have free course. A mere possibility, a mere ideal, would
nave been a poor legacy. Through Jesus many have learned to go through this world
of care and turmoil, yet keeping their hearts like that smooth, glassy sea which John
saw before the throne.
IV. The manner of making this peace a reality. We must obtain it, as he
obtained it. The Spirit of his heavenly Father, the Spirit that rules in heaven, was
ever in him, full and strong. He was in the world, but not of the world. He belonged
to a state of being where all is wondrous harmony. He was out of heaven, yet not for
a moment did the communications between him and heaven get broken. He was like
the diver who goes down into the water, a foreign and impossible element in itself,
taking with him the tube that connects his mouth with the upper air, and so being
m. XV. 1—27.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
267
able to remain under the water a long time and do very necessary work. Everything
earthly was estimated by heavenly measurements. He belonged to heaven, and knew
how things were going in heaven, and so, whatever the inconvenience of an earthly
Bojouni, bis heart was at perfect peace. — Y.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XV.
Vers. 1—10.— (7) The parahU of the
DIM and iU hranchet. Incorporation of (he
disciples into one personality with himself.
The image of the vine may have been
suggested by some visible object. Either of
the hypotheses of place would furnish a
reminder of the nature and culture of the
vine. Thus around the windows of the
guest-chamber the vine may have thrown
its tendrils, or on the slopes of Olivet the
vineyards may have been prominent objects,
or the burning heaps of vine-prunings may
have suggested the idea. Again, if they
were pausing in some apartments of the
temple-court, the golden vine, the image
of Israel, upon the gates may have sup-
plied the point of departure. But our Lord
needed no such help to bis imagination,
and it is by no means necessary to find an
cccasiou for his imagery. The fact that he
had the fruit of the vine before him, and
had already made it symbolic of bis sacri-
ficial death, may have brought the thought
nearer to the disciples. But the most simple
explanation is that the vine was the image
of Israel. The prophets and psalms abound
witlj this reference (Isa. v. 1, etc. ; Ezek.
xix. 10 ; Ps. lixx. 8 — 19), so that our Lord
was giving a new meaning to a familiar
figure. "The vine" was the beautiful
image of that theocratic and sacramental
community, which had its centre in the
altar and ark of testimony and the holy
place ; and the fruit of the vine was con-
spicuous in all the symbolic relations which,
through priesthood and ritual enactments,
brought individual Israelites into relation
with the reooneiled God. Here Christ
says, "I;" but we see from ver. 5 that the
branches, vrhich by reason of relation to
him have and draw their life from him (or,
to use his own words, " I and the branches,"
and " the branches in me "), constitute the
veritable " vine " of the covenant.
Ver. 1. — The vine of the Lord of hosts
(Ps. Ixxx.) brought forth wild grapes (Isa.
V. ; Ezek. xix. 10) ; Israel became " an empty
vine " (Hos. x. 1). The failuie of Israel to
realize the ideal leads our Lord, as the
true Israel of God, to say, I am the veritable
(or, ideal) vine, including (as the context
shows) in the idea of his complete Per-
sonality all the branches that derive their
life from him. I with the branches, I in-
volving my relation to the branches, and
theirs to me — I as the Life-principle of
humanity, together wilh those who are living
in me — constitute and are the veritable vine
of prophecy, the true Israel of God. So thiit
this passage, from vers. 1 — 10, denotes and
expounds with all detail the idea elsewhere
expressed by the head and the members of
a body. Sometimes the idea of the parts
predominates over the idea of the unity,
and sometimes the unity triumphs over the
parts; but in the relation between Christ
and the people of his love they are often
lost sight of in him, and he becomes the
only Personality. The "I" of this passage
is not that of the eternal Logos, nor is it
the mere humanity, nor is it simply the
Divine-human Personality, but the new
existence which, by union with him, formi d
one personage with him, — the believer
being united to him as he to the Father
My Father is the Hushandman, not simply
the dinre\ovfry6s, or vinedresser, but alsn
-yempyijf, the owner of the land as well.
It is a term applied in connection with tliu
traditional significance of the vine to the
head of the theocratic family. In Isa. v.
it is the " Lord of hosts ; " in 2 Chron. xxvi.
10 and in the parable of the vinedressers it
is applied to the rulers of the people. The
Arians were wrong in concluding from this
a difference of essence between the Father
and Son. The vine clearly includes the
branches ; and the owner of the vineyard,
who is also the dresser of the vine, deals
here with the whole reality. All, however,
which the Husbandman is said in ver. 2 to
effect is the taking away of the fruitless
though proud branch, and the cleansing
and gentle pruning of the branch that
bearetli fruit. Now, Christ, as the Sm, has
all judgment committed to him, and as the
great Organ of Divine providence and rule in
the Church, he is the Administrator of disci-
pline. Christ is not disclaiming the opora-
263
THE GOSPEL ACCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xv. 1— 2Y
tioDB which he in other places annmes, not
representing his own Personality as perfectly
passive in the matter, but he is claiming for
Jehovah of hosts the same relation to the
true Vine as he sustained to the degenerate
vine of the old covenant ; but he calls him
" my Father." Alford says, " The ma-
terial creations of God are only inferior
examples of that finer spiritual life and
organism in which the creature is raised
up to partake of the Divine nature " (see
Hugh Macmillan, D.D., 'The True Vine ').
Ver. 2. — Every branch in mej i.e. this
unity of life between me and mine is
graciously handled by the Father— my
Father 1 The branches are of two kinds —
unfruitful and fruitful. The indefinite state-
ment, in nominative absolute, calls great
attention to it. " Every branch in me that
beareth no fioit," Then it is possible to come
into this organic relation with the true Vine,
to be in it and to be a part of it, and to bring
forth no fruit. If it were not for ver. 5 we
might say that these branches were nations,
customs, institutions, and the like ; but the
context forbids it. The relation to him
must therefore be one that is insufScient
to secure life, or fruit, or continuance.
Baptized, communicating, professing, par-
tially believing Christians there may be in
abundance, who, though in him, ytt cannot
continue in him. (See stony ground, thorny
ground, and unripe ears, of the parable of
the sower; and the bad fish caught in
the net (Matt. xiii. ; 1 John ii. 19, etc.).
He taketh away (cf. John the Baptist :
" Every tree that bringeth not forth good
fruit is hewn down," Matt. iii. 10; and
Deut. xxxii. 32; Micali vii. 1). What is
done with the valueless prunings is said
afterwards. Every branch that beareth fruit,
he pruneth (or, eleanseth), that it may bring
forth more fruit. Let the non-reapperirauce
of fV i/jLol be observed. The suavis rhythmm
of Bengel is a mere accidental touch. The
words alpfi and xaBaipet rhyme with eacli
other ; but the latter word is not connected
with KaSaipeta, a compound of aVptco, nor is
it equivalent to Karaipei, the true compound
of Kara with alpa; but it is derived from
KaBap6s, clean, and means " to cleanse with
libations," and perhaps " to prune with the
knife." Tiie Husbandman aims at more fruit,
m(jre of meekness, gentleness, love, and faith-
fulness, in fact, all those fruile of the Spirit
enumerated in Gal. v. 22,23. The word kAtjim,
used for "branch" in these verses, occurs
nowhere else in the New Testament. The
word K\aShs, elsewhere used (Matt. xiii. 32;
xxi. 8 ; xxiv. 32 ; Mark iv. 32 ; xiii. 28; Eom.
xi. 16—21), means the smaller " branches "
of a tree. The term means here vine-branch,
the essential constituent elements of the
vine itself, and is so used in Aristophanes,
.^schines, and Theophrastus (see LXX.,
Bzek. XV. 2).
Ver. 3.— Now ye are clean— pruned, purged,
cleansed, of the Divine Owner — by reason of
the word (\6yov) which I have spoken to
yon. The Father has been operating this
cleansing process upnn you by the whole o(
the ^^lUBTo (see ver. 7), which are gathered
together into one mighty, quick, and active
Logos. As we find in Heb. iv. 12, the Word
is sharper than a two-edged sword, and
capable of dealing summarily with " thoughts
and intents of the heart." Augustine, on
this passage, admits that it is the Xio^oi
which gives aU its value to the water of
baptism. " This purifying, sanctifying process
has been performed upon you," says Christ.
Then since "he who sanctifieth, and they
who are sanctified, are all of one," this con-
tinuance remains as the gracious possibility.
The vital sap proceeds from Christ alone,
and not from our corrupted nature, which
must be grafted into his life and become
part of him. Many may seem to be a
part of Christ, to be sacramentally or out-
wardly united to him, and even to be draw-
ing some real advantages firom the contact,
and yet their end is fruitlessness, rottenness,
removal, fire. The branches which bear
fruit never bring forth all they might pro-
duofi, never realize their ideal. The pruning,
cleansing process must pass over every soul,
that it may more adequately fulfil its destiny ,
The cleansing, searching power of the Word
will be freely exercised by the Divine
Husbandman.
Ver. 4. — But there is a continuance of
most intimate relations to be sustained
between Christ and his disciples. If the
two clauses are " imperative," or rather
concessive, as many suppose, the finest mean-
ing is evolved. Let these be the reciprocal
conditions, let it be that you abide in me,
and I in you. (Meyer and Laugo iidd to
the second clause fxeyw, "I will abide in
you," making it into a promise following
a command, and involving a very strong
synergistic thought.) There is a mutual
abiding or indwelling. The life-principle
circulates through the brandies, just as they
perpetuate the living conueollou between tlie
branch and the centre of the life. The
mutual relations show that human nature is
in infinite need, and, apart from the new
life-principle, will perish. The abiding of
the branch in the vine suggests the continu-
ance of vital oonnectiou with the living
stem, and supposes that connection kept up
by constant faith, so that tlie believer is in
a position to draw life from the legitimate
source. The abiding of the vine in the
branch—" I in you "—is the perpetual inflow
into the subordinate life, of the living grace
which makes the believer's life one with his
OH. XV. 1—27.] THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN.
269
Lord's. As he said (ch. xiv. 19), "Because
I live, and ye ahall live ; " bo now, As the
bianoh cannot hear fruit from itself — from its
own inlieient vitality — except it abide in the
vine — except thia connection is maintained —
in like manner no more (or, >o neither) can ye,
except ye abide in me. The afSrmation does
not cover, as Augustine implies (although it
may suggest), the impotence of the natuial
man, but it asserts the uufruitfulnesa of tlie
disciple in his own strength. Some have
found heie revindication of the place of the
human will in the work of grace. Let it be
seen, however, that it is the " good will," the
new nature, which lias been wakened into
normal activity, and which wills the thing
most pleasing to the Divine Source of the
life.
Ver. 5. — Christ returns to the main theme
of the previous verse, but here disoiiminates
more forcibly the vine from the branches,
and yet holds and binds them into a unity.
I am the vine, ye are the branches; which
shows that he treated the disciples them-
selves as the organs of his earthly fruit-
bearing ; and then draws a larger circle and
makes a complete and comprehensive state-
ment on which the very existence of the
" true vine," the " body of Christ, including
the Head," depends, viz. He that abideth in
me, and I in him — i.e. whenever the con ditiuns
of which I liave spoken to you are fulflUed;
wherever there are human souls deriving
from their connection with me the full
advantage of the life ever streaming forth
from me — the same beareth much fruit ; the
entire end of tlieir new life is secured.
He beareth " much fruit." In other words,
many of those blessed fruits of the super-
natural life appear, which the great Hus-
bandman desires to receive. And this
strengthens the position of the previous
verse, wliich threatened excisicm from the
vine to such as beiir no fruit. Such, though
In one sense " in the Vine," do not abide
in him. Because apart from > — severed
from — me ye can do nothing. The an sug-
gests the question — Can the negative result
justify the positive assertion? It does in
this way. Tiiere are two premisses : the first
is, " I am tbe Vine, and ye are the branches,"
and the second is, " Severed from me a
branch can effect nothing," having no inde-
pendent fruitfulness or stability. All its
powers are derived from this supernatural
source, and depend on Christ's faithfulness
to his own nature and functions; therefore,
" He that abideth in me, and I in him,
bringeth forth much fruit." The language
here does not repress the endeavour of the
' Xmpls, equivalent to xwcxr^EVTej. It has
this force in ch. i 3 ; xx. 7 ; Heb. vii. 20 ;
is. 7; Eph. a 12.
human will after righteousness, nor pro-
nounce a judgment on the great controversy
between Augustinians and Pelagians. These
words are not addressed to unconverted men,
but to disciples, who have to learn their
constant need of spiritual contact with their
invisible Lord. Let a believer, let an
apostle, sever himself from Christ, and live
on his own past reputation or his supposed
strength, on tlie clearness of hid intellect,
the vigour of his body, the eminence of his
position, he can and will do nothing.
Ver. 6. — If any one abide not in me, he is
cast forth as the branch — perhaps away from
the vineyard, as well as from proximity to
the vine — and is withered. The two aorista,
f/3A^e?) and i^tipivB-q, are simply cases of a
common daily experienc^e. These are the
inevitable consequences of not abiding in
the Vine. We may imagine two ways in
which this non-abiding in Cliriat, this sever-
ance from him, may be effected: (1) the
pruning-knife may have lopped them off
because of their lack of fruitfulness; or,
(2) they may have withered on the stem,
and, by their deficiency of strength and life,
have suffered from some external assault
which they have not had energy to resist.
Lucke, Winer, Tholuok, and Hengstenberg
regard the aorists as indicative of what will
happen should branches in Christ cease to
derive life from him. Calvin is satisfied
that the expression cannot refer to the elect,
but to the hypocrite, while Alford is as
confident of its repudiation of unconditional
election. In my opinion it keeps clear of
botli suggestions. And they gather them, and
oast them into the fire, and they are burned.
The vine is one of the noblest of all trees,
and produces the most abundant fruit; but
it is one of its^ peculiaiities that all its
strength is spent on the fruit, and that its
branches are utterly valueless for all other
purposes. Heaps of burning vine-pruningg
may have suggested the awful image which
tlie embodied Love of God here adopts.
Some have supposed (Meyer and Alford) that
the fire is here the last judgment, which our
Lord looks upon as come. But the present
tense, following the two aorists, suggests the
immediate consequence of such severance
from Christ — the fiery trials, the fierce temp-
tations, the terrible judgments, always over-
taking the unfruitful and unfaithful servants,
and preluding the awful consummation of
Divine judgment, of which our Lord had
often spoken (Matt, xiii., 42, 50 ; xxv. 41 ;
Luke xyi. 24), and which the apostle of love
described in Bev. xx. 15 ; xxi. 8.
Ver. 7. — In this verse he returns once
more on the principle of union with himself,
and of what will come out of it, The dis-
ciples may be sorely distressed at this pos-
sible doom, for whatever may he the lot of
270
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xv. 1—27
those vho do not obey the gospel and are
ignorant of the Law of God, the curse here
utteredfalls heavily upon those whohave been
once enlightened, etc., and have apostatized
(Heb. vi. 4 — 6). The anxiety of the apostles
is grievous, and they desire deliverance &om
this doom. And our Lord next unfolds the
principle of prayer which laid such hold on
the mind of the Apostle John : If ye abide
in me (and then, instead of adding, " And I
■ibidein you,"heBays); and my words abide in
/on; i.e. if my teaching so abide with you as
to control your thoughts and ideas, remain in
you as your guide and inspiration, then ask '
whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done to
yon. A timid interpretation of this promise
limits the " whatsoever " to deeds of service
in the kingdom of God, and fears, with
Augustine, to trust the sanctified will of the
believer. But in such harmony with Christ
as these words supply, all the conditions of
acceptable prayer are present. The believer
in CSirist, full of his words, evermore con-
sciously realizing union with Christ, charged
with the thoughts, burning with the pvuc-
poses, filled with words of Jesus, will have
no will that is not in harmony with the
Divine will. Then faith is possible in the
fulfilment of his own desire, and prayer
becomes a prophecy and pledge of the
answer. The apostle, after many years of
pondering and of putting these principles
into practice, confirms the truth of them
(1 Epist. V. 14—16). This is the true philo-
sophy of prayer. The psalmist had gone a
long way in the same direction (Ps. xxxvii. 4,
" Delight thyself in the Lord ; and he shall
give thee thy heart's desire ").
Ver. 8. — Here the Lord shows what he
knows will be and must be the dominant
desire of the man who abides in himself, in
whom his own word abides. Such a man
will seek, yearn, ask, that he should bear
much fruit. This prayer will be heard, and
in this sublime synthesis between Christ
and his disciples, says Christ, was my Father
glorified. "In the fruitfulness of the vine
is the glory of the husbandman," and in the
answer of your prayers, and the regulation
of all your desires, so ye shall become my dis-
ciples.' " Discipleship" is a very large word,
■ Air^o-airtfe is the reading of A, B, D, L,
II, X, and some important cursives and
versions, and followed by Meyer, Tischendorf
(8th edit.), Tregelles, B.T., and Westcott
and Hort The atT-tiaeaSf of T.B. is that of
K, E, G, H, and many others.
» T.B., Lachmann, Tregelles, Westcott
ond Hort, with B, D, L, M, X, A, read <pe-
DjTc, Kol yfvnaBe, " that you may become."
liiis is placed in the margin by B.T., but
seeing K, A, E, G, H, and many others read
^dftiTf Ksl yty^trtrSf, "and ye shall be-
never altogether realized. Just as faith
leads to faith, and love to love, and light to
light, so does discipleship to discipleship.
As Bengel says, discipleship is the fimda-
mentum el foutigium of Christianity. On
earth the vine reveals itself in the branches,
and thus conceals itself behind them. " This
explains why the diffusion of spiritual life
makes such slow progress in the world — the
Vine effects nothing but by means of the
branches, and these so often paralyze in-
stead of promoting the action of the Vine "
(Godet). If the other text be maintained.
Herein was my Father glorified, so that ye
might hear much fruit, and that ye may
become my disciples, the "herein" points
back to the previous verse, and then the
contemplated result of the arrangement,
rather than the purpose of the glory, is the
matter referred to.
Ver. 9. — ^Two ways of explaining this
verse : Even as — inasmuch as — the Father
hath loved me, and at 1 have loved you, abide
in my love ; i.e., as Grotius has put it, the
first clause suggesting accordance with the
mystery of the Trinity, and the second the
mystery of redemption : " So do ye continue,
or so do ye abide, in the amplitude of this
double love which is mine, dwell in it as in
a holy atmosphere, breathe it and live by it."
But there is another and more satisfactory
way of translating the passage : Even as the
Father loved me, I also loved yon ; a fact of
stupendous interest and transcendent claim.
Heaven had opened over the incarnate
Word, and other ears as well as his own had
heard the Father say, "Thou art my be-
loved Son," etc. The Lord was conscious
of being the Object of this infinite love be-
fore the foundation of the world (eh. xvii.
24), and of reciprocating and responding to
it ; and this love of the Father to him on his
assumption of his mediatorial functions was
the well-spring of his obedience unto death
and after it (see ch. x. 17, note). Now, if
the Kayii is to be translated as above, Christ
declares that even as the Father lias loved
him, he has loved his disciples. Again and
again he has emphasized this love to them
(ch. xiii. 84), but here he asserts a loftier
claim, viz. that his love to them corresponds
with the eternal Father's love to himself.
The one great fact ir the ground on which
he commands them to abide in hit love.
This is obviously a more explicit and more
intelligible form of the commandment to
abide in him. With Olshausen and West-
cott, " The love that is mine " is not the love
to Christ, nor the love of Christ exclusively,
but a blending of the active and passive
idea in " the love that is mine " — in the
come," the latter is preserved by Tischen-
dorf (8th edit), B.T., and Meyer.
OH. XV. 1—27.] THE GOSPEL ACCOEDINO TO ST. JOHN.
271
" love " lavished upon me from eternity, and
to which I have eternally responded, which
I have made known to you and expended
on you iind received hack again from you.
Abide in that love that is mine.
Ver. 10. — If ye keep my commandments,
ye shall ahide in my love. This is the
method and secret, the stimulus and proof,
of abiding in the love of Christ. This is
not exactly the converse (Westcott) of " If
ye love me, keep my commandments."
Doubtless there is a love whioli dictates
obedience to the loved One's will. Our Lord
here avers, howevei-, something further, viz.
that obedience isbues in a higher love. The
obedience here described is the outcome of
love, but the power is thus gained to con-
tinue, dwell, in the Divine love, to abide,
that is, in the full enjoyment and fulness of
my Divine love to you. This is obvious
from the confirmatory clause : Even as I
have kept my Father's commandments, and
abide in his love. The Lord kept the
Faiher's commandment always, doing those
things which please him, offering up his
precious life, laying it down that he might
take it again ; and the consequence is that
he then and there knew that he was filled
with all the fulness of the Divine love. The
very impressive line of thought pervades
this passage, that what the Father was to
him, that he would prove to his disciples.
Wliat the love of God was to the Christ,
the love of Chiist was to his disciples.
Ver. 11— ch. xvi. 6.— (8) ITie results of the
union between Christ and his disaiples.
Vers. 11 — 16. — (a) To themselves.
The Lord moves into another and wider
development of the union between himself
and his disciples. He drops the metaphor of
the vine and the branches, and comes to the
essence of the relation between them ; that
is, he does much to explain tlie meaning
and nature of his abiding in them, and the
character of the fruit which they were ex-
pcuied by the great Husbandman and Father
to bring forth and ripen. A connection be-
tween the second section and the first is
revealed in the new beginning.
Ver. 11. — These things I have spoken, and
am still speiiking, to you (perfect, not aoiist)
with this purpose, that the joy that is mine
may be ' in you. This is variously ex-
' 'H, the reading of A, B, D, 1, 33, Vul-
gate, Gothic, and many cursives, is preferred
by Meyer, K.T., Westcott and Hort, Godet,
and Tisohendorf (8th edit.), though iniivn is
read by (<, L, X, r. A, and other uncials,
cursives, and Fathers
plained. Augustine, "My joyfulness con-
cerning you," which is scarcely the burden
of the previous verses ; Grotius, " Your de-
light in me," which would be somewhat
tautologous ; Calvin and Do Wette, " The
joyfulneSs capable of being produced in you
by me, might be in you." But the worde
are mure simply explained by Lange, Meyer,
Lucke, Westcott, Alford, and Moulton, as
the communication to his disciples of his
own absolute and personal joy. " The joy
that is mine," like " the peace which is
mine," is graciously bestowed. A joy was
set before him, the joy of perfect self-sacri-
fice, which gave to his present acts an inten-
sity and fulness of blisr It was this, in its
motives and character and supernatural
sweetness, which would be in them. If they
receive his life into them, it will convey not
only his peace, but that peace uprising and
burstino; into joy ; and he adds, in order
that your joy may be fulfilled, i.e. perfeoted,
reach its highest expression, its fulness of
contents and entire sufficiency for all needs.
1 John i. 1 — i is the best commentary on
this last clause. The Old Testament pro-
phets had often spoken of Jehovah's joy in
his people, comparing it to the biidegroom's
joy, and the bride's (Isa. Ixii. 5 ; Zeph. iii.
17). This entire idea is linked with ver. 10,
where the keeping of his commandments,
from motives of love, will enable the dis-
ciples to " abide in his love." He now passes
the whole law of the second table into the
light of his joy and the power of his example.
Ver. 12. — ^This is my commandment, that
ye love one another, even as I loved you.
This (ch. xiii. 3i) was given as a "new
commandment ; " now he gathers the many
commandments into one, as though all were
included in it (1 John iii. 16). This thought
is further vindicated by an endeavour to
explain in what sense and way he was
loving them.
Ver. 13. — Greater loVB than tliis (love) no
one hath, namely (fva), that one should lay
down his life for his friends. Meyer and
Lange endeavour to maintain even here the
telle force of 'iva, " The love to you is of so
consummate a character, that its object and
purpose is seen in my laying down my life
fur my friends ; " and Hengstenberg thinks
so because probably a reference here is made
to Isa. liii. 10, that our Lord was pointing
to his atoning death — ^to a death needed alike
by enemies and friends. Such an interpre-
tation supposes the lofty purpose of the
greatest love. To me, however, it seems
more probable that the translation given
above places the argument upon a surer,
because more common, human, experience.
The disposition to die for ungodly and for
enemies is exalted by St. Paul (Eom. v. 8)
above the self-sacrifice involved in dying for
272
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xv, 1—27,
the good. Still, which may he shown, and
has often been shown in self-saoriflcing
death for those who are beloved, whatever
other and wider ends may be discerned
afterwards and spoken of in other connec-
tions, be is hero asserting that the love of
friendship is quite sirong and intense enough
to secure such a sacrifice. And he adds —
Ver. 14. — ^Ye are my friends, if ye do
whatsoever I command yon — just because I
command you. So the natural oonclusion
will be, " I am showing you the highest
possible fruit of my friendsliip— I am laying
down my life for you. This is how I have
loved you ; therefore after this manner you
are to love one another" (1 John iii. 16;
Eph. V. 1, 2). Our Lord then explains more
and more to tbem how they can and do
claim this glorious designation. (1) They
will vindicate the position for themselves if
tliey are absolutely trustful and obedient.
(2) But they can have a new and nobler
proof.
Ver. 15. — ^No longer do I call you servants,
bond-slaves. True, be had in this very
discourse spoken of them as his Sov\oi (ch.
xiii. 13, 16). Again and again in his
piirabolic teaching he had spoken of his
discipleg as servants of a Lord (Matt, xiii,
27 ; ixii. 4 ; Luke xii. 37 ; and ch. xii. 26,
where another word is used). And more-
over, later on in this very chapter (ver. 20),
the word and thought return, so that this
relation to him, gloried in by St. Paul (Phil,
i. 1 ; 1 Cor. vii. 22), St. James (i. 1), Jude
(1), and even St. John (Bev. i. 1), could
be sustained in its integrity, even after
it had been transflgured, and penetrated
through and through with the light of love.
Because the servant kuoweth not what his
lord doeth. The slave is an instrument,
doing by commandment, not irom intimate
knowledge, his Lord's behests. But yon I
have called (clfniKa)— on previous occasions
(see Luke xii. i; and cf. oh. xi. 11, "Our
t'riund Lazarus") — ^friends, for whom it is
juy to die, and I have effected the transfigu-
ration gf your service into love. I have raised
you by the intimacy of the relations into
wliich 1 havo drawn you from the position
of slave to that of friend. You may be, you
must be, my servants still ; I am your Master
and Lord ; but you will be servants from a
higher motive and a more enduring link
ajid bond of union. For all things which I
heard of my Father. Notice the source of
Ihe Saviour's teaching. He was sent from
God, trained and taught, as a man; he
chose thus, humanly, to learn step by step,
thing by thing, what to reveal of his own
nature, of his purpose and plan in redeem-
hig men, concerning the essence of the
Father himself, and the entire significance
ot kia self-manifestation. That which I
heard I made known unto yon. This it
only in apparent contradiction with ch. xvi.
12, where he implies that there will be
moi e for them to learn in the future, when
the mystery of his death, resurrection, and
ascension shall have been accomplished.
The limitation of the irdi'Ta & IJKovffa does
not consist in duetrinet as opposed to
practical duties, nor in the plan of salvation
for individuals as antithetic to principles
of his kingdom, nor in principles as dis-
tinguished from what may ultimately be
found in them, but in the capacities and
circumstances of the disciples themselves
(ch. xvi. 12 is a corollary of this solemn
assurance). The reason of the present
assertion is the proof that it thus supplies
of their deamess to him. " Ye are my
friends." He hail told them all that they
could bear. He had lifted the veil high
enough for their truest joy and noblest
discipline. He had bared his heart to them.
He had keptback nothing that was profitable.
He had proved his own friendship, and
thus given a conclusive reason for his com-
plete self-devotion on their account.
Ver. 16. — From the thirteenth to the fif-
teenth verse, our Lord, in a brief digression,
has justified a portion of the great com-
mandment of mutual love. That love is to
correspond with his love to the disciples,
and to explain his self-sacrifice to them ; he
proves to them that they are his " friends,"
and therefore the objects of his dying love.
Then the appeal is still further clenched
by showing the origin and purport of his
friendship for them. Ye did not choose me
(^|e\e'{oiree . . . i^ehi^iiir^v are middle, " you
chose ... I chose ... for yourselves or for
myself"), but I chose you. I selected you as
individuals, not excluding thereby a gracious
choice of other souls; I destined you to
accomplish work dear to me and essential
to my kingdom. Christ has already told
them that he must " go away " from them
to the Father, and that they "cannot follow
him now, but afterwards ; " and he has also
convinced them that, though he go away,
he will " come again, and abide with them,"
and also that " severed " from him they can
" do nothing." Consequently when he adds,
I appointed yon (see 1 Cor. xii. 28 ; 1 Tim.
i. 12; Heb. i. 2; Acts xx. 28, for similar
use of Ti64vai) as my apostles and repre-
sentatives, to do work in my Name, there
is no contradiction iu his adding, that ye
should go forth, depart into the world with
my message and in my Name, as I am
" departing " to the Father, to rule over you
from a higher and more august position.
And bear £rait. A passing re^rence to the
imagery of the first part of the chapter,
showing that their " going forth or away "
upon this mission would not separate them
OH. XV. 1—27.] THE GOSPEL ACOORDINa TO ST. JOHN.
273
from Mb Spirit, or divide the link withnut
which they could bear no fruit at all. The
"fruit" may here, in its issues, suggest
another class of ideas. In the first case the
"fruit" was the "fruit of the Spirit," but
here it would seem to be the abiding conse-
quence of the " greater works " which they
■would be called upon to do. This rich fruit
includes all the victories they were to win
over souls, and all the effects of their
ministry. "Fruit" in either case is only
valuable when it is utilized by the Husband-
man and according to his purpose. " Fruit "
is a Divine self-exhaustion of the living
organism ; it does no good to the branch nor
to the stem ; it is the sacred property of the
husbandman, whether for his own joy or for
fresh seed. In this case your fruit wiU
abide for ever, not in the branch, but in the
Father's hands, that (foa) whatsoever ye
shall ask of the Father in my Kame, he may
give it yon. It now becomes » question
whether the second Xya introduces a clause
which is co-ordinate with the former or one
logically depending on the preceding. Meyer
concludes the first, viz. that the granting of
prayer brings about the fruit and its con-
tinuance (so De Wette, Liicke, Stier, Godet) ;
and Olshausen maintains the second, viz.
that by going and bringing forth fruit we
enter into that relation with God from which
proceeds the prayer in the name of the Son
which the Father wUl grant, thus bringing
the passage into close relation with ch. xiv.
13 and xvi. 23. Hengstenberg says, "By
their fruit they would show themselves to
be true disciples of Christ, and to such the
Father can deny nothing." But Westcott
and Lange endeavour to combine both ideas.
The co-ordination of the two clauses re-
quires the inversion of their order, or the
introduction of /col before the second Iva.
Moreover, tlie thought that Christ chose
and appointed them in order that whatso-
ever they should ask God would give, is
out of harmony with "the conditions of
acceptable prayer" elsewhere insisted on;
while the bearing of fmit — in both senses,
(a) that of Christian grace and (6) Christian
usefulness — completes the idea in a concrete
form of abiding in Christ and having his
words abiding in them. Surely the view
that the second clause is conditionated by
the first, is far from obscure, as Luthardt
says, while be virtually accepts the same
interpretation: "If they cause themselves
to be found in the right service of Jesus,
then will be granted to them what they ask
in the name of Jesus." Moulton confirms
the same interpretation. (On the clause,
" in my Name," see oh. xvi. 24.)
Vers. 17 — 27. — (6) The results of this union
itith Christ to the unbelieving vmrld
Yer. 17.-111686 things do I command yon
JOHH— IL
—clearly pointing back to ver. 12 — that ye
may love one another. This entire medita-
tion culminates where it began. The di-
gression comes back to the main theme.
Westcott regards it as the starting-point of
a new theme, but our Lord did not return
upon the idea of mutual love, but discusses
the effect upon the world of that love to
each other and to him which blended their
personalities into one mystic unity. This
verse shows how the new topic links itself
with the previous discussion. His dying
for them, thus proving his friendship for
them, and all the other signs of his interest
and confidence, have been set before them
to this great end ; for while the world is full
of outrage and mutual animosities, the
motive of his own entire self-manifestation
is to awaken a new and higher type ami
model of humanity. Well may the familiar
legend of St. John in the churches of Ephesus
confirm this sublime truth.
From this point to the end of the chapter
(ver. 27) Christ unfolded the conseqnences,
to the unbelieving world, of the sacred
union between himself and his disciples,
and he discussed the reciprocal relations
between his own disciples and the world,
seeing that they are united with him in
such a close incorporation.
Ver. 18. — You need not be surprised if
the world hate you, " The world," k6<thos
(five times used in strongly emphatic man-
ner), is humanity ap.irt from grace. This
world will despise and hate your mutual
love, will scorn your love to itself for my
sake, wUl detest the higher and unworldly
standard which you will set up. But here
is some consolation. Enow {yivdaxiTf im-
perative, as fivrinoveiire in ver. 20) that it
has hated me before (it hated) you. "Me
first, me most" (Lange). "The superlative
contains the comparative" (Tholuck). " This
hatred is a community of destiny with me "
(Meyer). You know how it has hated me,
and hunted me from Bethlehem to Egypt,
from Nazareth to Capernaum, from Gergesa
to Jerusalem. Be not surprised if it hate you.
Ver. 19.— If ye were of the world— <.e.
still a part of it, deriving your life, maxims,
and pleasures from it; if you could sym-
pathize with its vulgar passion, and its
temporary fleeting excitements, partisanships,
and bigotries — l£e world would be loving
(e(;«A.tl, notice the form of the conditional
sentence, a supposition contrary to fact,
therefore anticipating the negative danae
that follows, " but ye are not of the world ; "
notice also that iplKea, the love of affection,
not iyairda, the love of reverence and pro-
found regard, whieh yon are to dtow to one
274
THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xv. 1— 2T.
another and to me) — would be loving its
own. The world loves its priests and mouth-
pieces, its own organization (" Caiaphas,
Pilate, Herod, and Judas, and all devils,"
Luther); the world loves its own offspring.
Bat because ye are not of the world, but I
(those you, withdrawing you for my service,
out of the world (the two meanings of ek
here differ; the first Ik denotes origin, the
second corresponds with the compound 4k- in
iK\fyoixai), therefore the world hateth you.
I have caused you to break with it, and you
are no longer " its own." Just in propor-
tion as you are one with me, you draw upon
yourself its hatred of me. " The offence of
the cross '' is not ceased. Thoma comments
on the harmony between this statement and
that of the Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypse,
whose colours and features are here, as he
thinljs, drawn upon. It is profoundly inter-
esting to trace the fulfilment of the Lord's
prescient words in earlier Scripture (1 Pet
iv. 17; Eom. viii. 17; Gal. vi. 17; Phil. iii.
10; Heb. xiL3).
Ver. 20. — Bemember the word whioh I
spake to you (see Matt. i. 24, but especially
ch. xiii. 16, where Christ used the proverb),
The servant is not greater than his lord. In
ch. xiii. 16 the idea was used to enforce the
spirit of humility and mutual service; it
applies also here, but in another sense. The
disciples are not to expect better treatment
from the world than their Lord met with.
If they (used of "the world" in its special
concrete manifestations; "they "of Nazareth
and Capernaum and Jerusalem correspond
with the "they" of Lycaonia, Ephesus,
Thessalonica, • and Borne) persecuted me,
they will persecute — drive away from them
— yott also. The "if" is remarkably ex-
plicit ; there is no doubt about it in Christ's
case, and the supposition is one of defi-
nite and acknowledged £a,ct, and the con-
ditional sentence most positively assures
them of antagonism and persecution. It is
probable, though not certainly known, that
these diaoiples all endured a living martyr-
dom, if not a cruel death in his cause. Then
follows a sentence which has by some
unwisely been supposed to be ironical,
and by others to refer to another subject.
If they — others, or many, or some — kept
(i.e. "observed," "obeyed," not as Bengel
supposed, " laid in wait," or " kept malici-
ously ") my word, they will keep yours also.'
Why should irony be interpolated here?
' See ch. viii. 51 ; xiv. 23; xvii. 6; and
other passages in John ; see also Bev. iii. 8,
10. Flummer points out that both phrases
link the Gospel with the First Epistle and
with the Apocalypse (1 John ii. 3, 4 ; iii. 22,
24; T.ii,8; Bev. iii. 8,10; xii. 17; xiv. 12;
ixii 7, »).
Surely the whole contact with the world
was not an utter failure. Christ did win
persons from all classes, and they loved
him, with a passionate love; and so the
apostles, and all wlio "go forth to bear
fruit," may hope for some victories, and
will travail in birth with the souls of men.
Ver. 21. — But all these things will they
do unto yon.' By way of consolation,, lie
added, in view of the antagonism which the
world would deliberately pursue towards
tljem, Por my Name's sake. Many suppose
that the consolatory element is emphasized in
this clause. However, the idea contained in
the Sia rh ivoiii fiov has been already ex-
pressed in the previous verses, and the whole
of the verse so far merely gathers it up for
a new and suggestive explanation. Por the
Name of Christ these disciples will not only
pray, labour, suffer, and die, but in the
power of it they will transmute their sorrows
into raptures, theii tribulations into glory.
Because they know not him ^hat sent me.
If they had known the heart and nature of
the Sender, they would have understood the
mission of the Saviour, and would neither
have hated him nor his representation).
(Here Lucke, Hengstenberg, Luthardt, and
Lange are preferable to Meyer and Godet.)
It is utter grief to Jesus that the world has
been ignorant of the Father. This igno-
rance explains its antagonism to the repre-
sentatives of Christ, and is the most appalling
witness to its own depravation. No fact is
more patent in the entire history of human
thoughts about God than this, that " the
world by wisdom knows him not," nay, it
travesties his Name, misrepresents his cha-
racter, distrusts, fears, and flees from the
face of God. It was left to Christ to reveal
the Father. In many different mental ten-
dencies even Christendom has obscured or
denied the Fatherhood.
Ver. 22. — If I had not come, as the in-
carnate Word of God, if I had not fulfilled
the promises and come forth from God into
the world to reveal the Father, and spoken
to them, made known to them the thought
and Spirit of God, made it possible for them
to know the cssouoe of the only true God,
they had had ' no sin ; they would not have
resisted the highest love, their alienatiou
' Ei"j iiMs is the reading H*, B, D, L, ]
33, and is adopted by Tisohendorf (8th
edit), B.T., and Tregelles; while v/iTv of
T.B. rests on A, D», r. A, A, and other
uncials and several versions.
' " To have sin " is a phrase peculiar to
John (ch. xix. 11 ; 1 John i. 8). Tiachen-
dorf (8th edit.), Tregelles, Westcott and
Hort, with H*, B, L, etc., here read ilxomw,
an Alexandrine form ; but not the T B oi
B.T. D* reads rfx""-.
CH. IV. 1—27.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
876
in thia lespeot would not have been •
Tiolation of the most solemn and ^Taoious
demands of the Father. The greatest sin
is the refusal of the most complete revela-
tion, and by the side of this all other sin
becomes comparatively trivial. Our Lord
could not have spoken of the hatred of him-
Belf or his disciples (so Liicke and Meyer)
us this sin, because it would have been
obviously impossible to hate a non-existent
revelation or revealer. li is the deeper fall
which is consequent upon a deliberate rejec-
tion of the highest love. Formerly ,they would
have been in the condition of those whose sins
of ignorance God overlooks (Acts zvii. 30),
and to whose aitapriinaTa in the past God
has exercised Tripens, in anticipation of the
coming grace. But now (Luke in numerous
places uses this expression to form a strong
contrast) they have no excuse or pretext
for their sin, or concerning their sin. They
can plead no justification. The word rrpi-
tpairis is an £ira{ KeyS/ievov, and is not " cloak
or covering," but " palliation or excuse" for
manifest sin. So long as men have seen no
deeper into the nature of God than they
can go with the aid of mere phenomena or
ratiocination on the details of creation, their
fears and even their hatreds formulated into
grim legend, or uncouth idols, or repellent
hypothesis, are a natural outcome of a nature
so corrupt ; but they ought to have found in
Christ a deeper revelation, a summona to
service and adoring love. In rejecting the
idea of God which I have set before them
they have no excuse. St. Paul (Rom. i. 20)
declares that those who have defamed the
great characteristic of God which may be
learned from nature are without excuse. Cer-
tainly our Lord does not say this here.
Ver. 23. — ^He that hateth me, and by im-
plication will hate you, hateth my Father
also. The hatred of goodness in me, the
refusal to accept my representation of their
Father and mine, I>ecomes a distinct hatred
of God himself as I have revealed him. A
God of war, a God of partisan jealousy for
the honour of Israel, a God who would
palliate fratricidal feud, and overlook blas-
phemous indifference to his true character,
they might have tolerated ; but the Father-
God, whom they miglit have heard and seen
in Christ, is hated by them,
Ver. 24. — ^If I had not done among them
works which none other did.' Here he
comes down from "Word" to "work," and
indicates the lower agency, that of works,
which are neither inoperative nor valueless,
' 'Siroirifffii is the reading of K, A, B, D, I,
E, li, X, n, 1, 13, 33, etc. ; and is read by
Tregelles, Tisohendorf (8th edit.), B.T.,and
Westcott and Hort; while B, G, H, M, and
■ome others read, with T.B., narotiiKni.
and which transcend all other similar deeds.
They are works of the Son of God, works of
creation and of healing, triumphant conflict
with the forces of nature and the malice of
the devil, of a kind which may be compared
with, but which exceed all human and
angelic ministry. They had not had sin, but
now they have both seen and hated both me
and my Father. The works as well as the
words of Christ might have softened their
hearts, but the Divine claims, which were
thus pressed home upon the conscience, pro-
voked their malice. " They took counsel to
kiU him ; " " They took up stones to stone
him." They hated God as God, and goodness
and truth just because they were goodness
and truth. The awful condemnation is
here pronounced, " that men loved darkness
rather than light." They positively saw
their Father, and hated him. This is the
most terrible condemnation that can be pro-
jiounced on moral beings.
Ver. 25. — Strange is it that even here the
ancient psalmist, in portraying the ideal
Sufferer (Ps. Ixlx. 4 ; zxxv. 19), had seized
this feature, and thus anticipated the treat-
ment of the Son of God. But thU cometh
to pats (some clause of this kind must be
introduced to give true force to &AA& and
Xvd) that the word might he fulfilled that
has been written in their Law. Not only
here bnt elsewhere Jesus speaks of the
Psalms as a part of the Law (see note, ch.
z. 34). Other passages may, from their
rimilarity, have been in Christ's mind, as
receiving fulfilment or abundant illustra-
tion in their conduct. The use of the ex-
pression, " tlieir Law," has been pressed by
many as proof that the writer of this Gospe'
did not regard himself as a Jew at uli
Such numerous indications occur of the
opposite conclusion, that this expression
must receive the more rational interpreta-
tion— the Law in which they pride them-
selves, the Law which is ever in their
mouths, the Law which itself contains the
portraiture of their spirit: They hated me
gratuitously; causelessly. The true Christ
was, when he came, the object of reason-
less, causeless hate and opposition. Jesus
knew, when he claimed to be the Christ,
that he would have to complete and fulfil
the solemn portraiture of the suffuring,
burden-bearing, and rejected Christ, as well
as that of the triumphant Christ and King.
Vers. 26, 27. — A new source of consolation
now appears. Already twice over he has
spoken of the Paraclete (ch. xiv. 16 and 26),
(1) as being sent by the Father in answer tb
his prayer, to be the compensation to his
disciples for his personal departure, and
also (2) as the Instructor and Leader into
all truth. Once more he promises great
things and mighty aid in theu oonfliot with
276
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [ch. xv. 1—27.
the world's hate by the mission of the Com-
forter. Tliis great mission is said to be his
own. Whensoever the Paraclete of whom I
have spoken shall have come, whom I will
send to yon from (the sido o^ Trapi.) the
Father, the Spirit of the truth, which pro-
oeedeth from (iropi) the Father, he {iKftvos)
shall hear witness concerning me, and you
also bear witness because ye are with me
from the beginning of the Messianic work
(ill' itpx^l^y lot iv apxn)- This is the great
text on which the Western Church and tlie
Greeks have alike relied for their doctrine
concerning the "procession of the Spirit,"
the timeloss, pre-mundane relations among
the Personalities of the Gndliead. The
expression luiropiieTat only occurs in this
place, and from it iKiropeims became the
ecclesi»btical term for the relation which
the Holy Spuit sustains to the Father, just
•8 yfvv^di^ was the especial term to denote
the peculiarity of the Sgn, and just as
aycvr/iaia, the condition of unbegottenness
and paternity was that used to denote the
Father's own hypostatic distinction. The
Holy Spirit is ever proceeding, issuing forth
from, sent by the Father on his work of
Divine self-manifestation and Divine activity
in the universe. Of this there can be no
question, and the Nicene symbol originally
expressed it without ampli&cation, and the
Greeks founded upon it their conception of
the Trinity. The relation of the Son and
Spirit to the Father were believed to be
co-ordinate ; and, though both were of the
same eternal substance, yet both were equal
to the Father. But the Western Church in
after-years — notwithstanding the tremen-
dous anathemas ag,dnBt all alteration which
guarded the Nicene and Chaloedonian for-
mulse — felt that the whole truth concerning
the Divinity of the Son was concealed, if
the idea was not also conveyed which our
Lord utters side by side with the iKiropiierai
iroptt ToO UmpSs in this verse. Christ says,
" I will send him iiapa. tov TlaTp6s," and
this must be compared with (ch. xiv. 26),
"whom the Father will send in my Name;"
and the Latins, to express this thought,
added filioque to the phrase, "proceeding
from the Father," and claimed our Lord
as equally the Source of the Divine Spirit
with the Father, so that it runs, " pro-
ceeding from the Father and the Son."
In the endless discussions that arose, the
two Churches probably meant to effect the
same thing, viz. to aifirm the glory and
perfect Deity of the Lord Christ The
Greeks, in ancient times, never limited theil
statement to "proceeding from the Fathel
only ; " nor did they object to add, " through
or by the Son ; " but it is probable that
Augustine and the Western Church, and
the liturgical forms that arose in it, ap-
proach a little more closely to the reality
and quality of him who said, "I and my
Fatlier are one " in this respect, that the
Spirit proceedeth from the Father and Son,
when he comes into human hearts and
testifies of Christ. There are those (Beza,
Luthardt, Alford, Meyer) who urge that
these passages do not bear at all upon the in-
ternal relations of the Godhead, but simply
refer to the temporal mission of the Holy
Spirit. " The words," says Luthardt, "must
be understood historically, not metaphysi-
cally," and much may be said in favour of
this view. If this verse does not furnish
the basis of an argument, there is no other
which can be advanced to establish the view
either of the Eastern or Western Church.
The witness of the Paraclete is said here to
cover the gravest difficulties and provide the
richest consolations. If the Lord intended
to teach the fundamental nature of the Holy
Spirit, the literal statement would be %
powerful defence of the Greek doctrine; but
if the passage here speaks of the official
work and temporal mission, the words have
no direct bearing upon that doctrine. The
denial of the^iogue has thi^ logical tendency
to make the Spirit and Son co-ordinate and
subordinate emanations of the Father, anrl so
to go back to the monarchianism from which
the Church escaped at Nictea. (See Pearson
on the Creed, art. viii.; 'Diet. Christian
Biography,' art. "Holy Ghost;" Smeaton,
' Doctrine of the Huly Spirit ; ' Hagenbach,
'History of Christian Doctrines.') The
supernatural power of the Holy Spirit will
counteract the hatred in the world by
regenerating individuals within it More
than that, said Christ, he (^kcivo;) will bear
witness to me, in the Divine strength and
courage which he will give to you, in the
new and corrective ideas which he will
supply, in the great works seen to be mine,
which you will have grace to initiate (see
Acts i. 8 ; it. ; iv. 31 ; v. 32, — ^passages where
the "Acts of the Apostles" are seen to be
•' Acts of the Bisen Jesus ") ; and ye also
bear witness, etc. Your own experience of me
from the commencement of my ministry will
give you a class of testimony which will
leave an indelible impression on the heart
of the world.
HOMILETICa
Vers. 1 — 8. — 77ie vine and the tranches. This discourse of our Lord had relation tt
the new position of the disciples that would be created by his departure.
OH. XV. 1—27.] , THE GK)SPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHW. 271
I. The nature of the new situation created bt Pentecost. " I am the true
Vine, and my Father is the Husbandman." 1. Christ is the true and essential Life of his
people. He lives in his people by his Spirit. He is at once the Root and the Stock ftom
which the branches derive their sap and nourishment. 2. J%e Father is the Hushaitd-
man, at once Proprietor and Cultivator. He engrafts the plants into the vine, as he
supports and guards the vine itself, that it may bring forth fruit abundantly. Christ is
" the Plant of renown;" " the Branch thou madest strong for thyself," 3. The operations
of the Huslandman. (1) He cuts off the unfruitful branch. "Every branch that beareth
not fruit in me he taketh away." This refers to seeming members of the Church, for
none are in Christ but such as are " new creatures." (a) God knows the inner character
of every man. (6) Fruit, as the result of growth, is the end of the plant. Therefore a
fruitless man has lost the end of his being, (c) God takes away the fruitless man (o)
by death, (/3) by judgment. (2) He purges the fruitful branch, so as to concentrate the
sap in the cluster that is preparing the fniit. So true members of Christ are purged (o)
by afflictions and (6) temptations, that they may not be barren or unfruitful in the know-
ledge of Christ. 4. The instrumentality of this purging process. " As for you, ye are
clean already because of the Word which I have spoken unto you." The Word of Christ
is sharper than any two-edged sword for this severe discipline ; it is a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart. It thus enables the believer to see the plague of
his own heart.
II. The necessity of a permanent fellowship with Christ. "Abide in me,
and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine ;
no more can ye, except ye abide in me." 1. TJie union of the hranch with the vine is the
very law of its life and fruitfulness. "I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal.
ii. 20). 2. The union is continuously sustained in the believer's soul hy constant acts of
faith and love. 3. The absolute dependence of the believer upon Christ for all his power.
" Apart from me ye can do nothing."
III. The terrible consbquenoes of living outside this fellowship. " If a man
abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered ; and men gather them,
and cast them into the fire, and they burn." 1. The man who refects Christ is himself
rejected. 2. The faculty that is disused loses its vitality, and is ultimately extirpated.
3. There is a final judgment which ends in unquenchable fire.
IV. The glorious phivilbqb of those in fellowship with Christ. " If ye abide
in me, and my wotds abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto
you." 1. The privilege is the abundant answer to prayer. Those who abide in Christ
receive of his fulness ; for all that is in Christ Jesus is theirs, through federal relation-
ship and vital identification with him. 2. T?ie condition of the privilege. (1) The
believer must continue in the fellowship of Christ. (2) The Word of Christ is at once
the means and the evidence of this fellowship.
V. The result of this Christian fruitfulness. " Herein is my Father glorified,
that ye bear much fruit ; and ye shall become my disciples." 1. The Father's glory it
identified with the fruit-bearing vitality of the believer. It displays the glory of his
power, grace, and mercy. All the fruits of righteousness are by Christ, to the praise
and glory of God. 2. Christ it honoured by a fruitftd disdpleship.
Vers. 9 — 16. — The condition of abiding under the power of Chris fs love. I. The
SPHERE AND CONDITION OF UNION. " As the Father hath loved me^ I have also loved
you : abide in my love." 1. The relation between the Father and the Son is the absolute
type of the union between Christ and believers. 2. The love of Christ is the sphere or
atmosphere in which the disciple lives. " We love him, because he first loved us." 3.
The disciple is under no other condition than that to which the Son is subject with the
Father. " If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love ; even as I have
kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." Our obedience is the proof
of our love to Christ, while our love in turn assures our obedience.
n. The issue op union — jot. " These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy
might be in you, and that your joy might be fuU." 1. T%e joy of Christ is the joy of
self-sacrifice, in constant obedience to his Father, This he desires his disciples to enjoy.
Thus he guarantees their true blessedness. 2. Their joy will grow in power amd depth
by their vbedience, as they wDl tli n.c }v drawn closer to Christ. 3. The obedience to which
278 THE GOSPEL ACCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. L™- »▼• 1—2'
then are called is concentrated in brotherly love. " This is my commandment. That ye
love one another, as I have loved you." (1) The commandment, (o) It is a new
commandment (John xiii. 34). (6) It is an old commandment (2 John 6). (c) It
commends itself to the moral nature of man. (d) It is the mainspring of social happi-
ness. (2) Mark the model or pattern: "As I have loved you." Jesus loved his
disciples with a love which was (o) strong, (6) tender, (c) patient, (d) enduring, («) self-
sacrificing. " Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for hia
friends."
III. Intimaoy of the bblation which Christ has established between hiuselp
ANT) HIS DISCIPLES. " Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. I no
longer call you servants ; because the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth : but I
have called you friends ; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made
known to you." 1. The relation of Ood to his people under the Law was that of
Master and servant. But Jesus establishes a new relation, which heightens the dignity
of discipleship. 2. The condition of the new relation was a free, unrestrained confi-
dence hetween Christ and his disciples respecting the fuU knowledge of Divine things.
3. This f viler knowledge would of itself enhance the intensity of love.
IV. The Divine choice, with its blessed design and effects. " Te have not
chosen me, but 1 have chosen you." 1. Whether the election is to salvation or apostle-
ship, the ground or cause was not in man. The blessed initiative was taken by Christ,
2. Design of the election. "And appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit." These
words imply (1) that the disciples should take an independent place for themselves
(fnrayirrt, go away) ; (2) that they should be abundant and effective in labours ; (3) and
that the effect of their labours should be lasting. 3. Mncoitragement to labotir. " That
whatsoever ye ask the Father in my Name, he may give it you." A fruitful obedience
has its reward in gracious answers to prayer.
Vers. 17 — 27. — ITie disciples and the world. Our Lord turns to a new thought — the
relation of his disciples to the world.
I. The scope of all Christ's tbachino is to develop love. " These things I
command you, that ye may love one another," 1, jThis love is to he the characteristic of
the new kinydi/m, and thus the strong attraction of the gospel. 2. Tet, essentially noWe
as it is, it will challenge the hostility of a world out of all sympathy with Christ.
II. The cause op the world's hatred to believers. "If the world hate you, ye
know that it hated me before it hated you." 1. It is a terrible indictment against the
Jews that they should represent in their relations to Christ the overt hatred of "the
world." 2. The hatred in question is a proof of the union between Christ and his
disciples. He is the Head, they are the members of the persecuted body. 3. The
thought of this union ought to strengthen the disciples in view of the world's hatred. 4.
The principle of this hatred. " If ye were of the world, the world would love its own."
(1) The world's love is selfish ; it loves what is consonant to itself in idea and feeling.
(2) The disciples, not being of the world, but " chosen out of the world," had the dis-
tinction of attracting to themselves the natural hostility of a world out of all sympathy
with their hopes, 5. TTie world's hatred traced to its true source. " But all these
things will they do unto you for ray Name's sake, because they know not him that sent
me." (1) The disciples were led to expect persecution as their inevitable lot. (2) It
would be immediately caused by their attachment to Christ's cause. (3) Its true
source was the world's ignorance of God.
III. The responsibility of the world for its hatred. It had no excuse for its
hostility. 1. There was the testiniony of Christ's teaching, making the Father knoum,
which would judge the world. " If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not
had sin : but now they have no excuse for their sin." (1) It is a fearful thing to sin
against light. (2) It is impossible to escape the just judgment of God. 2. There wat
the testimony of his miracles. " If I had not done among them the works which none
other man did, they had not had sin : but now have they both seen and hated me and
my Father." (1) The miracles were like no other miracles in respect of their nature
and effects. (2) The miracles were the revelation of the Father through the Son ; yet
the Jews hscribed them to the power of evil, (3) The prophetic solution of their
hatred. " But this is that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their Law,
ca. XV. 1— 2t.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 2?9
They hated me without a cause." There was nothing to justify the hatred of such a
pure and loTing Spirit.
IV. The new poweb that is to sustain thk disciples in theib confliot with
THE woELD — THE HoLT Ghost. 1. The missum of the Gumforter. " But when the
Comforter is come, whom I will send UDto you from the Father, the Spirit of truth,
who proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me." (1) The qualifications of the
Comforter for his office, (a) He proceeds eternally from the Father. His witness,
therefore, will be that of the Father himself. (6) He will be sent by the Son. This
implies the approaching departure of Christ to another world, (c) He possesses, com-
municates, and applies the truth ; for he is the Spirit of Truth. (2) The testimony of
the Comforter. " He shall testify of me." (a) To the apostles, who will thenceforth
understand the truth ; (jb) to the world, in the dispersion of its darkness, in the new light
thrown upon the Person and work of Christ, and in all the blessings of an understood
gospel. "He witnesseth with .our spirits that we are the children of God" (Rom. viii.
16), 2. The testimony of the apostles tfiemselues. " And ye also shall bear witness,
because ye have been with me from the beginning." (1) It was necessary to have their
personal testimony respecting the facts of his life from the beginning of his ministry.
Christianity is more than a lile ; it is more than a system of doctrines ; it is a record of
historical facts, which give the doctrines all their meaning, and the life all its blessed-
ness. (2) The gospel was to be received by faith in aU future ages. The earliest
witnesses were to guide the faith of the Church. (3) The apostles accordingly dis-
tinguished between their own experience and the internal witness of the Spirit
(Acta T. 32).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 1 — 8. — The vine and the tranches. If these words were spoken in the house,
they may have been suggested by a creeping, clinging vine trained against the wall ;
if upon the footpath, by the vineyards on the slope of Olivet ; if in the temple, by the
golden vine wrought upon the gates.
I. The vine in itself is a suitable emblem of Christ. Its beauty, as planted,
trained, or trellised ; its grateful shade ; its fruit, whether fresh and luscious or dried ;
its wine, " that maketh glad the heart of man ; " — all render it not only interesting, but
suitable to set forth in symbol the excellence of the Redeemer, his nobility, beauty,
preciousness, and use to man. Palestine was a land of vineyards: witness the grapes
of Bshcol ; Judah binding his foal to the vine, etc. Hence most naturally the vine was
used in Old Testament Scripture as an emblem of the chosen nation, and hence Jesus
in his parables put the noble plant to the same use. No wonder that our Lord applied
to himself and to his people a designation so instructive.
II. The vine is an emblem or Christ, especially as the Source of spiritual
LITE. 1. He is the divinely appointed Root and Stem upon which the branches depend;
the Superior with which they, the inferior, are related in dependence. The vine-stock
survives even if the branch be cut oif and left to die. We are dependent upon Christ ; he
is not dependent upon us. 2. A close and vital nnion joins the branches to the vine,
and Christians to their Lord. The life which is naturally Christ's becomes ours through
our union by faith with him. 3. Yet it is a mutual indwelling. As Jesus himself
has said, "I in you; you in me." What condescension and kindness in this
marvellous provision of Divine wisdom I
III. The branches abb indebted to the vine for their fbuitfulness ; so abb
Christians to theib Lord. The branches of the living vine evince the life and health
of the plant first by their vigour, their verdure, their luxuriance, their comeliness;
signs of spiritual life are manifested in the Church of God by the peace, the cheerfulness,
the spiritual prosperity, of its members. But the great aim of the husbandman's care
and culture is that fruit may be yielded in abundance. What shall we understand
by spiritual fruit, the fruits of the Spirit ? 1. Perfection of Christian character. 2.
Abundance in Christian usefulness.
IV. The tbeatment of imrBurrFnL and fruitful bbanches fiqubeb that or
rax NOMINAL AND THE REAL DISCIPLES OF Christ. 1. The cause of unfruitfulnesi ii
280 THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xv. 1—27
stated. " Severed from me ye can do nothing." 2. The doom of unfruitfulnesB ia
anticipated. To be cast out and burnt, like the vine-parings in the Kedron valley.
3. Theconditionoffruitfulness is mentioned. Close union with Christ. 4. The means
of increased fruitfulness is also explained. Divine pinning and discipline, i.e. affliction
and trouble tending to spiritual strength and fertility.
V. The motives to Chbist-abidino and fbuit-bbarino abb ubqed. Stres* is
laid here upon two. 1. Thus the heavenly Husbandman, tlie Divine Father, is glorified,
2. Thus Jesus secures for himself true and worthy disciples. What powerful motivet
to induce Christians to be "neither barren nor unfruitful " 1 — T.
Vers. 1, 2. — TTie Divine Vinedresser. This is one of several passages in our Lord's
discourses in which he designates his Father a Husbandman, a Householder, a Vine-
dresser. Such similitudes are helpful to us in arriving at an understanding of the
relations of the Father both to our Saviour and to ourselves.
I. The Divine Husbandman's cake of the Vine and the vineyard. 1. He
plants the Vine. That is to say, he appoints that his own beloved Son shall assume
our iiuman nature, and shall introduce into this world the principle of spiritual life,
with all its fruitful and blessed results. 2. He watches over the Vine which he plants.
" I the Lord do keep the vineyard ; I will water it every moment : lest any hurt it,
I will k^ep it night and day" (Isa. xxvii. 3). As Jehovah oared for and tended the
vine wliich was brought out of Egypt, for which he prepared room, and which he caused
to take deep root, so that it filled the land ; so he watched over and blessed " the true
Vine" which he with his right hand planted in the soil of earth.
IL The Divine Husbandman's teeatmbnt of the vine-bbanches. 1. Of those
which are unfruitful. As the worthless branches of the vine are removed, cast into the
fire, and burned, so is it with the lifeless and only apparent members of the organism
constituted in the Person and ministry of Jesus Christ. The fate of the Jews is the
best illustration of our Lord's meaning ; they were like a branch that brings forth wild
grapes, bitter clusters. 2. Of those which are fruitful. It might be supposed that
. for such, seeing that they are the occasion of satisfaction, there can be no severity.
But as the vine is always carefully, closely, and unsparingly pruned by the skilful
gardener, so is it with the faithful and fruitful Christian. Divine discipline is a fact,
and it Is the best and indeed the only explanation of much of human suffering.
Religion does not make the sorrows of life, but it explains them, and it gives strength
to bear them, and wisdom to profit by them.
III. The Divine Husbandman's ultimate puhposes. 1. The fruitfulnoot of all
the living braisches of the living Vine. 2. The promotion of his own glory ; for the
result is such as to bring out clearly the wisdom and the power of the Lord of all. — ^T.
Ver. 5. — Apart from Christ. Our Lord does not say, " Apart from my doctrine ye
can do nothing;" important though it is that Christian people should apprehend and
receive his truth. Nor does he say, " Apart from my Ch urch ye can do nothing ; " though,
if we understand the term " Church " aright, this would be manifestly true. But he
says, " Apart from me." Christ is, then, himself everything to his people. He is the
Power, the Wisdom, the Salvation, of God, and consequently, could we be sundered from
him, we should be rendered poor and powerless.
I. To DO, TO BEAR FRUIT, IS THE END OP TRUE RBLIQION, AND THE RESULT AND
PROOF or SPIRITUAL LIFE. When substituted for faith, " doing " is bad ; but when it
is the efiect of faith, it is good and precious. Where do we look for evidence of the
goodness of the tree ? Is it not sought in fruit, good fruit, much fruit ? The doing, or
fruit-bearing, here commended by the Lord Jesus, is the performance of the will of God,
is the imitation of the Master's own example, is the fulfilment of the behests of an
enlijrhtened conscience. It comprises personal holiness and active usefulness.
II. Severance from Chbibt renders men powerless fob good works. The
conduct and service which arq distinctively Christian are only possible through personal
union with the Saviour. 1. This assertion places in a clear light the unequalled dignity
of the Lord Jesus. This is a declaration which none but he could make. Yet, being
the Son of God and the Source of spiritual life to men, he could justly advance a claim
•0 vast. Tha disciple !■ nothing without his master, the servant nothing without bia
OH. XV. 1—27.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 281
lord, the soldier nothing without his commander, the hand nothing without the head,
the Christian nothing without Christ. 2. This assertion brings out into clear light
the ahselute dependence of Christians. Without our Lord's teaching and example, we
should have no conception of the highest moral excellence. Without his love, we should
not feel the mightiest motive that can influence the soul to consecration and service.
Without his mediation, we should not enjoy the favour of God, our Ruler and Judge.
Without his Spirit, we should be strangers to the spiritual power which alone can
enable feeble man to do the will of God. Without hi& promises, we should lack the
encouragement and inspiration we need to cheer us amidst the difficulties, perplexities,
and trials from which no earthly life is ever exempt. Without Am, there would be
no deliverance from the bondage of sin, and no prospect of what is truly the eternal
life. " Neither," says Peter, "is there salvation in any other."
III. Union with Christ is thbrefoek unspeakably precious, and foe the
Christian absolutely needful. As to the nature of this connection, there should
be no misunderstanding. External privileges and professions are all insufficient. A
spiritual and vital union is necessary, such as in the vegetable kingdom joins the branch
to the vine-stock, such as in architecture unites the temple to its foundation. This
union is effected on the human side by a believing reception of the gospel of Christ ;
on the Divine side by the impartation of the quicljening Spirit of God. Such union
is capable of increase in degree ; a closer spiritual fellowship with the Divine Redeemei
is the means of increased fitness for holy and acceptable service. The experience of
the Apostle Paul was an illustration of this principle. He could say, *' I can do all
things through Christ who strengtheneth me." He who would work more diligently,
and wait more patiently, must come nearer to Christ, and so obtain the spiritual power
he needs.
Practical lessons. 1. If this union with the living Vine be not former!, let it be
formed at once. 2. If it be suspended or enfeebled, let it be renewed. 3. If it be exist-
ing and vitally active and energetic, let it be prized and cultivated. — T.
Ver. 11. — Bivine joy. It seems at first sight singular that our Lord's conversation,
just at this solemn and pathetic crisis of his ministry, should be of joy. It seems as if
consolation and peace were timely and appropriate themes, but as if the contrast
between Christ's approaching sufferings and the joy which he claims to possess and to
impart were too marked. This, however, is a glorious paradox.
I. The elements of our Saviour's joy. His was : 1. The joy of self-sacrifice,
which is unknown to the world, but of which Jesus has given us the one sublime
example. 2. The joy of benevolence. He lost himself in those for whom he lived and
died J their salvation was the inspiration of his endurance and the joy of his anticipa-
tion. 3. The joy of harmony with the Father's purpose and of securing the Father'^
approval.
II. The impartation of our Saviour's joy. 1. It comes through the identifica-
tion of the disciples, through faith, with the Master. 2. It consists in living sympathy
with his mind and purposes. 3. It increases and is fulfilled through their active
employment in his service. The joy of the Lord is commenced in fellowship of labour,
and consummated in the vision and recompense of heaven.
III. The superiority of our Saviour's joy. If it is contrasted with the joy oi
the worldly and sinful, such a comparison will bring out its immeasurable superiority.
1. For it is joy dignified and worthy of a moral and spiritual nature, whilst worldly
joy is largely that of the inferior part of our being. 2. It is satisfying, whilst he that
drinketh of the springs of earth thir.sts again. 3. It is eternal, being not only progres-
sive upon earth, but consummated in heaven. " Earth's joys grow dim, its glories fade
away." But Christ's joy is the joy which is immortal. — T.
Vers. 12 — 15. — Gkrisfs friendship for his people. Human friendship is both beauti-
ful to perceive and precious to enjoy. If affection aud sympathy were thrust out of
life, and if interest alone bound men together, how uninteresting and dismal would
this world of humanity become! Every instance of friendship has its charm. The
young, who share their pursuits and confidences ; the middle-aged, who are guided by
the same tastes, or principles, or occupations ; the old, who interchange their recoUeo-
«82 THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST. JOHN. [ch. iv. 1—27.
tions of bygone years ; — all furnish examples of the power and the beauty of friendship
even amongst faulty and imperfect beings. Who is not grateful for friends? Who
would be without them ? Who has not fouud friendship a charm, a stimulus, a power,
in life ? But whether earthly friends are few or many, faithful or unkind, there is a
Divine, a heavenly Friend, whose love is declared to us by his own language, and
proved by his own acts and sufferings. Christ deigns to call his disciples friends I
I. Chkist's friendship towards his pbopIiB is a wonderful tact, declared by
HIMSELF. The wonder is apparent when we consider who we are; when we reflect that
we are poor, sinful, and helpless beings, who could not, apart from his assurances,
venture to claim or to hope for the friendship of Christ. For who is he ? Jesus is not
merely the best of beings; he is the Son of God. It is hard for us to realize that
" God is Love," But in the Person of Glirist the eternal and supreme Lord comes down
to our level, walks our way, dwells on our earth, reveals to us his love. He is the
Friend, the Well-wisher, of sinners ; he is the Friend, in a fuller sense, of those who
know and love him. If this is a wonderful truth, it is also a delightful truth.
II. Christ's friendship is proved by his intimact and his converbationb.
Men's talk with one another often indicates their relationship. There is conversation
which is ordinary and casual, and there is conversation which is confidential and inti-
mate. There is the speech of acquaintances, upon common subjects ; there is the
si)eech of the master to the servant, conveying orders ; there is the speech which is
distinctive of close and affectionate friendship, upon matters of personal interest and
concern. Now, the intimacy between the Divine Father and the Divine Son is of the
most confidential and unreserved nature. The Son is "in the bosom" of the Father, i.e.
is in possession of ■the counsels and feelings of his mind ; he is " one " with the Father.
It is very observable that, according to our Lord's own declaration, he, having perfect
knowledge of the Father's thoughts, communicates those thoughts to his people. As
the Father has no secrets from the Son, so the Son lias no secrets from his disciples.
This is a conclusive proof of our Lord's friendship for us. He makes known to us " all
things" which the Father purposes that bear upon our salvation and eternal life. This
accounts for the unexampled power of our Lord's language, its sublimity, its tenderness,
its authority. The words of the Redeemer are the communications of his friendship,
the tokens of his brotherly love. To the unspiritual and unsympathetic, Christ's words
are now, as they were when they were first spoken, uninteresting and without value.
But the true friends of Jesus feel their sweetness and their might; applied by the Spirit
of God, they are the lessons, the counsels, the promises, of a Divine and faithful Friend.
How could he better prove his friendship than by revealing to us in his words the
thoughts and the purposes of the Father's heart? There is one way even more
effective, and this our Lord describes.
m. Christ's friendship is further proved by his self-sacrifioino bbnevo-
LEKOE. Self-denial is a recognized element in true love and friendship. Men are found
willing to give up money, time, rank, etc., for the benefit of their friends. But it is the
highest proof of love when one is found ready to resign life to secure the life of a friend.
" Peradventure for a good man one would even dare to die." This is the proof of self-
sacrificing friendship which the Lord Jesus was resolved to give. He laid down his
life for the sheep. " Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life
for his friends." Jesus not only gave us knowledge by his teaching ; he gave us salva-
tion by his death. This willing sacrifice was in order to win our hearts, to make us his
friends indeed, to bring to bear upon our nature a spiritual principle and power, to bind
us to himself for ever by the chains of gratitude and devotion.
IV. Christ's friendship is proved by his whole demeanour and his whole
TREATMENT OF US NOW THAT HE HAS ASCENDED. In his ministry he taught us, by his
death he saved us, in his mediatorial life he blesses us. He is a sympathizing Friend,
touched with a feeling of our infirmities. He is a forbearing and patient Friend, who
is not repelled by the imperfect response he meets with on our part. He is a practical
and helpful Friend, who expresses his friendship in deeds and spiritual ministrations.
He is an unchanging and eternal Friend. " Who shall separate us from the love of
Ohriit?"— T,
Teri. 12 — 16, — Our /riendihip /or Christ, Friendship is • relation between twt
OH. XT. 1—27.] . THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 283
parties. On both sides it is voluntary. It is mutual and reciprocaL We have seen
how Christ shows his friendship towards us. We have to consider how we prove our
fiiendship towards Christ, what he justly expects and requires from us.
I. OUB FRIENDSHIP FOB ChBIST IS SHOWN IN THE FEELINGS OF OUB HBABTS TOWARDS
HIM. 1. We admire his character. In varying degree we admire the principles, the
dispositions, the conduct, of our earthly friends. But inasmuch as there is no imper-
fection in the character of Immanuel, there is no qualification in our love towards hiui.
2. We are attracted by the congeniality of his nature. There is a " drawing " of heart
towards him, which originates in some sympathy of disposition, and which issues in a
more complete sympathy. 3. We delight in his society. Great was the privilege of
the chosen twelve, who were permitted to enjoy the company of their Lord during his
earthly ministry. But this fellowship is a privilege open to us, who, not having seen
Je.sus, yet love him. The above are ordinary manifestations of friendsiiip But the
relation between Jesus and his people is unique, and evokes feelings altogether special.
Thus : 4. We revere his Divine dignity and glory. This is growingly apprehended
with growing knowledge of Christ and with giowing conformity to Christ. As we
approach a mountain we realize its magnitude ; the nearer we draw to Christ, the more
majestic and venerable does he appear to our spiritual vision. 5. We are grateful for
his love and sacrifice. Gratitude does not enter as an element into ordinary human
friendship, which is rather inteifered with than promoted by obligations. But our
indebtedness to the Lord Jesus is immeasuurable, and gives its own colour to the
fiiendship subsisting between him and us. 6. We cherish devotion to him. As Christ
is infinitely the superior in this spiritual kindred, it is natural that he should receive
from us the consecration of heart and life.
II. Our feiendship for Chbist is shown in our obedience to him. 1. This is
a paradox. It seems at first sight altogether incongiuons that obedience should be
required of friends. The master commands his servant, but he does not command his
friend. And in this very passage Jesus says, "I call you not servants, but friends." 2.
Yet Jesus makes this semce and submission a proof of his disciples' friendship. " Ye
are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." Our Lord cannot divest himself
of his authority. Our Friend is a King, and he does not cease to be a King even when
he toils and suffers for us. 3. The Divine law is this ; Love is the best motive to
obedience, and obedience is the best proof of love. A forced, mechanical service is not
what Christ wants, is not what Christ will accept. It is a willing, cheerful, cordial ser-
vice which he asks, and without which no worthless words and formal acts can satisfy
him. It is the part of the Christian to serve his Master, hut not in the spirit of a
bondman ; rather in that of a grateful and affectionate friend.
III. Our fbibndship fob Christ is the basis or oub MnTUAt fbiendship among
OUBSELVBS. 1. Here we find the motive to the friendship which is appointed as the
mark of true discipleship. It is our Lord's new commandment that his disciples love
one another. In this love all is comprised ; it is the fulfilling of the Law. The true
Church of Christ is the society which is cemented by reciprocal confidence and by
brotherly love. 2. Here, too, we find the model of Christian friendship. " As I loved
you." Such is the rule, such is the appeal, of our Saviour. The powers that tend to
leparation, to distrust, to enmity, are many and mighty. A great, comprehensive, con-
stant power is needed to counteract and vanquish these. This power we have in the
manifested love and the uttered commandment of our redeeming Lord. — T.
Ver. 16. — Ghoice and appointment. That these words refer in the first place, and
indeed, in their complete application, altogether to the apostles, seems unquestionable.
Yet there is a great principle embodied In them which has its working out in the expe-
rience of all Christ's people in every place and through the whole dispensation.
I. The DrviNE selection. Notwithstanding that the Lord Jesus had just expressly
repudiated speaking of and treating his disciples as servants, and had just designated
them his friends, it is plain that nothing could be further from his thought than any
intention to place them upon an equality with himself. They were given clearly to
understand that, if they were his friends, it was because he had chosen and designated
them to this position. This relation is indeed not arbitrary, being, like every Divine
act, the expression of perfect wisdom. Yet it is impossible for us to comprehend th«
284 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [ch. xv. 1— 27
reasons why Jesns chose those whom he did choose in preference to others. Not all
were worthy of his choice, and amongst those who adhered to him there were degrees
ef attachment, degrees of merit, degrees of usefulness. Considering the case of the
twelve, we observe : 1. Their call. This took place early in the Lord's public ministry.
And it was by tlie presentation of his own Person, by the utterance of his own voice,
that Jesus called his apostles. There was not only the outward call ; there was the
inner, the spiritual summons, which they felt in their souls, and the authority of whicl
they readily recognized. 2. Their appointment or ordination. This was a gradual choice,
but it was formally completed when, after our Lord's resurrection, he expressly com-
missioned them to go among Jews and Gentiles, proclaiming the gospel of salvation by
faith and of obedience ur.to life eternal. 3. There is what corresponds "to this graciouf
election in the experience of all Christ's friends and servants. It is his summons which
bids them forsake their sins and their self-confldence, and follow him. Thus their
spiritual life begins by a holy and an effectual calling. He calls, and the souls of his
people respond to the voice from heaven. And whilst Jesus calls his people to the
privileges, he calls them also to the consecrated service of the new life. There is a
ministry, a mission, though not an apostleship, for eveiy true Christian. Our work
for Christ is only authorized by Christ himself.
II. The pdbpose of the Divine selection. The first apostles were chosen and
ordained for a purpose. The design of the Lord was that they should " go and bear
fruit." This involves : 1. Effort and activity. To go, when sent, is to acknowledge
the authority of the Sender, and to put forth endeavours to do his will. Eeligion does
not consist in simply receiving truth and enjoying privilege; it comprises what is done
in response to truth received and privilege enjoyed. 2. Fruitfulness, as may be learned
from I he earlier verses of the chapter, consists in a holy character and life, and in
benevolent and Christ-like labours for the welfare of our fellow-men. Divine choice
and ordination have respect to the Church universal and to the world. Men are
elected to posts of honour, of service. 3. The permanence of this fruit is the sign of
a veritable election by God. Some work is only apparent and temporary, but that
which God blesses and approves is real and lasting. The life which is rooted in God
issues in fruit which remains in time and eternity. The fruits of the Spirit endure
for ever.
III. The pkivilege involved in the Divine selection. This is the assured answer
to prayer. The connection appears to be this : the purpose of election being that fruit
may be borne to the Divine glory, grace is obviously needed in order that this purpose
may be realized, that a blessing may rest upon faithful toil ; and Christians are assured
that whatsoever tliey may need in order to this end is within their reach. The won-
derful language in which our Saviour assures us of this privilege demands our careful
attention. 1. On Qoi'a side the promise is unlimited. " Whatsoever ye shall ask "
shall be given. This corresponds with the munificent provision of Divine bounty
assured in the statement, " All things are yours." 2. On man's side there is a stipula-
tion and condition imposed by Christ as of indispensable necessity ; what is asked must
be asked in Christ's Name. That is to say, requests must; be in accordance with his
will, must be presented in reliance upon his advocacy, and will be granted for hig
sake.— T.
Vers. 18 — 21. — The world'g hatred. Our Lord enjoined that within the Church
there should prevail love and brotherhood. But at the same time he foretold that from
without Christians should meet with hatred and opposition, enmity and persecution.
I. Evidences of the world's hatbed of Christians. 1. We are constrained by
facts to rank with the world, in this respect, the adherents of the Jewish system.
As his own countrymen were our Lord's opponents and in truth his real murderers, so
were the Jews the earliest opponents of the Church of Christ. The Book of the Acts
of the Apostles exhibits the hostility of the leaders of Israel to the society which was
called by his Name whose crucifixion they had brought about. The Jews attempted
to silence the first preachers of Christianity. And this they did under the influence
of hate towards Christ himself. They regarded the new religion — for such it seemed
to them — as subversive of their own, not discerning that it was the fulfilment of what
was Divine in Judaism. And they hated a doctrine which, by laying stress upon the
tm. XV. 1—27.] THE GOSPEL ACC!OBDIN(J TO ST. JOHN. 28t
personal and spiritual elements in religion, imperilled their own rulers' authority, and
the whole system of form and ceremony with which they were associated. 2. Out
LcAd doubtless looked forward to the time when the vessel of the Church slkould
quit the narrow straits of Judaism^ and should sail out into the open seas of the
world, there to encounter fiercer storms. Then he foresaw the hatred of the world
should take a more formidable, though not a more virulent, shape. In the Roman
empire, Christianity, we know as matter of history, encountered fierce hostility
mainly because of its exacting, exclusive claims, because of its open hostility to all
that savoured of idolatry, and because of its rapid, and (to the heathen) unaccountable
progress. Hence the several persecutions which arose under successive emperors,
verifying the predictions uttered by the Divine Pounder of our faith. Hence the
long roll of confessors and martyrs who sealed their testimony with their blood. 3.
But it must not be overlooked that, where persecution is impossible, hatred often
prevails, and manifests its presence and power in many distressing forms. There are
at the present time, even in the midst of professedly Christian communities, not a few
who are sutfering from that hate which our Lord here foretold.
II. Explanations of the world's hatred of Chbistlanb. 1. The world knows
not God, and hence hates the Church which is in possession of this knowledge. Had
the world known God, it would have recognized among Christians the tokens of the
Divine presence and operation. 2. Christians are not of the world. The world loves
its own, but hates that which is out of harmony with it. If Christians do not adopt
the world's spirit and language and habits, this singularity and nonconformity
nHturally excites dislike and provokes to 111 treatment. 3. It cannot but be that the
world must be rebuked by the presence of the Church, confronting and reproving it.
Wksther by a public protest against the world's sins, or by the silent protest of a
pure and upright life. Christians are bound to a course of action which will bring down
upon them, now and again, the enmity and the anger of the world.
III. Consolation for Christians dndeb the world's hatred. All true comfort
comes from that personal relation to the Lord Jesus upon which such stress is laid in
these discourses recorded by St. John, and which is exhibited as the inspiration not
only of consecrated activity but also of patient endurance. 1. The hatred which besets
Christians was first directed against Christ himself. 2. The servant must expect to
follow in his Master's steps, and to meet with the same treatment. 3. When Jesus
says, " For my Name's sake," he presents to us a motive to patience which is divinely
fortifying and persuasive.— T.
Vers. 22 — 25. — Unbelief imexcuaabh. It is significant and affecting to find that in
the last deliberate discourse which our Lord Jesus addressed to his disciples, he not
only administered comfort to his friends, but uttered words of sad rebuke to his enemies.
He knew full well that the attitude which was taken towards him by the Jewish
leaders was typical of the regard and treatment of multitudes besides ; and his reproaches
have a scope far beyond their immediate application.
I. The manifestation of dkbelief. This is to be seen in the open rejection and
persecution of the Lord Jesus.
II. The cause of unbelief. This is not intellectual difSculty, but moral repug-
nance. The Jewish enemies of Jesus hated his holy character, his denunciations of
their worldliness and hypocrisy, his lofty and spiritual standard of teaching, his claims
to supreme authority.
III. The guilt of unbelief. This is especially to be recognized in what imbelief
of Christ involves. Hatred of the Father, God, and consequent hatred of his holy Law
and his benevolent purposes, — such is the charge which Jesus brings against his foes.
In rejecting Christ, they were showing themselves to be out of sympathy with the
Qiind and will of him who is eternal righteousness and goodness. This was their sin
and condemnation.
IV. The inexoubableness of unbelief. As powerfully set forth by Jesus Christ
in this passage, this is to be observed in three respects. 1. Christ's words, his incom-
parable teaching, were a witness to his authority, and should have been received with
reverence, gratitude, and faith. It should have been an all-sufBcient witness to him
who spake as never man spake. The truths he revealed, the laws he imposed the
IHB GOSPEL ACCOBDINO TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xv. 1—27
promisea he gave, were all such as would have commanded the respect of those morally
prepared to appreciate the utterances of One who came from heaven. 2. Christ's
marvellous works were well fitted to second the impression produced by his words.
They, indeed, appealed to an inferior faculty of human nature, but they were necessary
in order to the completeness and justice of the impression to be made upon the mindx
of our Lord's contemporaries. His enemies did not deny the reality of our Lord's
miracles, but they misinterpreted them, attributing them, by an absurd ingenuity, to
an infernal source. 3. The hatred, enmity, and unbelief of the Jews were inexcusable
because they were " without a cause." By this we must understand, not that there was
no motive in the minds of his foes, but that there was no justification for their con-
clusions or for their conduct. — T.
Vers. 26, 27. — Witness, Divine and human. The work of God in the world, so
far as it is spiritual, is effected by human agency. Upon man's heart the Author of
life and salvation works by means of truth and love, embodied in human language and
human actions. The Word, in acting as " the faithful and true Witness," " became
flesh." And in this dispensation, whilst Christ is the Saviour and the Lord of men,
Christ is revealed by the Spirit to human hearts, and it is through human agency, thus
called into action, that the kingdom of God is advanced, and the gracious purposes of
God fulfilled.
L The witness of the Spibit of God to Chbist. 1. This is a Witness Divine in
origin and nature. He proceedeth from the Father, and all his acts and operations are
Divine. 2. This is a Witness possessing the very highest qualifications. This appears
even from the appellations by which he is here mentioned : " The Spirit of truth,"
whose special ofBce it is to make the Word of God, the gospel of salvation, real, living,
and powerful over the nature of man ; " the Comforter," or Advocate, who comes to the
feeble and helpless disciple of Christ, and pours into him celestial strength and wisdom.
3. This is a Witness commissioned by Christ to testify of himself. What authority
does the Lord Jesus claim, when be says, " Whom I will send unto you ; " and how
distinct is the declaration of the purpose of his mission in the promise, " He shall
testify of me"l
IL The witness to Chbist bobne bt his own disoipleb. 1. Their qualifications
(1) They were competent witnesses to Christ, for they had for years been in his society —
were, in fact, his closest companions. (2) They were effective witnesses, for they were
in sympathy with him to whom they bore testimony. His spirit had entered into
them ; they were penetrated with his ardent compassion for sinners ; they partook his
disposition of unselfishness and consecration. (3) They were copious witnesses ; for,
on account of their opportunities of beholding their Master's works, and listening to
his discourses and conversations, they had much to tell of what theii eyes had seen,
their ears heard, their hands handled, of the Word of Life. 2. The method of their
testimony. The apostles and other disciples of Jesus bore witness to him : (1) By the
unconscious, unuttered language of character, principles, and life. By reason of their
participation in their Master's spirit, men " took knowledge of them that they had
been with Jesus." (2) By their preaching and teaching. Their witness was by the
living voice, to Jew and Gentile. Christianity was a religion, as it still remains,
marked by this peculiarity ; it ia promulgated by the utterance of those who themselves
are convinced of its Divine authority and its adaptation to the needs of men. (3) By
written record. It was in fulfilment of this promise, which was also a command,
that the evangelists and apostles wrote those treatises which remain to this day the
memorials of our Saviour g humiliation and glory, and the inspired application of
Christian facts and doctrines to the necessities of human life. In fact, the whole of
the New Testament is an act of obedience to this authoritative direction of the Master,
" Ye shall bear witness." 3. The matter- of their testimony. Chiefly, if not exclusively,
their witness was to relate to Christ himself. This was an appointment of Divine
wisdom ; for the Lord Jesus was incarnate Wisdom, Truth, Pity, and Benevolence. It
has ever been found in human experience that those who have received the inspired
witness to Immanuel, have received with him all the spiritual and immortal blessings
which God made him the Medium of carrying to human souls.
Application. The Holy Spirit is still witnessing in the Church to him who is iti
OH. XT. 1-27.] THE GOSPEL AOCORDlNa TO BT. JOHN. 287
Savionr and Lord ; and it is the part of all who receive tliia witneai im tb« power of the
same Spirit to repeat and extend tha testimony,— T.
Ver. 1. The Vim emd the Eusbamdman. L Ghbist ab thk tbue Vine. We have here :
1. The idea of an importatiim. It is a foreign vine, and not indigenous to this soil ;
for it is the " true Vine," and whatever is absolutely true must come from the other
side, from the sphere where all is absolutely true and real. This world lost its truth
when it severed itself by sin from heaven. Then this plant withered, and would not
grow ; but God left not the earth, but opened a new communication between it and heaven,
aad proceeded to create a new earth and a new heaven, and make all things new, a new
life, a new vine, a new man — ^the germ of a new and true vegetation altogether. Jesus,
as the true Vine, is evidently not entirely the produce of this world, but the produce ot
another clime and a Diviner Soil ; but still the produce of a Diviner soil is transplanted
and wedded to this, so as to make it most natural and real. " The Word was made
flesh, and dwelt among us." The Divine vine was planted in the soil of humanity, so
as to make it true, whether looked upon from the Divine or human point of view. 2.
The fulfilment of a natv/ral symbol: (1) Nature is fuH of Divine symbolism. In the
jnineral kingdom there are the pearl, the rook, and the stone ; in the animal kingdom
there are the lion and the lamb ; in the material kingdom there are the stars and the sun :
and in the vegetable kingdom there are the rose, the lily, and the vine. Judaism was a
system of Divine symbolism, and shadows of good things to come ; but there is an older,
more original and permanent system of Divine symbolism than this — the system of
nature, which is full and vital of Divine ideas, images, and shadows. (2) Christ is the
Fulfilment of all this. He is the Pearl of great price, the precious Stone, and the Bock
of ages. He is the Star of Jacob and the Sun of Righteousness ; the Lion of the tribe
of Judah and the Lamb of God ; the Rose of Sharon, the Lily of the valleys, and the
true Vine. He is the Truth of everything in nature which has in it the shadow of
truth. He is the Truth of the vine. In him the natural vine finds the fulfilment of
its prophecies — its highest meaning and Divinest significance. (3) He is the real, am,d
the only real. Fulfilment of this. Others tried, but failed. Israel, under the great Hus-
bandiT.an, had a trial. It was a vine, but failed to interpret and embody the vine-ideal
— failed to speak the vine-language, and failed to live the vine-life. The vine still
cried for a truer fulfilment and interpretation. Christ came and said, " I am the true
Vine," and his Person, life, and history fully confirm his claim. The vine is satisfied
and highly honoured. 3. Fruitfulness. (1) This was his most distinguishing feature.
The vine is a most fruitful plant. Its wood is not of much value. Apart from its
fruition, it is insignificant ; but its fruitfulness is marvellous. Think of Christ as Jesus
of Nazareth, the carpenter's Son ; he appears as a root out of a dry ground, without
form or comeliness. But his glory was in his fruitfulness. He lived, not for himself,
but for others — for God, for man, and for the universe, (2) Fruitfulness of the highest
kind and most satisfying natttre. His fruit was Divine and spiritual, satisfying the
spiritual nature of man. In this the natural vine is incomplete, and, compared with
Christ, false ; for nothing is absolutely true in relation to man which does not supply
and satisfy the whole of his being. The vine can only partly supply and satisfy man's
|ihysical nature and wants; but Christ, in his vicarious life and death, satisfies his
spiritual nature, and develops it into final perfection. (3) Fruitfulness of the highest
kind and most satisfying nature in abundance. Think of his earthly life in relation to
God ; in it was perfectly manifested obedience, filial love, and submission to the Divine
will in all things. Think of his life in relation to men with whom he had to do ; his
whole human life, from the cradle to the grave, was full of grace and truth — ^fuU of
gracious words and mighty and benevolent deeds. Think of his representative and
official life as the Author of salvation. As a Prophet, he shed Divine light on all
subjects pertaining to God and man which are essential to his spiritual advancement
and happiness. As a King, he reigned with authority, yet with equity and mercy
within and in perfect harmony with the laws of the soul and those of Qoi. And as a
High Priest, he offered himself as an infinite atoning Sacrifice for the sins of the world.
With this justice was satisfied, the Law honoured, and all the Divine attributes crowned
with glory and harmony ; while the vilest of sinners plucked from the branches of the
" true Vine " rich clusters — of pardon, justification, sanctification, spiritual life, as we!!
288 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST, JOHN. [oh. xv. 1—27,
M every reviving and comforting grace. And there is abundance for alL (4) Fmitful-
ness which makes all connected with him fruitful. The vine is a propagating and
diffusive plant, and sends its branches forth on the right and left. It is difficult to
know how many branches even a single stalk, by proper dressing and cultivation, is
capable of supporting and making fruitful. Jesus, the true Vine, has sufficient life and
sap to incorporate in himself, by faith, all the human family, and make them spiritually
alive and fruitful. He sends forth his branches to every part of the globe ; and they
climb up and creep even over the walls of the heavenly city, and drop there their rich
clusters of fruit.
II. The Father as the Husbandman. " And my Father," etc. We have here :
1. Divine ownership. The husbandman is not always the ovmer of the vine ; but in
this case he is. He is the Owner and the Husbandman. Christ, the true Vine, confesses
this with delight. The Vine owns the branches and the fruit ; but the Divine Husband-
man owns the Vine altogether. " We are Christ's, but Christ is God's." 2. Divine and
closest relationship. " My Father," etc. There is more than mere ownership here — the
closest and dearest relationship. The Son and the Father are one, in nature, essence,
life, purposes, and will ; so that between Jesus as the Vine and his Father as the Hus-
bandman there is the closest unity, and a relationship which cannot exist in any other
husbandly. 3. Divine cultivation. Much depends upon proper cultivation virith
regard to the prosperity and fruition of the vine. This requires a good husbandman. If
lefli to itself, undressed and uncultivated, deterioration and even barrenness will soon
follow. The " true Vine " will not suffer on this account ; it has not been left to
strangers and to the fortunes of mere self-interest, but is under the constant and tender
and most efficient care of the Divine Father. No one knows but Christ himself what he
owes, in his mediatorial life and work, to the Father ; to him he attributes his all — his
life, his success, his support, triumph, and glory. He refers here to his union with the
Father as a most important fact. " My Father is the Husbandman." The true Vine
has a true Husbandman ; this will ensure for the Vine and the branches the highest
cultivation and the most glorious results. — B. T.
Vers. 6 — 8. — The union of Christ and believers. Notice this union —
I. In its natube and some of its leadinq features. 1. It is spiritual. It is
not physical and material, neither is it based on the same principles as the unions of
this world, which are carnal and corrupt ; but the principles of this union are spiritual,
such as love, faith, and hope. It is the union of the human with the Divine, the spirit
of man with the great Father of spirits — ^the union of life with life — the life of the
soul with the life of the Saviour, by faith and a Divine birth. " But as many as
received him, to them gave he power," etc. 2. It is vital and real. It is not the
union of a stone with a stone in a building, nor the union of an atom with an atom in
a material body, but the union of life as that of the vine and the branches, the union
of believing souls with the Almighty Saviour, and that of living spirits with the ever-
living Christ. It is real, though on the part of believers at best imperfect. It is not
imaginary, but a fact — ^as real in spiritual growth as the union of the vine and branches
in natural growth. 3. It is mutual. As the vine and the branches. Mutuality under-
lies and conditions every union. There is mutual affinity, adaptation, and willing con-
sent. There is in this union a willing blerding of Divine and human life and energies.
It is mutual, and mutual conditions must be observed. Both are dependent on each
other; but with this difference — the branches are more dependent on the vine than the
vine on the branches ; a branch may wither and fall, or be lopped off, but another will
grow instead. The disciples are more dependent on Christ than he on the disciples.
He will have other disciples, but they will never have another Saviour. 4. It is
natural. It is the natural consequences of things ; as natural as the union of the vine
and branches. The vine is in the branches, and the branches are the natural outgrowth
of the vine. Christ is the Life and Support of believers, and they are the natural out-
growth of Christ. The union is not arbitrary, but according to the laws of spiritual
growth. A vine without branches, and the great Teacher without disciples, would be
unnatural ; but the vine and the branches, and Christ and believers in real union, is
most natural and beautiful. 5. It is very near. No onioa can be nearer than that
between the vine and the brancbea- 'H is apparently and more permanently near than
OH. XV. 1—27.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 289
that of parents and children. The children may leave the parents and form other con-
nections, and still go on in prosperity. But this can never happen with regard to
the vine and the branches. Such is the union between Christ and believers. It is
so near that they are ever in him and he in them, imparting to them hia grace and
Spirit in a continual flow, and through them carries on his grand purposes of lore and
salvation.
II. In its impobtakoe. This will appear if we consider : 1, That this union is essen-
tial to fruit-hearing, "As the branch cannot bear fruit, except it abide," etc. ; "With-
out me ye can do nothing." (1) There is no spirittial life. There can be no life when
it is disconnected with its only Source and Author. (2) There is no spirittud support.
Life must be supported ere it can thrive and be healthy. Apart from Christ there is
DO support and nourishment for the soul. (3) There is no true inspiration. The very
principle and stimulus of spiritual life is wanting; the very breath of it is gone. (4)
There is no real fruit. Luscious, strengthening, healing, and reviving grapes are the
real fruits of the vine. Life-giving and inspired actions are the fruits of the soul united
with Christ ; but, apart from him, these are not merely absent, but impossible. " Ye
can do nothing." Apart from him, we are ciphers in relation to the spiritual world,
however active, we may otherwise be. 2. Fruit-hearing is the essential consequence of
vital union with Christ. " The same beareth much fruit." Let the condition be faith-
fully observed — abiding in him — and the consequence will inevitably follow. It would
be as easy for the stream to cease to flow while the fountain springs, or for the earth
to be in darkness while the sun is in its meridian splendour, as for believers to be
barren while in living union with Christ. And this is all-important. If the branches
fail in fruitfulness, they fail in all that is valuable; and so with regard to man. 3.
Discontinuance of this union is attended with the most terrible consequences. " If any
man abideth not in me, he is cast forth," etc. This implies : (1) The awful possibility
of being connected with Christ and yet he severed from him.- This is illustrated by the
vine and the branches. Many a branch, after bearing some fruit and long connection,
becomes entirely withered and barren. In relation to the true Vine Judas was a striking
instance of such a branch. (2) The cause of this severance is in the disciple, and not
in the Master. " If any man abide not in me," etc. It is not said, " If I will not
abide in him." This must follow at last but as the effect. The cause of the withering
is not in the vine, for other branches are still flourishing and fruitful, and it retains the
withered one till it falls of itself, or is lopped off by the dresser ; and even then a wound
is left behind which will take some time to heal. This is true of the " true Vine."
Look how he retained Judas till he left of his own accord ; and Jesus on this account
was often sorrowful. The cause of the sad severance is entirely in man, and the blame
and responsibility are his. (3) This severance is attended with terrible consequences,
" They gather them, and cast them into the fire," etc. The terrible process is gradual —
the unfruitfulness, the withering, the casting forth, the gathering, the casting into the
fire, and the final burning ; but, although gradual, it is certain. In relation to Christ as
to the vine, it is the natural and inevitable consequence of the discontinuance of union
with him. It is spiritual failure, waste, and destruction. Hence the supreme impor-
tance and duty of continued and unbroken union with him.
III. In its happt results. Consider these: 1. In relation to believers, (1) The
highest end of being is attained. The highest end of the branches is fruitfulness. The
highest end of man's being is the same, and is attainable in vital union with Christ,
and thus alone. " The same beareth much fruit." (a) It is visible and practical. It
is fruit, the visible evidence of a Divine union and life, and is embodied in a useful
form, in holy thoughts, devotional aspirations, and noble deeds — deeds of faith and
charity ; self-sacrificing deeds, which glorify God and benefit man. (6) It is genuine in
quaUti/, It is fruit, the real outgrowth of the soul in union with Christ, and the same
in quality as the fruit of Christ himself, and fit for use. (c) It is great in quantity,
" Much fruit." The soul is developed into its utmost capacities, and this is genuine
fruition, the highest end of life, and the happy result of union with him who is the
Life. (2) Complete success in prayer, " Ask whatsoever ye will," etc. United with
him, we pray in him. When we really pray in him, our petitions are according to his
will, and in the interest of the highest end of our spiritual being. All these will cer-
tainly be answered. Union with Christ ensures to the soul all spiritual blessings. " A«k,
WBOT— n. V
290 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xv, 1—27,
aud ye shall receive." (3) Complete and permanent discipleship. " And so shall ye be
my disciples." Union with Christ results in fniit-bearing, and fruit-bearing results in
permanent discipleship. "So shall ye be," etc. Not probationers, but full disciples; not
only in name, but in reality ; not for a time, but for ever. This is a high honour and
an inestimable privilege, to be under the direct and constant tuition of the Master, and
within the circle of his guidance, light, and love, now and for ever. 2. In relation to
the Father. " Herein is my Father glorified, that ye," etc. The Vinedresser is glori-
fied, honoured, and satisfied by the fruitfulness of the vine; his heart is gladdened at
the time of vintage. The Father, as the Husbandman of the " true Vine," is specially
glorified when the branches bear fruit, and much fruit. The greater the fruit, the
greater is his glory and joy ; he is infinitely happy to see his labour not in vain, his
fatherly love, watclifulness, and expense are not for nought, "but return with interest in
fruitful branches. He rejoiceth over one sinner that repenteth, over one branch bear-
ing a single fruit ; what must be his over the " much fruit " 1 Our greatest good is
inseparably connected with his greatest glory. 3. In relation to Christ. " So shall ye
be my disciples." Complete discipleship is a great honour and blessing to the believer;
fruitful discipleship is a great satisfaction and joy to Jesus. The branches bear fruit
through the vine, and the vine through the branches. The disciples bear fruit thrtfugh
Christ, and Christ bears fruit through them ; their fruit is really his. It is through
them chiefiy he blesses and saves the world ; they are the mediums of his love and life,
and in them he sees the travail of his soul, and is satisfied. They are proud of him,
and he is proud of them, and refers to them with delight as his disciples ; so that the
Husbandman, the true Vine, and the branches together reap the benefit of, and are highly
satisfied with, the happy results of the happy union.
Lessons. 1. This union on- the part of Chiist is perfect. Its bases are perfect, ftnd
its conditions are perfectly fulfilled. Its discontinuance will never happen on account
of any lack in him as the true Vine, or in his Father as the Husbandman. 2. On our
part it is as yet imperfect. It is at best and of necessity so. We are imperfect beings,
and perfection under the best conditions and advantages is not attainable at once. 3.
To make this union perfect is our most solemn duty, and demands owr hest effort. For
it is all-important, involves our highest interest, and by neglect is in danger of being
destroyed. In vain we attempt to realize the end of our existence — fruit-bearing — apart
from him. Our solemn duty is, by diligent faith, watchfulness, and prayer, to abide in
him, and all besides will follow. — B. T.
Ver. 11. — The Joy of the Master and the Joy of the disciples. Notice —
I. Their DiFTBBENCB. 1. One is the fountain; the other is the stream. All the joy of
the disciples sprang from his." Apart from his joy there would be none for them.
Although there is an inseparable connection between the fountain and the stream,
between the cause and effect, between the sun and its light and heat, between the joy
of Jesus and that of his disciples, yet there is a distinction, and such a one that the
fountain will ever be a fountain, and the stream will ever be a stream. The joy of Jesus
will ever be his own, and that of the disciples will ever be theirs as the stream from
the fountain of joy. 2. One is independent ; the other is not. The joy of Jesus, which
was specially his own, was independent of that of his disciples ; but theirs was depen-
dent on his, as the stream is dependent on the fountain, and the branches on the vine.
The sun would be a sun if all the planets wore blotted out and all the stars fell. So
much cannot be said of the planets and stars if the sun were extinguished. Jesus had
a joy which was absolutely his own. As he had a glory with the Father before the
world began, so he had joy which he could not but experience apart from human con-
jeqiiences and relationships. But the disciples had no such joy ; theirs was dependent
on, as it was derived from, his. 3. One is infinitely capacious ; the other is not. It is
finite. Jesus' joy, like himself, was infinite. No vessel can hold more than its fill
Thus the joys of men differ in degree according to their different capacities. The
Divinity of Christ, the greatness and vastness of his work, the glory and dignity of his
Person, and the perfection of his character, made him capable of infinite and boundless
joy, compared with which the greatest joy of the most perfect disciple would be but a
drop to the nctan, a ray to the sun, and an atom to the universe. 4, One is ever full ; the
ether is not. The Joy of Jesus was absolutely full and complete — a continual flow with*
BH. XV. 1—27.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 291
out an ebb. True, he was "a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." But this was
not his own. " Surely he bore our griefs," etc. His soul was continually joyous, and
his nature continually happy. And now, when his earthly work was not actually
completed, with the terrible battle and more than human pain before him, his soul was
full of joy. The sorrow and grief were only waves on the surface, and dashing on the
human side of his being ; but down in the depths of his nature there was only joy in
all its serenity, purity, and fulness. But not so the joy of the disciples. It was
essentially incomplete. Only a spark, a flickering flame, already threatened with
extinction by his departure.
II. Their sameness. Although distinct, so as to be spoken of separately as " my
joy " and " your joy," yet there is a similarity and a sameness. 1. They are the same
in nature. The stream is of the same nature as the fountain, the drop as the ocean,
the fruit as the tree. The joy of the disciples is of the same nature as that of Jesus.
2. They are the same in effect. Joy as an emotion is pleasant, buoyant, happy, and
inspiring. These were its effects in Jesus, and in a degree in his disciples. In the
degree th^ experienced it, it made them happy in trouble, hopeful in sorrow, buoyant
in depressed circumstances, and joyous even in tribulation. Pure joy is the same in
its effects in the heart of the creature as in that of the Creator, in the heart of the dis-
ciple as in that of his Master. 3. They are the same in their sources. What were the
sources of Jesus' joy, or what joy was his? (1) Tiie joy of conscious union with his
Father. He was ever conscious of this. It never left him, even in the darkest hour
and severest trials. "Ye shall leave me alone: but I am not alone, because the
Father," etc. This ever Blled him with confidence and joy. (2) The joy of perfect
obedience. Obedience to his Father's will and commands, loyalty to his Father's
throne, and consecration to his Father's work. (3) The joy of perfect love. Love to
his Father, to his disciples, and love of compassion to the world. The central { assion
of his heart and the ruling law of his nature was love, and this inevitably produced joy
and happiness. His obedience was happy and joyous. It was the obedience of love.
He could say, " Lo, I come to do," etc. It was delightful to come and do the Divine
will while the law was in his heart of love. There is no joy without love ; and in the
degree we love we are joyous. (4) The joy oi perfect self-sacrifice. The love of Christ
was not of the ordinary kind, but of the highest kind — the greatest and most dis-
interested, resulting in the greatest self-sacrifice. And the greater the self-sacrifice the
greater the joy. In Christ both were perfect. (5) The joy of unswerving confidence
of triumph and sttccess. He never had the least doubt as to the ultimate success of his
. mission and the result of his coming, although no one was ever so severely tried. His
own rejected and crucified him ; but, in spite of this, his joy was unruffled, bis happi-
ness was unmarred, and his confidence in God, and the justice and success of his cause,
was unshaken. These were the sources of his joy ; and they are the sources of the joy
of all his followers — the joy of union with him and the Father, of obedience to him and
his commands, of love to him and each other, of self-sacrifice even to suffering and
death for him, and of perfect conviction of thp righteousness of their cause, the rectitude
of their principles, and complete triumph at last. Thus the joy of the disciples and that
of the Master proceeded from the same fountain. Although one is a small stream and
the other a sweeping Amazon, yet they spring from the same sources, and flow on
through parallel channels to the same ocean of infinite joy.
III. The perfection of the disciples' jot. 1. The perfection of their joy was not
yet attained. This could not be expected. They were young disciples, ignorant and
imperfect. Their training was as yet only partial, and there were intervening severe
trials. Their Master was about to leave them by death ; and their permanent Teacher
and Sanotifier, the Holy Spirit, had not yet fully come. Between his departure and the
coming of the Spirit there was sadness. They were doubtless greatly surprised at his
speaking of his joy and theirs at such an hour ; still they had the elements of spiritual
joy to an extent they had not yet realized. The development of these was necessarily
gradual, and as yet incomplete. 2. The perfection of their joy was attainahU. " That
my joy may be in you, and that," etc. This was to be attained : (1) By continual
realization of their union with him. This union was made. It was a glorious fact.
They had only to continue it and realize it in a greater degree. And with increased
realization of the union there would be an increaise of joy — the joy of being connected
292 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. XT. 1—27.
with m Divine life, the joy of infinite care and support. Christ rejoiced at his union
with the disciples, and they ought to rejoice at theirs with him. If it was a source of
joy to the Bridegroom to be united with a poor bride, certainly it ought to be a greater
source of joy to the bride to be united with such an infinitely rich and kind Bridegroom.
(2) By continual pa/rtid'paticm, of his Joy. " That my joy may be in you ; " not about or
near, but in them as a perennial well of living water. His joy was full and perfect,
and it was ever at their disposal ; and they are invited to partake of it, as the branches
partake of the life and sap of the vine. And his words and promise are as telegraphic
wires to convey the messages of his love to the soul ; as golden pipes to convey the wine
of his life, joy, and fellowship to the heart. Joy was in him in inexhaustible fulneas.
And his disciples are to be filled with joy by continual participation of his fulness, and
the more they take the more they will get. (3) By careful imitation of his example.
" That my joy may be in you, and that your joy," etc. In him they found an Example
which was most perfect, helpful, and inspiring. In one sense bis joy in relation to
believers is a specimen, and a most e£5cient help to procure the same themselves. He
helps them that they may help themselves, and make their own spiritual fortunes.
He pointeil out to his disciples the founts of happiness, and revealed to them by precept
and example the path of duty as the only path of real joy. Let them tread it as he
trod it. Let them abide in him as he abode in his Father. Let them obey as he
obeyed, love as he loved, self-sacrifice as he self-sacrificed ; then his joy would be in
them, and theirs would be fulfilled in him and in themselves. His joy would be theirs,
and still his own ; his own, and still practically theirs. The joy of the Master is fulfilled
in that of the disciple, and that of the disciple in the Master. 3. The perfection of
joy, althvugh partially attained now, is fully attained in thefutvare. Christians of all
ages have experienced this joy in a high degree ; and even the sorrowful disciples, a
short time after this, left the Sanhedrin with bleeding flesh, rejoicing that they were
counted worthy to suffer for Christ's Name. They sang in prisons, and even in the
most painful death. But this joy cannot reach perfection here, for its perfection will
be the perfection of religion, and the crown of life, which cannot be fully attained but
under heavenly and fixed conditions; when the union between Christ and the believing
soul will be complete; when the tortuous stream shall at last reach the ocean, and the
joyous disciple shall enter into the joy of his Lord. 4. The perfection of their joy now
was Jesus' chief concern. " These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy," etc.
He was specially anxious, not merely that they should enjoy him, but that they should
enjoy him in the highest sense, in the fullest measure, and in the most inspiring,
cheering, and eflfective way. " That my joy may be in you." He does not bequeath ■
unto them sorrow. He takes that upon himself, and gives them his joy. He makes
an exchange — gives his disciples his joy, and bears their grief. They have the advan-
tage. All he said and did was that they may realize his happiness, and make it
practically their own, and fulfil it in their own experience, even to perfection.
Lessons. 1. There is no pure and lasting Joy apart from Jesus. Every other joy is
false, empty, and transient, unworthy of man as an immortal being, and will end in
sorrow. In union with him alone there is real joy. 2. The religion of Jesus is a religion
of pure Joy. To charge it with being melancholy is utterly false. The religion of man
is a melancholy one, but that of Jesus is ever joyous. The new birth is a circum-
stance of joy. The marriage of the soul to the merciful Saviour is a source of ecstatic
delight. Its sorrow is only accidental and for a season, its joy is essential and eternal.
And there is joy even in its sorrow, songs in its sighs, and heaven in its tears. If it begins
in a sigh, it ends in an eternal song. 3. Let us make our life Joyous by a living union
with the ever-Joyous Saviour. Let us abide in his love, appropriate his joy ; then duty
will be delightful, and life ever musical, and will naturally melt at last to that fulness
of joy which is at his right hand, and the everlasting pleasures of his presence. — B. T.
Vers. 22 — ^26. — I%e $in ^neglecting the Saviour. With regard to the Jewish nation,
this is referred to by our Lord —
L As A SIN OF THE GREATEST ENORMITY. There are degrees in sin as in virtue.
The sin of rejecting the Saviour is the greatest. It stands alone in the black category.
" If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not," etc. What does this mean 1
Whether that they would not have that piirticular sin? or that, in comparison with thiiL
OH. XT. 1—27.] THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. 293
others are small, and almost fade into nothingness ? Its enormity will appear if we
consider: 1. It it the greatest insidt to the greatest and best Being. Who is disbelieved
and rejected ? The eternal Son and the eternal Father — the supreme Being whom they
professed to acknowledge and worship. For the rejection of the Son involves the
rejection of the Father. " He that hateth me," etc. No one can so insult and grieve the
Father as by Insulting his Son; and the greatest insult to the Son is the rejection of his
Person, Word, and redemptive grace. Thus the Divine truth and honour are impugned.
" He that believeth not God hath made him a liar ; because he believetb not," etc. 2. It
is the greatest insult to the supreme Being while in the nearest contiguity to them. The
Father was in the Son; and the Son was in the flesh, in their very nature; therefore
God was in their nature, speaking and acting among them. He was never so near before.
They never had such a vision of him. Ho was face to face with them. He could
not come physically nearer, neither could they have a clearer physical vision of him.
So clear it was that our Lord could with propriety say, " They have seen me and my
Father." In him the Father was seen, and yet they rejected him. Thus the insult
was most direct and daring. They insulted him to his very face. 3. It is the greatest
insult to the supreme Being, under circumstances which were calculated in the highest
degree to produce different effects. The circumstances we have already indicated, and
they are quite unique. Even in the wonderful history of the Jewish nation, and in the
history of the nations of the world, they were such as they alone enjoyed, and involved
such Divine light and evidence as were calculated in the highest degree to produce the
readiest faith in and the warmest reception of the Son of God. It was the natural
conclusion of the Divine Father : " They will honour my Son." Although they have
maltreated my prophets, yet they will honour my Son. In his life and actions they
saw the Father, yet rejected him, and sinned against the greatest lijiht. 4. It is the
greatest insult against the supreme Being in the very attempt of conferring upon them
tki greatest benefit. And this involved the exercise of the greatest condescension and
love. The object in view and the love manifested are set forth in the familiar but
matchless words, " God so loved the world, that he gave," etc. Can imagination con-
ceive of a greater sin and insult than the rejection of the manifestation of such Divine
love, whose object is to save from the most inevitable and terrible ruin, and the
bestowment of the greatest and most undeserving gift? Sin against the truth, justice,
and holiness of the supreme Being, separately considered, is nothing to the sin against
Divine and self-sacrificing love. Jesus was the incarnation of Divine love, manitested
to bless and to save ; but while in the very act of salvation he was most insultingly
rejected. 5. It is the greatest insult to the supreme Being, assuming the most malig-
nant form. " And hated both me and my Father." While this indicates the cause of
their rejection, the enmity of the carnal mind against God,.it also reveals its extreme
malignity. It is not merely negative and defensive, but most malignantly aggressive
and decided. And hatred is the most virulent form of rejection, the most daring
form of unbelief, the most insulting resistance to the supreme Being, and the most
fatal defiance to Divine love, which in this case resulted in the cruel crucifixion of the
Son of God. 6. The greatest insult to the supreme Being, which resulted in the most
fatal consequences. By their malignant rejection they made the greatest general
blessing" the greatest personal curse, turned the greatest boon into the greatest bane;
so that it would be infinitely better for them if the Son of God had not come to them
at all — their sin would be less, and their fate less disastrous. They attempted to stem
and poison the river of life in its flow to fallen humanity, and succeeded as far as they
were concerned. They set an unparalleled example of unbelief and moral obduracy to
all succeeding ages, the result of which was social and spiritual ruin.
II. As A SIN OF THB GREATEST ENOBMITY WITH THE LEAST EXCUSE. What eXCUSeS
are supposable in this case ? 1. If he had not come to them at all. This would be a
complete excuse. But he came, appeared to them, and dwelt among them. 2. If he
had no right to come. They would have a perfect right to reject an intruder and an
impostor, who bad no right to their faith and acceptance. But Jesus was not such. He
had an absolute right to come. He came in accordance with the Diyine will, as well
known to him, and well known to them as revealed in their Scriptures. He came in
the way and at the very time and for the purpose indicated. And his coming was
abM>lutely right and essential in order to fulfil the Divine plan and satisfy human need.
294 THE GOSPEL ACOORDlNG TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xv. 1—21
3. Want q/ adequate knowledge of Mm. This would be s yalid excuse. But thii
they could not plead. He not only sent the Baptist to herald his immediate coming,
but came himself in person, and spoke to them, taught daily in their streets and syna-
gogues, availed himself of every opportunity to address them in the most homely and
clear language as to his Divine origin and mission as the Son of God and their Messiah.
And he taught "as One having authority;" and it was the testimony of all his unpreju-
diced hearers, " Never man spake like this Man." 4. Want of adequate proofs of his
claims. Although his teaching was full, clear, and Divine, yet, without the further
evidence of miracles, there would he a legitimate excuse. Jesus allows this. " If I had
not done," etc. They demanded a sign. This demand was most fully and readily
granted : (1) In such works of power and mercy as no other man had ever before per-
formed. Ihey professed to believe Moses and the prophets on the evidence of miracles ;
but their miracles were very few in number, and inferior in quality as compared witli
those performed by him whom they rejected. (2) In such works of power and mercy
as were in perfect keeping with his claims and character as their Messiah and Saifiowr.
There was a perfect correspondence between his teaching and his works. He suited the
word to the deed, and the deed to the word. His testimony was complete. (3) In
such works of power and mercy as clearly revealed him and the Father — ^revealed him
as the Son of God, and God as his Father. His works were so Divine that even they
themselves could not deny their supernatural character; but, rather than admitting
their natural conclusion, attributed them to a demon. So transparently Divine were
his works, that in their light, not only he as the Divine Son could be seen, but also his
Divine Father ; still they malignantly rejected both. 6. Want of natural ahility to com-
prehend the evidences of his claims. The deaf have a sufficient excuse for not hearing,
and the blind for not seeing. The want of common intelligence and natural ability would
be an excuse for intellectual and moral unbelief. But they could not plead this, neither
did they. And when our Lord hinted at their moral blindness they were greatly
insulted, and asked with contempt, "Are we also blind?" Our Lord tacitly accepts their
explanation, but pointed them to the inevitable consequence, " Yotir sin remaineth."
They were entirely responsible, and claimed it. It was not because they could not, but
because they would not. 6. Any really dbfectiondble qualities in his character or eon-
duct. They would be justified in rejecting a cruel tyrant, a vile impostor, or a vicious
teacher ; but they had none of these excuses in the least degree. Not only they bad no
reason to hate him, but the strongest reasons possible to love and welcome him with
delight. His character was divinely transparent, and his life absolutely pure. His
discourses were pregnant with life and light, and his words and actions full of grace and
truth. His conduct towards all was invariably respectful and tenderly kind, and even
to his most inveterate foes he was most patient, indulgent, and forgiving. There was
no cause for hatred in him. It must have been entirely in them ; and his experience
was that of the psalmist, recorded in their Scripture, "They hated me without a
cause." They could not find an excuse for their sin, neither could Jesus find one. In
spite of his terrible indictment against them, he seems to be in search of an excuse for
them. " If I had not come," etc. ; " but now," etc. As far as they were concerned, he
almost wished he had not come and spoken to them. He who prayed on the cross,
" Father, forgive," etc., was ever ready to find the least legitimate excuse for sinners,
and even for his most inveterate foes; but in this case could find none. There was none,
and there is none.
Lebsgns. 1. The gospel, with regard to the rejecters of C?trist, reveal* a terribly
corrupt state of the heart. The gospel does not cause sin, but reveals it, and in relar
tion to the disobedient occasions the greatest guilt. It would be better for them not
to have enjoyed its light. 2. With regard to its rejecters, it reveals a terrible pome/r
of the corrupt will to resist the Divinest evidence and reject the most loving overtures of
Heaven, as well as its own highest good. 3. Although it would be far better fw the dis-
obedient if Christ had not come and spoken to them, yet those who sigh far and are
ready to receive him are not deprived of him o« this account. Shall not the sun rise
because many evil-doers prefer darkness, and may avail themselves of but little of its
light? And shall Jesus keep away because many will disobey, and even hate him?
No ; let him come and save. 4. The world's awful responsibility under the gospel.
The responsibility of increasing light and grace. Our destiny hangs upon our reMirlng
«H. XV. 1—27.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. MS
or not receiving Christ. Beware of rejecting him. Beware of tlie excuselesg sin. 6.
Our great Advocate can find an excuse for every sin but this. For this there is no
defence ; for he is rejected for whose sake God alone can forgive. There is in him no
cause of hatred or rejection ; hut there is in him an infinitely extending pardon to the
vilest penitent. Some of his murderers availed themselves of this. And it is ever
available and infallible : " Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord,"
etc.— B. T.
Vers. 1 — 6. — The vine and the branches. L The statement of oonitbction
BETWEEN Jesus and his people. The connection is neither nominal nor artificial ; it
is a living union. The life of our Lord goes out to us every day. He is full of the
noblest life — that which is nourished and developed by Divine love ; and because he
lives, we are to live also. There is to be the most entire community of life between
Jesus and us ; his affairs are our affairs, and our affairs are his affairs. He is interested
in all of us. No step we take but he regards it with anxious eye ; no true success we
gain but what gladdens him as much as it gladdens us. He loves us all, the worst as
well as the best. The true mother has a tender heart for all her children; for the
8tubl>orn, headstrong boy as much as the docile and yielding one ; for the vain and
giddy daughter as much as the quiet and gentle. All are in the family, and so are we.
Sometimes we play sad havoc with the profession of believers in Christ Jesus. Some
very sour grapes appear on our particular branch. But Christ will be very patient with
us. He who is long-suffering with the fruitless fig tree will be long-saffering with the
fruitless branch.
il. We must LABonB to oontinob in this connection. 1. We are to receive Jesus
altogether. It will not do to take what we like and reject what we like. We must
receive him in every relation which he declares himself to sustain to us. We are not
to say, when we come across any hard saying, that it must be practically expunged
because we cannot understsmd it. The real hardness is not in the sayings ; it is in our
own heart. Time and a change of experience make a difference in many of our im-
pressions ; and we alter, while Jesus and the Scriptures remain the same. There is a
softening of the stony heart, a susceptibility to the powers of the world to come. When
we feel the need of Jesus, there is no difficulty about takiiig him just as he is.
2. There must he constant communion. The first act of real prayer makes the first step
towards this. A prayerless life means a life without Christ, without faith, without
work, without consistency. On such a branch the husbandman looks with suspicion.
Christ wants to shine out in the life, so that people may say the branch is worthy of
the trunk. He cannot bless us without our consent, or without our active approach to
him.
III. The ultimate result of this union. The more we abide in Christ the
more he abides in us, and then the constant and powerful influx of his energy causes
a great putting out of fruit. Just as the sap from the trunk makes every day a
difference in the branch, causing it to shoot forth twigs, and bnds, and leaves, and
flowers, so the presence of Christ in our souls makes us to grow and to manifest the
fruit of that presence. — T.
Ver. 9. — Abiding in the love of Jesus. I. Past satisfaction. How Jesus here
lifts up his disciples by a recognition of the good thing in them ! The Father loved the
Son ; found in Jesus of Nazareth what he could not find in any other being of flesh
and blood. And so the Son loved his disciples, finding in them a spirit of obedience and
recognition of himself which promised great results in due season. To us it may seem
as if Jesus must have been painfiilly impressed with the faults of his friends. In many
things they were so ignorant and slow of heart ; in many things their motives were so
naiTOW and unworthy. But, with all their faults, they were fundamentally true ; better
far than Pharisees ; better far than the common run, who as yet followed Jesus only
when they could get the loaves and be filled. And so Jesus loved them for this. What
a view this gives us of the aspect of Jesus towards men! All are sinners and need
salvation; they are loved with the love of pity; they have their share in that great
declaration concerning God's love to the world (ch, iii. 16), But, so far as inclination
towards God is concerned, all are not equally loveless ; some are near the kingdom^
896 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xv. 1—27.
like that man on whom, when Jesus looked, he loved Wm. These disciples still had f»r
to go and many difficulties to overcome ; but surely it was no small matter to have
reached the happy stage when Jesus could say that, as the Father loved him, so he
loved them. Look into the expression, and you will see it is a very strong, encouraging,
appreciative one.
II. Past ministry of Jesus to his loved ones. The love of the Father to
the Son was not an empty sentiment. The Son heing what he was, he became the
Agent of a compassionating omnipotence to do good to men. The Father's love to the
Son was proved by what he did for him and through him. But the Father could not
have done these things for and through anybody. He could not have done through a
Moses, or an Elijah, or a John the Baptist, what he did through a Jesus. And as the
Father found what he wanted in the Son, so the Son found what he wanted in his
disciples. As the Father loved the Son, so the Son loved the disciples; and as the
Father ministered to the Son, so the Son ministered to the disciples. The Son was
willing and able, to the full, to receive the fatherly ministry; and in like manner the
disciples were sufficiently able to receive the ministry of Jesus, to make it possible for
him to speak with such complacency of them. They listened to his teaching; they
left their home and work and went about with him ; and so Jesus had been able to do
something for and in them, more indeed than as yet distinctly appeared to any one but
himself.
III. The condition of continued and richeb MnnsTBT. What good the disciples
would get out of Jesus in new and altogether different circumstances depended upon
themselves. Jesus would be the same, in disposition and in power; the question
remained, would they give him the opportunity ? What a thought, that the overflowing
love of Jesus, meant to direct so much power and wisdom, should be serviceable to us
just as we choose to make it so I A spirit of docility, obedience, and constant expecta-
tion would open np to us treasures of heavenly loving-kindness beyond anything we
at i)resent possess. The key, so to speak, is with us, yet we notice it not ; and mean-
while the lock is getting all stiff for want of frequent use. To know the fiiU riches of
Divine love, we must live as Jesus would have us study to live. — Y.
Ver. 16. — Servants and friends. Not at all unfrequently one who begins as a
s'ervant advances in regard till he becomes a friend. Opportunities arise for friendship,
md both parties make the most of them. It is a poor business to make service a mere
matter of commercial contract. Jesus must have noticed again and again this beautiful
absorption of the servant in the friend ; his disciples, too, would know of like instances.
Jesus and his disciples had been constantly together, and thus the way was made for
friendly feeling. As the season of separation drew near, Jesus sought to set before his
Iriends the responsibilities and opportunities of friendship.
I. Jesus calls his disciples friends, but none the less webe thbt servants.
Jesus wanted these very men for special service. Many true and loving friends he
must have had besides them — men like that Lazarus whom Jesus once described as
"our friend." But these few were wanted for special service; not that a few were
enough, but Jesus began with a few that there might be all the more afterward. While
Jesus was in the limitations of the flesh he could only have companionship with a few.
But Jesus needs all the servants he can get. The idea of ample and efficient service
underlies the parable at the beginning of the chapter. The branches are the servants
of the vine-trunk. Note that those who are called friends do not therefore feel at
lilierty to speak of themselves as such. Paul, beginning his Epistle to the Bomans,
does not say, " Paul, the friend of Jesus Christ," but " Paul, the servant of Jesus
Christ." The apostle's mind is full of the work he has to do as a servant of Jesus.
Whatever names we have the right to bear, whatever privileges we enter into, never
let us forget that we are here for service. He who is not the servant of the Lord Jesus
Christ, he who is not conscious of 8omethiag in his life that is work for Jesus, never
can be the friend of Jesus.
II. Jbbus calls his disciples friends that they mat be better servants.
The work needs the best qualities in the highest degree. He who would do the best
work for Christ must be likest him. He serves Jesus best who serves the neediest of
men in their greatest need, and this can only be done when the heart is purged of- self-
OH. XV. 1—27.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 297
seoking in all its forms. In all the work these disciples had hitherto been doing, they
were thinking of themselves rather than of Jesus and others. That is the way of
service according to a worldly spirit. We must learn to act as Jesus himself would
act if he were one of his own servants ; and that can only be done when we give Jesus
full opportunity of opening himself to us as a man opens himself to a friend.
III. Thosb whom Jesus calls fbiends he beallt treats as fbiends. All
this concluding discourse proves the depth and tenderness of the feeling. He could not
so have spoken before. Partly such words were best with a farewell flavour in them.
Partly the disciples had to grow into fitness for hearing them. And even when they
did hear, much was appreciated in a very imperfect way. Still, Jesus treats them as
friends ; for all things he has heard from his Father he makes known to them. His
disciples shall be sharers in his purposes and plans as far as they are able. It is as if
the person for whom a great house is being built should call together all who are to be
conccnie'l in the erection, and show to them the plan and explain the purpose. Apostles
and prophets lay the foundation-stone. Thousands of those whom Jesus honours with
the title and treatment of friend are joined in building it, and then, when all is done,
Jesus and his friends are to dwell in it together. — T.
Ver. 16. — Jems, the Decider and Provider, We have here the statement of a plain
historical iact. Jesus, from the general body of his disciples, did pick out a special
company fur special work. No doubt they also had to choose, but their choice umply
amounted tu recognition ; they could not put any one else in the place which Jesus
held. And he invites them here to a retrospect of the hour in which he had chosen
them. They would have liked in most things, practically in all things, to get their
own way ; and this was just what they could not do. Jesus did not visit the world to
fall ia with the wishes of ignorant and short-sighted men. Underneath all our choices,
and all the changes of our moods, there is the piu'pose, the choice, and the expectation
of Jesus. We have —
I. Jesus deciding. It was all the doing of Jesus. These men were to be stamped
with his sending. They were in his employment. The call of the Lord Jesus consti-
tuted their authority and their claim. And the essence of this choosing still remains.
Every one trying to do work for the sake of Jesus and in the Name of Jesus must have
something of this feeling that he has been chosen ; that a constiainiug hand has been
upon him, first of all arresting his footsteps in the old way, and then pointing them
into a new one. In ranging ourselves under Jesns, we indeed cannot escape a great
decision, but it wUl be made with a feeling that we could not help making it ; and this
feeling will only deepen as the years of service and devotion roll on. Christians-never
have any misgivings about the right of Jesus to grasp and direct. If any profess
themselves never to have felt that Jesus wanted them, never said " Follow me," such
must be asked whether the tmth does not lie here, that lliey are fertile in the spirit of
excuses. There will at least be an indubitable picking out, by-and-by, of the sheep
from the goats. Effort and self-denial are required to tind out what Jesus has a right
to claim, and what he really wants. There is such a thing as having ears and yet not
being able to hear.
II. Jesus pboviding. As Jesus claims the right of deciding, so he also takes the
responsibility of providing. He has so situated and surrounded his servants, that they
may bring forth fruit, and abiding fruit. Every branch in the vine has its own place,
but all are provided for in a common life and a common growth. The decision and the
provision go together. Jesus is not really Decider unless he is also allowed to be
Provider. Each soldier of the army is not allowed to make provision for himself. If he
had this to do, his fighiing would be of little use. The king who sends the army out
makes provision for the sustaining of the army. Christians have to ie more than
others, do more than others, and thus theur resources must exceed those of- others.
How is the grape of the wilderness to become the grape of the vineyard, unless it is
planted in the vineyard ? Wild fruit, growmg as it will, can never become like the fruit
that is cultivated and watched.
III. Jbsus expecting. The disciples were full of vexation because of hopes and
imaginings overthrown ; but Jesus knew what would come. Jesus is above all clouds
that darken the present and prevent a right view of the future. These very me«, so
198 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [ot. xv. 1—27.
tnmUed now, would before long be joying and rejoicing abundantly that they wen
counted worthy to suffer for their Master. What great things may be expected, what
UMfuInesB and happiness are at the dawn, when once self gets an effectual crippling I
The branches of this vine will be as the stars of the sky for multitude, and as the sand
by the sea-shore innumerable. — Y.
Yer. 18. — The world hating the servants of Jeeus. Jesus speaks here of love and
hate, and of no third thing lying between them, and being neither one thing nor
another. What looks like indifference is only sleeping love or sleeping hate. There
are those who only need sufficient stirring up in order to become devoted lovers of
Jesus and his cause. And so with the btirring up of hatred to Jesus. Character and
disposition must in due season come out to the full light of day. The sleeping tiger is
none the less a tiger for being asleep.
I. Those who fossiblt mat be hated. Christians may be hated because of their
Christianity. Private malice is not at all in the question. Some of these disciples
may have had enemies already; if not, they were very likely to have them in
abundance soon. Observe how Jesus puts the thing hypothetically. Much depends
on ourselves. If we are consistent, resolute, lively, energetic, perfectly uncompromising
and open in our attachment to Jesus, we must make reaHy for hatred ; but if, professing
to love Jesus, we do not love him with all our heart, and soul, and strength, and mind,
the world will nut trouble to hate us. It may despise us and laugh at us, but it will
not hate. Why shotild the world hate us, if we do nothing to inconvenience it,
nothing to peril its aims, its possessions, and its pleasures ? This is a very astonishing
thing, that the world should hate us the better we are. If our hearts are filled with the
spirit of love, if we desire only the good of everybody, why should we be hated ? The
truth is, Jesus understands human nature far better than the shrewdest of us. He, the
best that ever trod the earth, was treated as if the worst. And simUar experience, in a
less conspicuous way, happened to his servants, e.g. Paul at Philippi and at Ephesus.
And, underlying all these illustrations, there lies one common cause for the hostility in
this — that Jesus must, by the very nature of his light-bringing work, interfere with the
vested interests of men in darkness.
II. The peouijar dbsceiption of the haters. They are described compendiously
as the world. They are not to be singled out in their individual capacity. Individuals
are constantly passing over from the world to the side of Jesus, but the spirit of the
world remains unchanged, unchangeable. And this spirit is to be dealt with indirectly
for the most part. Argument, expostulation, and entreaty are not the main weapons of
success. The victory that overcometh the world is mainly to be gained in our own
character. Jesus wi.nts opposition to be swallowed up in reconciliation to him and to
his truth. What we want to bear up against the world's hatred is : 1. Faith. We
live amidst an unbelieving world, as it were amidst oast winds and north winds, and
all sorts of unfavourable climatic conditions. The colder the weather is, the more
must we look after everything tliat will keep up vital heat. When earth is dull and
stubborn to us, we must refresh ourselves from heaven. 2. Courage. We must go on.
So we shall find out what a poor, foimdatiunless thing the opposition of the world is.
Its first appearance is its best appearance. It may hurt the outer skin, but cannot
touch the heart and citadel of life. We must needs know the worst of the world in
order that we may know the hest of Jesus. 3. Meekness. Faith and couiage, bathed
and penetrated with gentleness — this is to win the world. The world has no gentle-
ness, unless fair-spoken craftiness be so called. Our main spirit must be that of Jesus
on the cross : " Father, forgive them ; they know not what they do." — Y.
Vers. 26, 27. — The Joint witnessing. Christianity is not a religion to be propagated
by force or by sedulous tradition. Nothing but the force of truth planted Christianity ;
and only the force of truth preserves it, extends it, and ensures the prospect of its
universality. Not without significance is this constant reference to witnessing found
in the New Testament. Jesus submits his gospel to the keenest examination. He
comes before the world as a well-equipped suitor goes into a court of justice, sure that
he has witnesses ample for the success of his cause. Christianity presents phenomena
that shirk no scrutiny. It has no weak and treacherous places to be kept as much ai
OH. XTL 1— 38.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
209
powible from yiew. A witness, to be all a witness ought to be, must have nothing to
conceal, nothing to avoid.
L These uust be the BiaHX bpibit in those who listen to the testiuont.
The minds of men may be set against truth and the search for truth, aod then where
will the witnesses be ? The gospel presumes on the part of man an awakening to the
need of reality, stability, and continuance in all that be may rightly aim to make his
own. Men have believed the world and believed their own hearts, and tbey have been
disappointed ; and now, if tbey seek Jesus, it is with the assurance meeting them that
they shall not be disappointed again. If men fail to be attracted by Jesus or profess
to be disappointed with him, it is because they are disinclined to take the trouble of
seeking deep enough.
II. Each witnesb has his own testimony. There is a witnessing by the Spirit
of Jesus which cannot be effected by any multiplication of human witnesses. And
similarly a testimony comes by reading the evangelists and Epistles, which is felt to be
something independent of the force which comes on us by the operation of the Spirit.
How many, reading the New Testament just with thoughtful earnestness, have said
to themselves, " Here is something to be searched into. Here is a part of some great
possibility, and I must seek for the other part " 1 Careful and repeated reading of what
apostles have written is very likely to drive a man to his knees, seeking to have the
lull body of testimony completed, by what the Holy Spirit will impress on his heart.
We should ever be on the outlook for testimony to Jesus and his truth. The more
we expect it the more it will come, fortifying us against our own doubts, cheering us
with hopes of coming certainties, and making ns more ardent in persuading others to
like precious faith.
III. The besfonbibilitt thus laid on ns. Unbelief deludes itself with the plea
that there is lack of evidence. Nay, in its more arrogant forms it will even maintain
that the evidence is tbe other way. What if we be in the position of those who
clamour for more, and will not use what they have ? If we are not to be persuaded by
the joint witnessing of the Spirit and the apostles, neither shall we be persuaded though
one rose from the dead.
IV. OuB OWN witness-beakdjo. We may and ought to be joined to the cloud of
witnesses. If Jesus told the first company of disciples that they were to be witnesses,
then assuredly there must be something of the vritn ess-bearing faculty in us.— Y.
EXPOSITION.
OHAPTEB XVL
Vers. 1 — 6. — (o) The bitter isstiei of the
hostility of the world.
Ver. 1. — ^Ihese things. What things?
Primarily the explanation he had given of
the opposition and hatred of the world, and
the vast consolation which he had promised
in the identification of the disciples with
himself, and the witness which would be
borne by the Paraclete ; but not exclusively,
for they include all the preparatory instruc-
tions based on his own Person, his going to
the Father, his return in the power of the
Spirit. Have I spoken to yon, that ye should
not he offended; that you should not be
made to f^U over the stumbling-block of
persecution, and the refusal of the people to
hear your message concerning me. For the
moment he passes over the tei-rible stumbling
and falling of that very night, whose shadows
wore deepening as the hours moved on, and
he anticipated their future temptations and
the source of their ultimate lieroism.
Vers. 2, 3. — ^They (used impersonally, as the
German man, or the French ou) shall make
(or, declare) you excommunicate — diroauva-
yiiyovs, "put you out of the synagogue,"
expel you from the fellowship of your
country's worship (of. ch. ix. 22 and xii.
42) — nay, further (the aX\4 abruptly intro-
duces a very much stronger assertion) an
hour Cometh, that — SVo is here, by Meyer ami
many others, said to involve a Divine order,
purpose, or destiny, intended by the drawing
on of the foreordained crisis ; but it seems
enough to convey by it the contemplated
result (see Canon Evans, Expositor, 1882) —
whosoever killeth yon will deem that he is
offering service — sacrificial homage — ^to God
(irpoaipifitai Xarpelav ; both these words are
persistently used with this meaning. See, for
■irpocr<j>epitv. Matt. V. 23; viil. 4; Acts vii.
42 ; Heb. v. I). The well-known quotation
from «Bammidbar Babba,' fol. 329. 1,
" Every one shedding the blood of the
wicked is equal to him who offers saoridoe,"
may throw light on the expression. The
soo
THE GfOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvi. 1— S3.
intensity of the fanaticiBm was well exhibited
in the perseontion in which Stephen fell,
and which St. Paul deemed worthy serrice,
and one which he ought to have rendered
(Acts xxTi. 9; Gal. i. 13, 11). The curse
wa< long and deep and tragic, and Christ
explains it by the awful reiteration, These
thugs will they do ' hecanse they have not
known the Father, nor me (see ch.xT.22,etc.).
He reiterates the explanation already given
of the manner and form as well as the fact
of the world's hatred.
Ter. 4. — But — the ifiXh suggests a kind of
pause, as if he had said, " I will go into no
further details" (Meyer) — these things —
these prophecies of approaobing persecu-
tion— ^I have spoken to you, that (liere &a
has iia proper telio force) when [their] hour
is come, ye may remember [them] how that
I told yon.' This awkward form is that
due to the perplexities of the position of
auT&y in the text. Frequently our Lord thus
prepared his disciples for the future, called
upon them to remember his predictions as
pledges of his Divine mission, but still more
as consolations and supply of strength when
they would most of all need it. These things
I told yon not from the beginning ; not " at
the beginning," ip dpxv, "or dir' ifXV^i but e{
dpxvs (cf. Isa. xl. 21 ; xli. 26 ; xliii. 9), from
the beginning of my ministry (as Mark i. 1),
and continuously throughout it. If " these
things" are restricted to the prediction of
cruel persecution, they are certainly contra-
dicted by the language of Matt. x. 17, 21, 28 ;
Luke Ti. 22; Matt. T. 10, etc.; xxi. 36;
xxiv. 9; Luke xii. 4, etc. The numerous
explanations of the commentators, that Clirist
had now given a more detailed, particular,
and tragic outlook, cannot be sustained. Nor
does the supposition that John is here the
corrector of the synoptic narrative satisfy
(Meyer) ; nor that of Godet, that Matthew,
in his tenth chapter, was gathering together
all that Christ hail said of this nature,
antedating instructions that the Lord had
given, at all explain the corresponding
passages in Luke's Gospel. The language
of the last clause, because I was with yon,
throws more light upon it. This does not
surely mean " because I was bearing for
on the brunt of the opposition," — it would
le onnecessary altogether to say that. AH
' 'TfiXv, " to yon," of T.E., has the authority
of K, D, L ; but it is omitted by twelve uncial
manuscripts and numerous cursiTei, by
Tregelles, Tischendorf (8th edit), B.T., and
Westoott and Hort.
' AuTWf after t>pa is omitted by K, D, r. A,
and other uncials and cursires, by T.B., and
by Tischendorf (8th edit), but inserted by
Laohniann, Tregelles, Weatcott and Hort,
and B.T., with A, B, n, and oursivei.
I
along they mnst hare bitterly felt tka
antagonism which their Lord encountered.
The difficulty is removed by including in
the ravra of ver. 4 what ceitainly is involved
in the raSra of ver. 1 ; and the reference is
to the whole of his instructions tonching
his departure and the coming of the other
Paraclete, and the principle from which the
hatred of the world would spring; the ex-
planation of the anticipated hostility which
he had now offered, and the way in which
they might overcome it. So long as he was
with them they could not be made to under-
stand the Divine riches of the consolation
which was now so near. From the begin-
ning he had not given all this class of
instruction, because he was with them.
While at their side, it was premature to
speak of the special help they would require
in their bereaved condition.
Vers. 5, 6. — Now — at this very moment —
I go away to him that sent me. I have
completed his work, and none of yon asketh
me. Whither goest thou? This seems at
variance with Peter's inquiry, "Whither
goest thou?" (oh. xiii. 36), and with Thomas's
question (ch. xiv. 5), " We know not whither
thou goest," etc. ? yet they are only opposed in
appearance. Peter's question had obviously
turned the whole matter back upon himself,
and the way in which the Lord's departure
affected his own duties and position; and
the same may be said of Thomas. They
had both lost sight of the "whither" in the
pain and anguish of the departure. Our
Lord had great difficulty in inducing them
to realize the blessedness that would befall
themselves from his own exaltation, and
even now, after all that he had said about
this great power and glory which awaited
him, he added, Beoanse I have spoken these
things to yon — since all along yon are
taking the dark side, aud looking on the
anguish of my departure and desolateness
of your own condition, instead of the
grandeur of the new kingdom and dispen-
sation of which you will be witnesses and
organs — sorrow hath filled your heart ; the
one heart which I throughout have been
seeking to comfort. You are not looking
on the end of my departure, or on the ful-
ness of my glory, or on the siddition to your
own blessedness, but on your own loss, dis-
appointment, and chagrin.
Vers. 7— 33.— (9) Tht prmaita of (h»
Paraclete.
Vers. 7 — 11. — (a) The threefold eonvietion
of the teorld.
The extraordinary fulness of suggestion
in the following words, and the strong
opinions entertained by different theological
schools, render interpretation a difficult task.
IE. XVI. 1—33.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDINO TO ST. JOHK.
sol
Ver. 7. — ^Though you are crushed with a
senae of your approaching bereavement, and
80 imperfectly apprehend the conditions of
your future power and the method which
it is incumbent upon me to adopt for your
consolation and the completion of my earthly
work, nevertheless I tell yon the truth. It
is wonderful that he who is the Truth itself
should have needed, in such varioas forms,
to have reiterated and affirmed the supreme
right he possessed to claim their acceptance
of his veracity. The truth, then, thus
solemnly asserted, because in their then
frame of mind it was so utterly unpalatable
and incredible notwithstanding all that he
had said — the truth is. It is expedient for
you that I go away. The Xva d-TreKea clause
simply definei that which is expedient,
profitable to the disciples. Many commen-
tators, holding everywhere the telle force
of Tva, say, with Meyer and Lange, that
"tya marks fact considered with regard to
the purposes destined to be accomplished
by it." Here, however, the profitableness
to the disciples is the chief and solitary
thought. "For you :" here lies the gist of
the mystery. Tliey might have accepted his
own assurance that, bitter as the mode of
big departure must be, yet they ought to
and would rejoice because he was going
to the Father. How was it possible for
them to rejoice so far as they were personally
concerned ? He answers the question, For
if I go not atvay — and surely this solemn
departure meant, as he had recently told
them, by the way of death and glorification
— the Faraolete, of whom I have spoken, the
Spirit of truth (see ch. xv. 26, 27), will not
come to yon; but if I go (iropeuBa, to my
Father; observe the form of the two con-
ditional sentences, the degree of uncertainty
as to the issue, to be determined by the
result), I will send him to yon (see notes
on ch. vii. 39. « The Holy Spirit," as tlie
Divine dispensation of grace to men bring-
ing a renewed humanity into living incor-
poration with its great Head, wot not yet,
beeatue Jems was not yet glorified). Jesus
could not become the Divine Life-centre of
the human family, radiating from himself
the full glory of a universal harmony,
until he had been taken up, until he had
been glorified in God. Unspeakably precious
as many of out earthly gifts and mendships
are, we do not apprehend them, nor profit
by them to the full, until they are taken
from us. The youth, submitted to the con-
dition of perfect dependence on a parent's
care and guidance, can scarcely ev«r reach
the fulness of his manhood until he is
thrown back upon the spirit of his father's
counsel, apart from that father's presence,
and brings into dailjr practice from a new
itandpoint the prinoiplei he has learned.
So, without any hyperbole, nothing had ever
been so wonderful and blessed to the human
spirit as the fellowship which had prevailed
between the Son of man and his disciples.
They were with him, they sat at his feet,
they watched his countenance, they ex-
perienced a continuous series of Divine
surprises at his judgments and his mercies.
They were walking by sight, as the children
of Israel did, following the pUlar of fire and
cloud, and drinking of the living water;
but they were nevertheless living by sight.
Nevertheless, there was something more
wonderful and gracious still, when, in hia
physical absence, they would have the sense
of his spiritual presence. They would lose
him as an earthly Friend, but tliey would
regain him as a Divine Keality ; they would
discover more than his humanity in his God-
Manhood. They would wield his Divine
Word as their weapon, and would become
the channels of his healing and convincing
and j udging pnwurs. The promise, " I will
send him," is the guarantee of something
more than a " Christ after the flesh " could
ever be.
Ver. 8. — And he, when he is come (^iMdi/).
A right royal assurance. The Holy Spirit
vrill come, as my grace and the result of my
sending. He will convict the world. Little
doubt is now entertained that this eXe7X'"
implies the refutatior( of error, the discovery
of wrong-doing, the bringing it home to the
person convinced, and thus convicted (ch. iii.
20; viii. 9, 46; 1 Cor. xiv. 24; Titus i. 9;
Jas. u. 9); making such a one see that he
is (ipcn to the condemnation of conscience, or
of men, or of the Law of God. This convic-
tion may in some cases lead to conversion
and deliverance, but is distinct from it, and
sometimes also may issue after such a
manifestation in hardness and impenitence.
The patristic interpretation (Authorized
Version and Hengstenberg), "He will re-
prove," might pass as a fair translation
of the word, in its reference to sin, but
would have small meaning as applied to
righteousness or judgment. Meyer, Godet,
Luthavdt, Lange, Westcott, Stier, and
Moulton agree that cAp/I^' means more
than " reprove," less than " convince."
The world is spoken of, not Jews merely,
or their leaders. Humanity itself, with its
false standards of judgment, and its self-
complacency, is to be convicted of being in
the wrong; all kings, princes, potentates,
priests, and publicans, who are out of har-
mony with God, will be convicted by the
Paraclete. The conviction of the world is
threefold — ^in respect Of sin, in respect of
righteousness, and in respect of judgment.
The three great categories of thought,
custom, and conduct; the three themes
where the world is in infinite need of being
802
THE GOSPEL AOCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvi. 1—33.
eompelled to see that it ii altogether in
the wrong. The dieciples are to OTercome
the whole world by the intensity with
which they will be instrumentally tlie
occasion of this conviction. The world
under the depressing and distracting in-
fluence of its own principles, as well as its
passions, has misconceived the whole nature
of "Bin," the entire mystery of "righteous-
ness," the certainty of retribution, and the
things and principles on which condign
"judgment " must fall. The Advocate, the
Divine, indwelling Spirit of the truth, whom
Christ will send into his disciples as com-
peniation for his own absence, will through
them do this strange and tremendous work.
Our Lord does not here promise the conver-
sion of mankind, but such a conviction that
the blessed conseqnence may follow. The
first great step will be taken.
Yer. 9. — The three elements of this con-
viction of the world are separately treated.
In respect of sin, beeanse they believe not
on me. The iln has been restricted by
Meyer to " so far as," as though the con-
viction with respect to sin was limited to a
charge of specific unbelief; and Hengsten-
berg wonld render it "consisting in this,
thav' etc. But surely the full causal force
of the particle is to be pressed, "because
they believe not on me." The essence of all
sin is unbelief, a refusal to surrender heart
and will to the Divine will and autliority,
though the world generally had taken dif-
ferent views of it: supposing "sin" to be
disobedience to some particular class of
duties, or the neglect of certain specific
ceremonial. Christ declares that the Spirit
which has always been striving with men
to bring them into reconciliation with God,
will now convict the world that its sinful
tendencies and principles have reached
their highest and most wilful expression in
unbelief ei; 4/1.4, towards me. The most
complete manifestation of God has received
from the world the most utter and insensate
repudiation. The very nature of sin thus
stands revealed, the leprosy of sin will
come out on the smiling self-complacency
of the world. It will no longer be able to
cliarge upon Adam, nor the devil, nor upon
nature, nor upon temptations of the flesh,
the blame of sin; but will take the guilt
home, and see that, in this crowning act of
human folly, unbelievers have rendered
themselves personally liable to condemna-
tion, and, by rejecting infinite love as well
as eternal law, have left themselves without
excuse.
Ver. 10. — ^In respeot of lighteonsness,
because I go to the JaUier,' and ye behold
' The pum of T.B. Is omitted by B.T., Tisoh-
•sdorf, etc., on the authority of H, B, D, etc.
me no more. Not merely that the world
will be led to form a new conception of
righteousness, seeing that God has exalted
him whom they have condemned as a male-
factor,—that would really, with Liicke and
Meyer, limit this "righteousness" to a
judgment concerning the guiltlessness of
Christ ; nor can we, with Luther, etc., regard
it as equivalent to the StKaiaa-ivri of Bom.
i. 17, the righteous attribute and righteous
process by which God is able to treat as
righteous those who believe. This is the
only place in the Gospel where the word
occurs, and it can scarcely bear the tech-
nical significance of the great theological
discussions with which it was afterwards
associated. Sohaff has called attention to
the Vulgate translation justitia, which is
represented in the Eheims English Version
by "justice," and reminds us how Arch-
deacon Hare urges that "righteousness"
and "justice" correspond to the entire
tlieology of the Protestant and Bomanist
Churches. The Protestant sees in "right-
eousness" an ideal never reached by the
human will in its own strength ; the
Bomanist, by the term "justice," embodies
itself in outward acts. The idea of right-
eousness involves the dt-mand for purity;
the idea of justice, one for cleanness. But
seeing that Christ had all along called
urgent attention to the fact that that which
is highly esteemed among men is abomina-
tion in the sight of God, and that the right-
eousness of his kingdom must exceed " the
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,"
it becomes clear that his exaltation to the
right hand of the Father would exhibit
God's ideal of righteousness; and by the
aid of the Holy Spirit working through the
word of the apostles, the world's view of
these things would be utterly subverted, the
world would be silenced, convicted of being
utterly in the wrong in its idea of right-
eousness as well as in its judgment upon
the nature of sin. The idea of righteous-
ness will be expanded and transfiguied; the
idea of sin will be deepened and intensified
and brought home. Stier has, with great
eloquence and power, pressed the other view,
which makes the 4\4yxos of the Holy
Ghost nothing short of this — that there is
no other righteousness for men than the
righteousness of God in Christ and the
righteousness of Christ before God. Notice,
nevertheless, the occasions on which the
world was brought to recognize the triumph
of Christ's righteousness and confusion of its
own prejudices (Acts ii. 27, 31; iiL 14;
vii. 52).
Ver. 11. — In respeot of judgment, beoanse
the prince of this world is judged. The
conviction of sin will have a peculiarly and
specially subjective cause; that of judgment
OH XVI. 1—33.] THE G(OSPBL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
SOS
will, like that of righteousness, be preceded
by two stupendous objective facts — the exal-
tation of Christ and the judgment of Satan.
The glorification of the Son of man, to the
extent of his being declared to be the Son
of God with power, will be the grand
event which human nature will be power-
less to counteract or ultimately to resist.
"Know assuredly that tliis same Jesua
whom you have crucified is lioth Lord and
Christ." The judgment of the prince of
tliis world is also a fact lying outside the
politics of the world, which may fume and
rage as it will ; it is beyond the reach of
the philosophy or literature, the courts or
armies, the fashions or the force, of this
world. The central prince and spirit of
the world is judged by the Lord Jesus, and
condemned ; and the time is coming when
the old standard of judgment will be cast
out, and the world will be compelled to
admit that it has been vanquished (ch. xii.
31). The conviction concerning sin, right-
eousness, and judgment, by the aid of the
Advocate whom Christ will send, will be-
come the great work of the apostles and of
the Church, until he comes again in his
glory. While commenting upon this sub-
lime assurance the awful process must not
be forgotten, nor the fact that the prince of
the world dies hard. The atrocious wioked-
uess which burst out after the exaltation of
Christ among the people who had rejected
their Lord, and the consummation of the
mystery of iniquity in the Eoman empire, was
a p.irt of the provideutiiil conviction of the
world. Archdeacon Hare, in his ' Mission of
the Comforter,' insists that the entire con-
viction of judgment, righteousness, and sin
must be the work of " the Comforter; " that
all the objective facts, all the teaching of
example, all the thunder of propiiecy, nay,
all the outward demonstration of sin, right-
eousness, and judgment, made in and by the
incarnation and sacrifice of Christ, must be
complemented by the grace of the Holy
Spirit on individuals, nations, and humanity
at large ; and that it is in the capacity of
human "Comforter," or "Advocate," that
this conviction is wrought.
Vers. 12 — 15.— (6) The potmer of the Para-
clete on the discipUi themselves. From the
twelfth to the fifteenth verse the relation
of the Paraclete to the disciples themselves
makes yet more evident the expediency of the
glorification of the Son of man, and demon-
strates the authority of the apostolic teaching.
Ver. 12. — Notwithstanding the abundance
of the revelations which Christ had given,
itill. said he, I have many things yet to tell
you, hut ye cannot bear them now (apri); i.e.
at this epoch of your training. Christ (ch.
xiv. 18, etc., in a passage which he proceeds
to enlarge and deepen) has already said
thnt the coming to them of the Paraclete
would be one method of his own Divine
approach to them fur purposes of consola-
tion and instruction ; consequently he does
not i<ow allow them to suppose that, thougli
separated from them by death, he would
ever cease to instruct them. They could
not in their present condition, and before
the great events should liave happened —
events on which so much revealing fact
would turn — bear the revelation of these
" many things." Pentecost will enable them
to appreciate the full mystery of love. The
word used for " bear " is that which is used
(ch. xix. 17) to describe the bearing of the
cross by Christ himself. Some have found
in these " many things " new articles of
doctrine which have been preserved by
tradition ; and others, a development of
truths already presented in'germ ; and others,
again, much of the future order of the
world and the Church, such as gradually
evolved itself to the vision and insight
and spiritual wisdom of apostolic men. But
they could not, on the eve of the Passion,
have borne the full mystery of the atone-
ment, or sufSciently have comprehended the
glory of the enthroned King.
Ver. 13.— Howbeit when he, the Spirit of
truth, is oome. This points to the definite
promise already made (conditiouated by
his own departure, and so rendering that
departure "expedient") when the Spirit of
truth is come, having been sent by me from
the Father. He will be your Guide (so that
you will not be mere passive instruments,
but living agents. "Things" may be
transported, but "persons" only can be
" guided." The pillar of flre and cloud led
tlie way, and Israel struck its camp and
followed) into the truth in all its parts.'
As Godet says, " The leading els suit^
6ivrfl<ret better than 4y." A most glorious
promise this, for as days of darkness and
perplexity draw on, fresli needs will arise.
The " many things " which would tlius be
said must be presumed to have been said on
highest authority; and hence the unapproach-
able dignity of the apostles themselves;
hence the secret of all their binding and
loosing power; hence the revelations they
' The great bull; of the uncial manuscripts
read els ircurav t^v a^^detat', with T.K. and
E.T., etc., "into all (the) truth." Tr«-
gelles, Lange, Wcstcott and Hort, read els
TTjif oAifflemi' irSffny, with A and B, "into
truth in all its parts" (Tregelles, § 454). D
and L read ev rp A^Xflfio jro(rp, with Ti-
Bchendorf (8th edit.); N, iy tij iMiBeif. West-
cott and Hort put it in the margia.
904,
THE GOSPEL AOOOBDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvl 1—33.
hare been able to empply with reference
to Ohriat and BaWation, glory, duty, and
eternal life, and all tlie lawa of the king-
dom. From thia vast promise we see the
snfBoiency of the apostolic teaching, and by
implication the portion of it which is com-
mitted to writing. Our Lord had delivered
to his disciples " nothing but the truth ; "
but from the nature of the case they must
wait for the truth in its completeness, the
whole truth of salvation and deliverance.
But our Lord proceeds to show that the
infallibility of the Holy Spirit is not that
he will be a secondary, or tertiary, or inde-
pendent Divinity. Like Christ, the Son
of God, who was in the bosom of the Father
(see ch. vii. 17, 18 ; viii. 28), so he who
proceedeth from the Father will not speak
from himself, aa from any spontaneous, in-
dependent source. He is, in his gracious
operations, no rival Deity, but the Spirit of
the Father and the Son (comp. ch. viii. .44,
where the esaence of the lie is that the
devil apeaketh of liis own), and whatsoever
things he shall hear' (or, heareth, or, shall
have heard), that shall he speak. The verb
" hear " is used absolutely, and hag been
variously completed with the words, "of
me " or " of the Father," whether verbally
supplemented or not. We learn that the
Holy Spirit is limited by the revelation
already involved in the great fact of the
Incarnation. " He will speak " of that which
he hears, and he will declare to you the
things that are coming. The revelation
will concern Christ and the future. The
whole Xew Testament, so far as it is
apostolic, is here declared to be the work
inspired by the Spirifs guidance of the
apostles' mind into the truth in all its
completeness and in all its parts. Some,
like Westcott, refer the epxa/ieva to "the
constitution of the Christian Church;" but
the moat satisfactory view is that the Spirit
would himself be the Source of the pro-
phetic hope and wondrous vision of the
future which pervades the apostolic writings.
Hengatenberg runa here into great detail.
His remark is of deep interest— that such
a promise should be found in the Fourth
Gospel, preluding those sublime premoni-
tions which the beloved disciple, when " in
the Spirit," received and recorded concern-
ing the things which are and are to come
(Rev. i 19). Not only in the writings of
John, but of Peter, and in the prophetic
spirit given to Paul, we see how the Lord
the Spirit fulfilled the promise.
Yer. 14. — He shall glorify me. Christ has
* K, L, and 33 read Ako^o, with Tischen-
dorf (8th edit.), Westcott and Hort ; B, D,
E, 1, and 435, read iiKoiira, with Tregelles
•ud B.T. ; A and A read civiKoiait, with T.B.
spoken of being straightway glorified, lifted
into the fulneas of the Godhead, glorified in
God himself (ch. xiii. 32). Thia atatement
ia partly explanatory of that, but ia also an
addition to the previous, assurance. The
Spirit will glorify the God-Man, will aug-
ment the lustre of his blessed Kame, will
crown him with honour, and multiply the
mirrors of his majesty and the subjects of
his power ; and the reason is given : For he
shall take of mine, and (for the second time,
dyaTTcAeJ ifuv) declare it to you. Chriat is
here profoundly conscious of the abundance
of truth and reality involved in himself and
in his functions, in the work he is doing and
will continue to do. He ia mournfully alive
to the fact that the disciples were not able
to perceive what there was in him without
supernatural aid. The Spirit of God will
augment Chriat'a glory in the Church, seeing
that he will reveal to men the Peraon and
glory of the Chriat, by inward processes, by
vivid spiritual intuitions, by mental exercises
which we are quite ready to confess are far
beyond the compass of logic, and break
through all laws of induction or evolution.
This is the high function of the Spirit in
inspiration — to take of that which belongs
to the Son of God, and so to quicken the
spiritual faculty of men that they can and
do understand it. "The Spirit searcheth
all things, even the depths of Deity," and
reveals them to those who receive the
Holy Ghost. Our Lord declares that all
truth ia implicitly contained in himaelf. In
ch. xiv. he said, " I am the Truth " about
God and about man, and about the relation
of man to God. The Spirit will draw aside
the veils which hiile this truth, will draw
forth the hidden harmonies contained in
this wondrous Personality. Such continuous
revelation ia from glory to glory (2 Cor.
iii. 17, 18). St. Paul at the close of his
ministry was aware of unfathomed treaaures
atlU hidden in the Christ, and he put before
himself, as the goal of his highest ambition,
" that I may know him" (PhiL iii 10).
Ver. 15. — In this verse ovx. Lord makes
a still more auperlative claim. All things
which the father hath (Saa Ix^O &'c mine.
Perhaps no sentence recorded by St. John
is more difScnlt to reconcile with the mere
humanity of our Lord, even of the loftiest
kind. The "mine" of the previous verse
is declared to embrace something more than
the mystery of his Person and sacrifice.
« All that the Father hath," all his fulness
of being, all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge, all the power, all the eifulgence
of the glory of the Father, of the human
race, and of all things, "are mine." This
makes a spiritual apprehension of Christ
include a perfect revelation of all the
Father's character and work. Therefor* said
CH. XTTL 1—88.] THK GOSF£L AOCOBDING TO ST. JOHN.
aos
I, tliat li« (the Spirit of truth, in being your
Gnide into all the truth) * taketh of mine,
and will declare (it) nnto yon. Because
"mine is the Father's, and the Father's is
mine ; " because, i.e., he is the Centre, ami
Agent, and Motive, and Force in all theDivine
self-revolation, and because be possessed as
his own this vast range, this infinite fulness
of Divine operations, he promised them this
spiritual teaching, and assured them that
his highest glory was simply to be made
known as he is. Oalvin, " We see howthe
greater part of men deceive themselves ; for
they pass by Christ, and go out of the way
to seek Ood by circuitous paths."
In these verses we have a very abundant
exhibition of the unity of the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, coupled with a very remark-
able setting forth of the tripersonality. The
Father "hath" (?X") that which is in very
essence the Son's (l/io); and the Spirit, whose
purpose is to glorify the Son by making him
known to men {Ka/iMv^i), takes of " mine "
and will declare it (see Stier, Schaff, note to
Lange). Luthardt once thought with Stier,
but now limits the reference, without giving
any reason for it, to what he calls "the
deposit of Divine truth in the humanity
of Jesus." The sum of this astonishing
assurance is that the Holy Spirit of truth,
an essential element if not Personality in
the Godhead, will lead these apostles into
the fulness of truth, and of knowledge
of the future, by taking up the essential
realities of the Christ in the fulness of his
being and work, and disclosing them by
spiritual insight and supernatural quicken-
ing. These realities of the Christ wUl
prove to be the fulness of the Father's
heart — all that the Father hath. Again we
ksk-^Does St. John even here, travel beyond
his prologue?
Vers. 16 — 24. — (e) The torrow turned into
joy. In these verses he approaches the final
farewell, in which the whole body of the
disciples are introduced as inwardly or
among themselves perturbed by the special
difficulty of the words. Before the Spirit
can do all this, a separation ciust be ex-
perienced.
' Sli^trai, with K<, A, E, II, and several
reraiona, is the reading of T.R. and Gries-
bach ; but Kaii.$i,vfi, with B and eleven other
nncials and Syriso Version, is the reading
of Tregelles, Tiachendoif (8th edit.), B.T.,
and We«toott and Hort
WHN — t
Ver. 16.— A little while. A phrase re-
peated seven times in this brief passage,
emphatically encouraging his own disciples
to rise above the limitations of time, and
enjoy the habits of eternity. Te behold me
no more. The first puzzle of tliis utterance
lies in this — that v'ch. xiv. 19) )ie had told
them that, though the world would see him
no more, they would behold him in the power
of the Spirit, an.i that they would moreover
have adequate preparation for such spiritual
beholding in the resurrection; yet now he
says, " Ye behold me no more." Tme, he
has associated this phrase already, in ver. 10,
with the conviction of the world touching
true righteousness and his " going to the
Father," so that henceforth be would be
hidden in God; but now he increases the
perplexity by addiug. And again, a little
whUe, and ye shall see me. The commen-
tators differ greatly as to the reference, but
(with Hengstenberg, Weiss, Stier, Westcott,
Ebrard, Ewald) the most obvious explanation
is that he is referring to the resurrection,
which in itself would be in part a glorifica-
tion of Christ, and which, firom its entire
method of manifestation to them, would
prove a preparation for the spiritual sense of
his continual presence. This was perfected
at Pentecost, and will be completed when
he shall come again in his glory.'
Ver. 17. — ^Ihen said (some) of his disciples
one to another, not daring to utter it to him,
What is this that he saith to us, A little
while, and ye behold me not : and again, a
little while, and ye shall see me : and. Be-
cause I go to the Father 1 This clause now
aggravates their difBculty, whether they
associate it with the idea already uttered,
or whether they repeat the Lord's word
{iri may be simply the " that " of quotation).
The programme of the future — e.g. (1) death
and momentary absence, (2) resurrection
* The clause, "and becanse I go to the
Father," is believed by most modem editors —
by Tischendorf (8th. edit.), Meyer, Tregelles,
Westcott and Hort, and B.T. — ^to be a gloss
taken from ver. 17, as it is not found in K, B,
D, L, Origen, etc. Hengstenberg dwells at
length upon the fact that their insertion here
occasions the perplexity. But the remem-
brance of oh. xiv. 19 is sufficient to account
for the mental confusion of the disciples, to
say nothing of their difficulty in realizing
the fact of the resurrection — a consummation
which, we learn from other passages, they
were net as yet prepared to understand.
The disciples do insert the clause into their
own quotation, as a reminiscence of ver, 10 ;
but Christ does not requote it in his reply,
and it looks as though the words bad beea
inserted to account for th«r prei«ne« ii the
Mlowing verse.
soe
THE GOSPEL ACCOftDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvl 1— 3a
and transitory presence, (3) departure to
the Father and abiding presence — Form »
group of ideas very di£Qcult even for us now
to realize or "to know" fully what lie saith.
Who need wonder that these disciples should
have been in doubt, since one of their number
intimately acquainted with them and their
state of feeling records it of them?
Yer. 18.— They saiO, What is this little
while whereof he speaketh?' (A^ci; Vul-
gate, dieit). (The H.T. and Westcott and Hort
invert the toSto and t(, and thus greatly
increase the simplicity of the pasi^age.)
What are these two short periods of which
he speaks, so full of mysterious significance ?
We know not what he saith (AoXei; Vul-
gate, loquitur). We do not apprehend the
wonderful interchange of vision and blank
darkness — of presence and absence and
presence again I
Ver. 19. — Now* Jesus knew (perceived by
his Divine penetration of human thought
here quickeued by their anxious look and
hurried whisperings) that they were wish-
ing to question him, and he said to them,
Are you inquiring among yourselves con-
cerning this that I said, A little while, etc. 7
In his repetition he does not quote the
clause which they had added— i.e. added
if the clause, ver. 16, is not genuine. He
proceeded to meet their difficulties.
Ver. 20. — There is no exact .or categoric
nply to the veir inquiry which he has heard
and cited, but there is more of prophecy and
help than if he had said, " To-morrow I die
and shall be laid in the grave, and on the
third day I shall rise again." He had often
said this, and they refused to understand.
It was not merely a resurrection of the body,
but the glorification in the Father of his
entire Personality, for which he wished them
to be prepared. X simple restoration like
that of Lazarus would not have secured him
from the malice of those who sought to put
Lazarus also to death. Terily, verily, I say
nnto you, that weep and lament yon shall,
and tiie world shall rejoice. Here is his
own account of the efiect upon them of that
he said, " A little while," and you will be-
hold me, as you think, no more. The world
will rejoice, because to some extent it will
be the world's doing, and it will fancy for a
little while that it has got its way and
■Qcceeded excellently well. The world will
• TavTo rl irTtr is the reading of A, D, r,
A, ete., and some versions, T.B., Tischendorf
(8th edit.). Ti ian toSto is that of N, B, D,
L, and many other manuscripts and versions,
Lachmann, Trcgelles, B.T., and Westcott
and Hort.
' Oi» 6, omitted by Tischendorf (Sth edit.)
•nd B.T., with K, B, D, I^ 1» 83.
roll a alone to his sepulchre, and make it
aa sure as they can, sealing the stone and
setting a watch. Pharisaism will exult that
this demand for a higher righteousness than
its own is for ever hushed ; Sadduceeism
will rejoice that this troublesome witness to
unseen and eternal things is silenced ; the
hierarchy will boast that now no danger
prevails of the Bomans taking away their
place and nation ; the world will praise the
deed of blood; but all this rejoicing will
last " a little while." Christ reaffirms their
grief, and even for " a little while " justifies
it, so long as they can hear the jubilate of
the world over their personal burden of
unutterable sorrow. He continues: Yon shall
be sorrowful, but in a little while your
Borrow shall be ^eysvero ci'i. Acts iv. 11; v.
36) turned into joy. Clearly because " you
shall see me." It cannot t>e said that our
Lord here positively asserts his lesorrection ;
but when we remember how "the disciples
were glad when they saw the Lord," how Mary
ran " with great joy to bring his disciples
word," we feel that bere was the simple
solution of the mystery, and that our Lord'*
intercourse with them in his resurrection-
body was the great prelibation of the method
of Ills continuous abiding with them in the
power of his Spirit and the glorification of
his body — ^we cannot doubt that this was
his meaning and the purpose of the evange-
list in recording it,
Ver, 21. — The next illustration is very
remarkable, and surely cannot be a simple
analogy of the supervening of joy on sorrow.
The woman (the icicle does not point to any
special -/uv^, but refers to a universal fact
and law of womanhood, cf. i SoGXai, oh. xv.
15) when she ia in travail hath sorrow, be-
cause her hour is come. So now there are
the travail-pangs of the new humanity, the
new theocracy, bitter and terrible. Bat as
soon as she has brought forth the child,
she remembereth no longer the anguish, for
the joy that a man is bom into t^e world.
The old prophets often compared the grief
of Israel or her peril to the pangs of a '
travailing woman preluding deliverance
(Isa. zzi 3 ; xxvi. 17 ; Izvi. 6, 7 : Hos. xiii,
18) and even joy — the joy of bringing
matihood into the world and the new con-
■oiousness of maternity. Meyer and others
rebel against any meaning beyond that of
the following of joy upon sorrow; but
Tholnck, De Wette, Ebrard, and Moultoa
see here the obvious reference to those
"travail-pangs of death" with which St.
Peter (Acta iii, 24) said that the Holy One
could not be restrained, agonies in which foi
a while every apostle must have wept and
lamented, dying and being oraaiiled with
kim, and to the glorious delivenoea of tH
wbo nffend witk him, when tlicy live agate
OH. XVI. 1—33.] THE GOSPEL ACGOftDlNG TO ST. JOHN.
£07
in newnesB of life by the power of hli re-
Buneotioii.
Yer. 22. — And, lo he continues, ye there-
fore * indeed now have sorrow— your hearts
are troubled, yon weep and lament to-night,
your desolation for " a little while" will be
utter eoUapse and dismay — ^bnt I shall see
yon again. He does not repeat, " Ye shall
behold me " (SeapeiTe /xc, of. ch. ziv. 19), but
" I shall see you (ii)((o/«ii i/ms)." The same
word, however, is used repeatedly in the
record of the resurrection, and in ver. 19 he
had said S:fiea94 in. The point of the vision
is his own consciousness of their human
need filling all the forty days with its
glory. The occasional manifestations of
his Person during that interval helped them
in a wonderful way to recognize the fact
that he was ever watching them, and was
at their side under all the oiicumstaDces of
human life. And your heart shall rejoice,
and this joy of yours no one taketh (present
in the fiill sense of a realized future) from
yon. The i^ofuu i/Ms lends itself to the
larger conception which, by the gift of the
Holy Ghost, they at length fully appre-
hended, that he was with them always, even
to the end of the world. That conviction
was forced upon them before Pentecost (see
Matt, xzviii. 19, 20, and the account in
this Gk>spelof the spiration and communica-
tion of the Holy Ghost, ch. xz. 22), before
he came as the sound of a rushing mighty
wind, or sat in tongues of flame on tiieir
heads. Your joy in the sense of my constant
presence no pne, neither man nor devil,
taketh away from you. That presence will
not be any further exposed to Jewish malice
or treachery, nor darkened by persecution,
nor destroyed by death ; though with bodily
eyes ye see me not, yet, fully realizing that
my eye is on you, " you will rejoice with
joy unspeakable and full of glory " (1 Pet.
i.8).
Ver. 23. — And in that day— that long and
blessed period beginning at the Besurrection
with your vision of me, and being ever more
and more enhanced in blessedness by your
intense conviction that "I am with you"
and " see you," though you see me not — ^in
that day ye shall put me no question, as in
the old method of confidential intercourse
of man with man. That period passes away
vrith this solemn night. Not in this way
will the intercourse be carried forward.
" That day " started from Easter morning,
and it is not yet noon. Perhaps one reason
for this statement is that the illumination
of the Spirit would render such questioning
unnecessary, but a more certain explanation
is that they would themselves stand in new
relations with the Father through him.
I All modem editors here insert •Ir.
Verily, verily, I say imto yon, Whatsoever ■
thing ye shall ask (aiTija-qre) the Father, he
will give it yon in my Kame. The modem
editors, by placing the iy r^ ovifMrl /uov (" in
my Name ") after 5<4<re£ iniv, or as Tischen-
dorf (8th edit.), in a^clause commencing with
ScJitrei, suggest that in this particular clause
the Name of Christ is not only the medium
by which the disciples approach the Father
(which is obvious enough from ver. 21), but
the manifestation and ministry by which
not only is the prayer heard, but the gift or
answer bestowed. As sentence after sentence
follows, the disciples are, led up to the
heart of the Father himself.
Ver. 24. — Hitherto — up to the present
period — ^ye asked ('nTijffoTt, the common
word for petition and request made by the
inferior to the superior, the man to his
Maker) nothing in my Kame. The disciples
had not comprehended the fulness of that
Name of the well-beloved Son, filling their
minds with the revelation of God made in
it, and feeling it to be the great inducement
and guarantee of acceptable prayer. Ask
(continuously, habitually, for this is no
longer in aorist, but in the present tense),
and ye shall receive (iVa here not telio, but
indicates " contemplated result"), that your
joy may be fulfilled (rendered complete and
full] (comp. oh. XV. 11 ; ver. 22) ; the joy of
your love to one another and to me may
reach its highest expression. There may be
reference to their unanimity in the Holy
Spirit, the Pentecostal outburst of perfect
love which casts out fear.
* T.B. reads Sri S<ra iv, with ten uncials;
A reads 8 ri iv; B, 0, D, Italic, and Origen,
hv Ti ; N, Sti 6 &V ; B.T., tiv t^ "if ye shall
ask anything whatsoever."
" These two verbs, olr^w and tpon-iu, are
represented alike by "ask," both by the
translators of 1611 and 1881. 'E/nureiaiinver.
23 clearly points back to ver. 19, and refera
to the inquiries they might have hitherto
made from liim ; while cuVccd, peto, is the
submissive, suppliant tone of the mendi-
cant for alms (Acts iii. 2), of the inferior to
the superior (Acts xii. 20), of the child to
the parent (Matt. vii. 9 ; Luke xi. 11), of the
subject to the ruler (Ezra viii. 2), of man
from God (Matt. vii. 7 ; Jas. i. 5 ; 1 John iii.
22). "EpaTdm is equivalent to rogo, iriterrogo,
its only meaning in classical Greek implying
in the request a certain footing of equality.
So our Lord never uses aireiirfiai or curcu' U>
speaking of his ovm petitions on behalf of
his disciples, but ipwria, Martha does (ch.
xi. 22), revealing her failure to apprehend
the full dignity of his Person. In no single
place do we find ^^utSi' used of the prayer
of man to Gk>d (see Treneh, ' Syn. of N. T.,'
|xL>
308
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BT. JOHN. [oh. xvi. 1—33
Vera. 25 — 83. — (<!) The final eonmction
wrought that Jetru vmi what he had eaid
that he via>. The joy of Ohriet, with it$ note
of warning.
Yer. 25. — These thing! I haye ipoken to
you in proTerbs (see ch. x. 6) ; «'.«. in con-
centrated and to some extent enigmatical
utterances, " in dark sayings upon a harp,"
in words which gnbseqnent events and
higher enlightenment would interpret (of.
here Christ's distinction between his dis-
ciples and the multitude in the matter of
parables, Matt. xiii.). He used the parable
to the stupefied, that they might thus
s( parate between those who were suscep-
tible to bis teaching and those who were
not. To his disciples he interpreted his
parables, still leaving much which might
be regarded as iropoi^foi, condensed word-
utterances, in wbich words stood for higher
things than in their ordinary usage. Thus
the similitudes adopted throughout oh. ix.,
X., xi., xii. — xvi., are numerous, intended to
draw the disciples on from their ordinary
ideas to the heights of his thought and the
mystery of his Person. The dAA." is omitted
by modem editors. The hour oometh — the
great climacteric period of my revelation —
when I shall no longer speak to yon in
proverbs, when, indeed, the sound of my
voice will be hushed, and words will no
longer be needed, when Divine spirations
and heavenly pulsation* shall convey to
you what my parabolic teaching and my
paroimio interpretations have failed to im-
part, when I shall be with you and in yon,
and by the energy of the Paraclete I shall
declare ' (to yon) plainly, with clearness and
openness, in the fulness of spiritual light,
without reserve, circumlocution, or parable,
conoeming the Father. This promise de-
clares that the glorious revelations of Pen-
tecost and the teacbingof those who received
the Holy Ghost will be verily and indeed our
Lord Christ's own most personal and frank
and outspoken revelations of the Father.
Ver. 26. — In that day — pointing to " the
hour" of these open declarations — ^ye shall
ask (jnahe petitions, not ask or demand of me,
in the tone of equality) in my Name. The
opportunity will come when all my Name
will be appreciated by you, and your
spiritual reception of me will teach you to
approach the Father, who is thus revealed to
you. Calvin in these verses calls attention
to the familiarity of Israel wit& the idea
' 'Airoy7eX«B of N, A, B, is preferred to
bftr/ytKa of B, G, H, by Tisohendorf (8th
•dh.), Westoott and Hort, and B.T. The
former word lays emphasis upon the source,
and the latter on the destination, of the
attorasee. The iiiTiv is omitted by B.T. and
otlMT Modem editors, with K, B, O, D
of a Mediator, one by whom they drew neai
to God, and that Christ places himself heie
in the stead of the whole propitiatory
service and ritual of the temple. "His
Name" was the Divine equivalent of all the
work of the high priest from one Day of
Atonement to another and for evermore.
And I do not say to yon, that I will make
my request to the Father oonoeming yon
(see note on ipuria and alr^v, ver. 23,
etc.). It will not do to argue, with Grotius,
that this is just as if he had said, " To say
nothing of my own intercessions for you," or,
" You may take these for gianted;" because
the very next verse gives his reason for the
assertion. Nor is it satisfactory to say, with
Meyer, that the "prayers" of wliich he
speaks (ch. xiv. 16 ; xvii. 9, 20) are hefme
the gift of the Paraclete, and not inconsistent
with the higher condition of the disciplei
after the Paraclete should have been given ;
because John had received the Paraclete
when he wrote, " We have an Advocate with
the Father " (1 John ii. 1). Nor can we
suppose that the great utterances of Bom.
viii. 31 and Heb. ix. 25 are vain imagina-
tions, and that there is no sense in which
the Lord does augment and complete onr
prayers, taking them upon hia heart and
going in his higli-piiestly prerogative into
the holy place with his own blood ; but the
words must nevertheless be pressed, and
their meaning held to be compatible with
what Paul and John say of the "intercession
of Christ." They reveal the perfect access
to the Father's heart which he has secured
for his disciples, the full reconciliation
effected as well as devised and consummated
by the Father's own love (cf. Eph. ii. 18,
" By Christ we both [Jew and Gentile] have
access (Ttpo(ray<eyrli>) in one spirit to the
Father"'). The end of the whole ministry
of Christ is, in the power of the Holy Ghost's
revelation of him, to bring men to the
Father and let them know it. There is no
need that Christ should Qparav) make .
special prayer to the Father, as though he
were merciful and the Father needed to be
appeased towards those for whom he had
prepared so great a salvation (see Bom. viii.
34, where Philippi, Calvin, and others show
that Christ's ivTvyxcwfiv is the effect of his
own glorious and eternal work). Bis appear-
ance in the presence of God foi us is
the perpetual pledge of the completeness
of his sacrifice. These very passages in
Hebrews and Bomans have to be interpreted
in harmony with this great statement of
his own, viz. that there is no reason to ask
the Father concerning them ; all has been
asked and answered, the intercession is com-
plete; his whole work will have reconciled
the Father with his children, and that }tj
feason of the Father's own love.
CH. xvt 1—33.) THE GOSPEL ACOOBDINO TO ST. JOHN.
308
Ver. 27. — For the Father himself loveth
yon (0i\«r), with love of a fatherly affection,
SQoh M mine to you, because ye have loved
me (the perfect preterite, in the sense of the
realized past in the present which shall then
be), and have believed that I came forth from
the tide of (irap^) the Father.' In their be-
lief of this transcendent fact is the hope of
the world. It was wrought in them by the
strengtliening pulses of a deepening love,
and to this love God himself responds with
a personal tender affection that encourages
boundless prayer. The disciple and lover
of Jesus, having Jesus in the heart, united
to him by living faith, will find in Christ
that there is a perpetual pledge of reciprocal
love between the Father and himself. Christ
will not (^purSi') ask the Father, because
bis entire position as Mediator establishes a
continual appeal, is a perpetual evrcv^is, a
continuous drawing near and appeal to Grod
on our account, a pledge and guarantee of
our own fellowship with and access to the
Father. Our English word "intercession,"
though apparently corresponding with the
Latin and with the Greek word, does not
now represent its original meaning. That
meaning is by no means equivalent to the
kind of prayer which is here excluded
(Trench, ' Syn. N. T.,' § li.).
Ver. 28. — ^In these words our Lord gathers
sublimely up a record of his entire self-
manifestation. I came forth out of the
Father (where ^ieXSoy iie, instead of jrapek, is
the new and better reading), as from the
Divine Source of my pre-existent glory, I
have come into the world, incarnate in hu-
manity, " the Word was made flesh," "the
Light lighting every man has come into
the world." Again, I am leaving the world
behind me, though for a little while you
may behold me, and I am going on a great
mission, with a goal in view, to the Father.
"Eecapitulationemmaximam habet Mo ver-
sus" (Bengel). Christ had said all this
before, but they have never seen it as a
whole. The several parts had been so im-
pressive, that the whole truth had been con-
tealed from them.
Ver. 29. — His disciples say to him, Behold,
even now thou speakeat (Xo\€ls) ; thy utter-
ance is with plainness and clearness, and
gpeakest (\c7c1s} no proverb.' The promise
made so recently (ver. 25) seems to them al-
ready fulfilled. Some beam of the heavenly
« T.K. reads 0«C with N•"'^ A, C», A, A, n,
■o Tisohendorf (8th edit.) ; but E.T., Lach-
mann, Westcott and Hort, and Tregelles read
nttTp6s, with W', B, C», D, L, and many
Fathers.
' Westcott and Hort and Tischendorf (8th
edit.) here read h before na^^rif, but not
th« B.T.
light has begun to irradiate the whole of
this sublime but partially realized revela-
tion of God in Christ. The doubts vanish
in this sunshine.
Ver. 30. — Now know we that than knowest
all things. He had answered their unutter-
able yearning. That whiah stirred them
very deeply on many occasions was tliia
proof that nothing in their hearts was hid-
den from him. Nathanael was one of them,
and now he saw " angels of God ascending
and descending on the Son of man." " Thou
knowest all things. " The idea in their minds
does not embrace the full range of human
inquiry, nor the depths of Deity, bnt all the
things which are in their hearts to ask him
Their word is true even if in their intention
they fall short of ascribing omnisoienoe t*
their Lord. And thou hast no need that any
one should put to thee these inquiries. Thon
hast sounded the depths of our hearts, and
found out the unutterable and unuttered
within us. When we were afraid to ask
thee concerning "the little while," thou
didst discern our unspoken yearning, and
now thou art so establishing thy Divine
claim upon our reverence and affection, that
we can trust thee to give us all needful illu-
mination when we most require it. In this
fact, in tills consideration just stated, we find
our justification and the cause of our faith.
We believe that thou earnest forth from (oir^
God (airi differs from the solemnity of the
irapd or the cK of ver. 28. Though Lange
makes the 3ti equivalent to " because," yet
generally John gives to the Sri which fol-
lows a verb after iv roirif the sense of
" that," thus introducing the object of the
verb, though in one place, 1 John iv. 13,
both constructions are seen in the same sen-
tence. The objective force of " that " is to be
preferred here). We believe that thy whole
ministry and message is a revelation of God,
a coming near to us of the Father. Thy
name is "Immanuel, God with us." A
question arises whether the disciples in this
gush of faith said more than they renlly
meant, and deserved reproof, or whetiker they
had reached an elevation of thought from
which they never would absolutely recede.
Ver. 31. — Jesus answered them, Now, at
this stage in my self-revelation, do ye be-
lieve t It seems as though the whole of
Christ's ministry turns on their acceptance
of his claims. If he should pass from
the world and return to the Father, and
leave behind him none who had discovered
and become intensely convinced of hia
Divine nature, the whole work he had
done would be, humanly speaking, a failure.
An almost womanlike pBssion of desire
breathes through the inquiry, " Do ye
now believe?" or, as some commentaton
(Gh)det and Meyer) translate it indioativelj,
810
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xn. 1— »a
"Now ye believe." There w truly no
essential difference whether it be taken in-
terrogatively or indicatively. Both forms
mean, " I have at length brought you to the
point of faith. The Mngdom of God is now
established, And the prince of this world
oast out. But a terrible trial awaits the
new-born faith." Christ had warned them
of the treachery of the absent one, of the
approaching denial of the foremost of their
number, and he now gives them another
warning of the severity of the trial which
awaited them all. The pouier and perma-
nence of their faith may be open to donbt,
but not its essential quality. Their faith
may not stand firm on that awful night, but
it will ultimately prevail, and Christ rejoices
in the fact that his words have at last
evoked this genuine response. In the prayer
which follows (ch. xvii. 8) he thanks God
" that they have known verily that I came
forth from thee, and have believed that thou
hast sent me."
Ver. 32. — Behold, the hour cometh, [yea] '
is oome, that (see ver. 2. The effort made by
some to preserve the telic force of Tva here
breaks down. It lias very little more than
the power of " when," and the bringing in
of the notion of a purpose or Divine counsel
encumbers the sense) you shall he scattered
(i.e. the fact is as good aa already enacted)
every man to his own, andshall leave me alone.
The iTKopKurBijTe points back to Zech. xiii. 7,
and reminds us of our Lord's recent quotation
of this very prophecy, and his application of
it to the disciples (Matt. xxvi. 31, 32). This
falling away from Jesus as he rises more
and more into the greatness of his work is
one of the witnesses of his Bivine mission
into such n world as this. First the Gali-
Issan hosts and the multitudes who shouted
" Hosannal" then his own brethren, then all
except the twelve, then all the authorities,
are openly hostile. Even Joseph and Nico-
demus and Lazarus are silent, Judas is
treacherous; but the eleven still cling to
him. Soon Christ selects from the faithful
few the faithfullest for the watch over his
last agony, but one of these denies him, and
they all forsake him and flee. John and
his mother, who follow within earshot of the
cross, are sent to their own home, and there
is a moment when he is absolutely alone.
He even says, " My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me ? " But as in this agony
he can still say, " Father, into thy hands,"
so here he anticipates the Divine oversha-
dowing presence, and adds, Yet I am not
alone, beoanse the Father is with me. The
' The vvv of T.B. is omitted by Tisoheu-
dorf (8th edit.), Westoott and Hort, and
B.T. Godet preserves it, seeing a motive for
the omission, and translates it " aUready."
snblimest word of all, ohaiged with eonio-
lation.
Ver. 33. — These things have I spoken
(ravra; all the farewell discourses. The
tone of these last triumphant words reminds
them of the finest and noblest of his previous
assurances, his promises of peace, courage,
and victory over all the evil and power
of this world) to yon, that in me ye might
have peaoe (see note, ch. ziv. 27, 28).
The entire issue of the discourse is the con-
ference on his disciples of his own secret
of peace— the adequate support amid the
crushing force and vehement hostility of
the world (of. Ps. ilvi. 2—4, " Though the
earth be removed . . . there is a river," eta).
Peace is the balance of equilibrating forces ;
and man needs a Divine force bemnd and
within him to encounter the tremendous
odds arrayed against him, in mysteries of
life, temptation of the devil, infirmity of the
flesh, and antagonism of the world, so that
we need not be surprised to hear him say,
la. the world ye have ' tribulation. It is the
fundamental condition of Divine life in this
world. Christ's disciples may take that for
granted (see 1 Thess. i. 6 ; iii. 4), but the
most striking and unique note of the true
faith is that this sorrow is blended with an in-
ward rapture which transforms it into peace.
The blending of fear and love, of law with
promise, of righteousness with mercy, of the
sense of sin with that of pardon, of a great
peace with a crushing tribulation, is one of
the most constant tokens, signs, or marks of
the mind of Christ. But be of good oonrage.
This is the practical uprising of the soul into
the joy of the Lord (of. also oh. xiv. 1, 28).
(The word itself is an SiroJ \eyinevov in
John, though found in Matt. ix. 2 and Mark
X. 49.) 'E70), I — very emphatic — have over-
oome the world. " A vous encore le combat,
& moi d^s k present la victoire I Mais en moi
la memo victoire & vous vous aussi " (Beuss).
The royal sublimity of this last word, on
the eve of the Passion, became one of the per-
petually recurring thoughts of John (1 John
V. 4 and Bev. ii., iii., where the 6 yUuy is
again and again referred to). Christ's vic-
tory already assured to him becomes theirs.
So "by similar anticipation we have 4viiei]aav
in Bev. xii. 11, and ^ vtiehiriura in 1 John v.
4." The victory had been, however, already
achieved over the world's temptations, and
over the bitterness of internal treachery, and
the vast sum of human ingratitude ; and this
may in part explain the use of the perfect
tense, " I have overcome."
■ K, A, B, 0, L, X, many Fathers and
versions, justify Tischendoif (8th edit),
Tregelles, Westoott and Hort, and R.T., in
leading tx^re instead of Ijcre of T.B., which
appears to rest on D, 69, md sev«nl F*thHS
OB. XVI. 1—33.] THE GOSPEL ACCOflDING TO ST. JOHN. «11
HOMILETI08.
Vers. 1 — 4. — A warning o/ future persectUioni, Having spoken of the guilt of the
persecutors, our Lord refers now to the sufferings of the disciples.
L The desiqn of thb warniko. " These things have I spoken unto you, that you
should not be offended." 1. The obstinate tmbelief of the Jews would be not only a
great surprise to the apostles, but a profownd disappointment. They al ways lived in the
expectation of a national conversion of Israel. 2. It was therefore necessary to prepare
them by timely warnings for a fact so unexpected and so tragical in its results.
IL Kbligious zeal the pbbtbnob or future persecutions. " Tliey shall put
you out of their synagogues : yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you will
think he oflereth worship to God." 1. The persecutions would either take the form of
(1) excommunication or (2) death. 2. Fanatical religious zeai would prompt the most
extreme action, as it did in tl^e case of Saul the persecutor, who thought he ought to do
many things contrary to the Name of Christ. 3. The cause or ground of this persecuting
zeal. " And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the
Father, nor me." (1) Blindness and hatred often go haud-in-hand. (2) The Jews
were not guiltless of cruelty on the ground of their ignorance, because they had the
amplest opportunities for knowing Christ and his Father.
IIL OuB Lord's prediction of coMiNa persecutions ought to be a ground of
FAITH. " But these things I have foretold you, that when their hour shall come, ye
may remember that I told you of them." 1. Our Lord will not allouo his disciples to
go forward into suffering without being prepared and trained to meet it. 2. He had
hitherto spared them this disclosure of coming evil. " These things I said not unto you
from the beginning, because I was with you." (1) He had often spoken of persecutions
as awaiting them, but not in such close connectiun with their relationship to himself
and the manner in which they were to be encountered in the comfort and strength of
the Spirit's witness. (2) So long as Christ was with the disciples, the rage of the Jews
was directed against himself, and not against them.
Vers. 5 — 11. — The victory of the disciple*. Jesus now describes the power which
will gain their victory over the world.
L The power which will give the victory. 1. 2%e disciples were too absorbed
by the sorrows of the approaching separation to think of anything but themselves.
"But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me. Whither
goest thou? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled
your heart." (1) They were so absorbed with the thought of their own immediate
loss that they missed the meaning of his departure for themselves. (2) They ought
not to have so greatly lamented his bodily absence and overlooked all the spiritual
advantages tliat would accrue to themselves from his ascension to heaven and his
participation in his Father's glory. 2. The expediency of his departure from the
world. " It is expedient for you that I go away : for if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send l>im unto you." (1) Our Lord's
departure the Church's gain. It would lead to truer conceptions of Christ's Person and
work, (a) A great man's greatness is usually increased by death. The removal of
Christ would dissolve the illusion of familiarity. He could only be truly under-
stood after he was gone. (&) The souls of the apostles were greatly quickened
after his departure. Their faith, hope, charity, were increased after Pentecost. (2)
Our Lord's departure was the condition of the Spirit's advent, (a) He left the
earth to return as a quickening Spirit. Christ after the flesh must disappear, to
make way for Christ after the Spirit. (6) The vicarious sacrifice of Christ stands to
the mission of the Comforter in the relation of cause and effect, (c) The dispensa-
tion of the Spirit is superior to the dispensation of " Christ come in the flesh," for the
following reasons: (a) Jesus in the flesh could not be present in every place or in all
the households of the world; but Christ by his Spirit can dwell in the hearts of
millions at the same moment of time as the Hope of glory. (/3) If Christ were still in
the flesh, his presence would only be temporary and occasional ; but Christ by hia
Spirit can b« always every wheie at the same moment of time, (y) Ai a matter of &c4^
812 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvi. 1— Sa
he wss never but in one spot of earth — ^Palestine — and never out of It. We revers
Palestine as the home of our Lord, but we must rise above the mere sentiment of local
association in the experience of communion with an everywhere-present Lord. (S) Mere
contact with Christ in the flesh would have no necessarily saving eSBcacy.' The Jews
were not converted by seeing him in the flesh. (3) Practica'l conclusions, (a) Let ui
rejoice in our Lord's exaltation, (b) Let us guard against the worship of the outward,
(c) Let us learn that the Lord never takes away one blessing but he leaves a greater in
its place.
II. The effects op the Spntn's comiko. "And when he is come, he will
convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment." 1. The Spirit will
convict the world of the sin of unbelief , " Because they believe not on me." The sin
of the Jews was essentially unbelief; for (1) they withstood all the evidetice of ancient
prophecy ; (2^ they withstood the evidence of his remarkable life, (3) his remarkable
discourses, (4) his remarkable miracles. 2. He wiU convict the world of righteou«neu.
" Because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more." (1) His sufferings anddeath were
the pathway by which he returned to his Father. (2) By righteousness our Lord under-
stands, not the mere justice of his cause, but the righteousness which he wrought out in
his atoning death for his people. He regards his death as the true righteousness of his
people. His incarnation and death were designed to bring in this everlasting righteous-
ness. 3. He will convict the world of judgment. " Because the prince of this world is
judged." (1) He does not refer to any judgment on Satan for his primordial fall, nor for
his deceptive temptations so fatally exercised against man. (2) He refers to the subver-
sion of Satan's empire, to the abrogation of his usurped rights over man. The death of
Christ effected this result in the following way. (a) As sin was put away by the
sacrifice nf himself (Heb. ix. 26), the supreme Judge discharged the guilty. (6) The
accuser of the brethren could not demand their condemnation (Bom. viii, 1). (c) Christ
broke the power of death " by destroying him that had the power of death " (Heb. IL 14).
Vers. 12 — 15. — The Spirit's office is not confined to the conviction of the world. It
has relation to the needs of the Church as well as the world.
L Our Lobd'b consideration for the SFiRiruAii incapacity of rcsa disoiflbb.
" I have yet many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now." 1. He had
already told them many things which they could hardly understand. The communioa-
tions of his truth were the marks of his loving confidence (ch. xv. 15). 2. Other truthi
were yet to be imparted, which, in the present stage of their spiritual growth, would be
quite unintelligible. They were the truths concerning his incarnation and death, the
relation of grace to the Law, the inclusion of the Gentiles in the kingdom of God, the
final apostasy, the destiny of the Church till its end. S. It is a mark of our Lord^t
wisdom and tenderness to adapt his lessons to the growing capacity of his disciples.
II. The office of the Holy Spirit. 1. Bis personal guidance. " When he, the
Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all the truth." (1) The Spirit is a
Divine Person, not a mere influence or energy of God. (2) He gives expression to
the truth ; for he is " the Spirit of truth." (3) He is the Guide to Ziou's travellers,
leading them past the byways of error and the quagmires of subtle deception, till he
places them in the land of truth. (4) This truth is not all truth abstractly, but " all
the truth " concerning Christ's Person, work, and kingdom. 2. TJie test of his true
guidance. " For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall
he speak : and he shall announce to you things to come." (1) His teaching is not self-
originated, like that of Satan (ch. viii. 44). He shares in the intellectual fellowship
of the Father and the Son, is initiated into the Divine scheme of salvation, and is thus
enabled to make known the revelation which " God gave to Jesus Christ " (Bev. i. 1).
(2) His teaching lifts apostolic inspiration above the region of mere spiritual illumina-
tion enjoyed by all saints. It was an instruction as to things not yet disclosed or
known on earth (ver. 12). (3) His teaching lifts the veil of the future, (o) The
things to come are the destiny of the Church till its final consummation, (b) The
Holy Spirit thus declares beforehand the inspiration of the Epistles and the Apocalypse.
IIL The glorification of Christ the definite work of the Spirit. "He
shall glorify me : for he shall take of what is mine, and shall show it unto you."
1. Mark the interrelation of the Divine Personi. The Son glorifies the Father ; the
OH. xvt 1—33.] THE GOSPEL AOCORDING TO ST. JOHN. «1S
Spirit glorifies the Son. 2. TTu method of glorification was by the mani/eitation oj
the tnith. 3. Owr Lord has a full eotuciousness of the greatness of his Person and his
truth, "AU that the Father hath is mine: therefore said I, he shall take of mine,
and shall show it unto you." It has been well said, " There is nothing Christian
that is not Divine, nothing Divine which is not Christian." 4. The personality of the
Holy Spirit is set forth in the use of iKeivos in relation to one described by a neuter
noun all throagh this discourse.
Vers. 16 — 22.— The departure of Jesus, with its experiences of sorrow a/ad joy to the
disciples. They were soon to stand in a new relation to Christ.
I. The sefabtdbe and the betdrn of Christ. "A little while, and ye sha'.l
see me no more : then a little while more, and ye shall see me, because I go to the
Father." 1. Our Lord foresees and declares his death as almost at hand. That would
for the time sever him from the sight of his disciples. 2. He foresees and declares his
return, which would have three stages. (1) At his resurrection ; (2) at Pentecost ; (3)
at the day ot judgment. His ascension to the Father would restore him spiritually to
his disciples through the work of the Holy Spirit.
IL The perplexed and sorrowtiil ouriositt op the disciples. They conld not
understand his words. 1. ff he were going to found an earthly kingdom, why should
he depart 1 2. If not, why should he return ?
111. Cub Lord's satisfaction of theik oubiosity. 1. Se gives them a last proof
of his omniscience ; for " Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him." 2. His
explanation turns upon the various emotions that wiO, he excited in their breasti by
his departure and his return. (1) His death will be the signal for great sorrow. " Ye
ehall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice : and ye shall be sorrowAil, but
your sorrow shall be turned into joy." (a) The condition of the scattered disciples
after his death, and the tears of Mary Magdalene, explain the first statement. (6) That
death, however, would be a source of joy to the world, which had triumphed in the
riddance of earth of a dan°;erous Teacher. (2) His return will be the signal for great
joy. (a) The grief would be short, like the sufferings of a woman in travail. (6) The
joy which would follow would spring out of the grief, (c) The joy would touch the
deepest springs of the heart. " And your heart shall rejoice." (d) It would be beyond
the power of man to check or destroy it. " And your joy no man taketh from you."
Vers. 23 — 30. — r/i« consequences of Chrisfs ascension to the Father. L FniiNESS of
knowledge. " And in that day ye shall no more question me in anything." 1. Our
Lord was always ready, in the days of his flesh, to answer the questions of his disciples.
Yet their questions often showed (1) ignorance, (2) curiosity, (3) and often perverse-
ness of understanding. 2. Hereafter there would be no need for further questioning; for
the Holy Spirit would solve all their difiSculties.
II. Fulness of poweb. " Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name, he will
give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my Name : ask, and ye shall receive,
that your joy may be made fulL" The power of prayer would give them a participation
in omnipotence itself. 1. The apostles could not pray in Christ's Name while he was
still with them in the flesh. They had often prayed to him, hat never in his Name.
2. His return to heaven would restore the broken link between earth and heaven. The
way would be henceforth and for ever open for the downpouring of heavenly blessing.
3. The command of Jesus — " ask " — (1) implies that the Lord is always at hand ;
(2) that the praying is to be continuous (oiTeH-e). 4. The ultimate result cf the prayer.
" That your joy may be made fulL" There is no spiritual joy apart from the exercise
of spiritual prayer.
III. The olbareb bbvelation will lead to greater confidence a pbateb.
1. Jesus had hitherto imparted much knowledge by proverbs, on account of the weakness
of their receptive capacity. 2. Hereafter the Spirit would impart truth in all its plain-
ness. The clearer insight came to the disciples alter Pentecost. 3. Hie truth was
mainly concerning their relation to the Father as his adopted children, i. Their con-
fidence would rest, not upon his own intercession so much as upon their direct connection
with the Father. (1) He does not repudiate his intercessorship on their behalf, though
he says, " I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father about you." (o) It is »
S14 THE GOSPEL ACOORDINO TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvi. 1—33.
blessed truth that " if any man sin, we hare an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the Bighteous" (1 John ii. 1, 2). (b) Yet it would not he necessary, as he here says, to
inquire (ipar^v) what was the Father's will, with the view of laying the case Irefore him.
(2) The Father's own love, without any pleading on the Son's part, would secure every
hlessing for them. " The Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and
have believed that I came out from God." (o) The Father's love is connected with
the disciples' love to Jesus. " He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father" (ch. xiv.
21), (b) Their love was connected with their faith. They believed (o) in Christ's
Divine mission, as well as in (jS) the unity of his essence with the Father. " I came out
from God." (y) Jesus assures them of his approaching ascension. " I leave the world,
and go to the i^'ather." The Ascension is explained by the Incarnation. Four facts are
plainly revealed — ^his mission, incarnation, death, ascension.
IV. The satisfaction op the disoifles. " Lo, now speakest thon plainly, and
speakest no i^overb." 1. They recognize his Divine mission in their experience of his
omniscience. " Now we know that thou knowest all things." 2. This experienee was
eno/aghfor their want ; for the Lord would satisfy it in his own time and way.
Vers. 31 — 33. — The faith now acknowledged was destined to be severely tried, L The
faith of the disciples was GENtnuB, BUT INCOMPLETE. " Now ye believe." 1. Trial
is needed to test the existence and strength qf faith, 2. It was a mark of our Lord's love
and wisdom to warn the disciples of coming trial. 3. Their desertion of their Mastvt
here foretold must have been incredible to their minds. " Behold, the hour cometh . . .
that ye shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave me alone," (I) The
thought must have been painful to our Lord. (2) The desertion was foretold in Old
Testament Scripture (Zech. ziii. 7). (3) The prediction almost implies in it the pardon
beforehand of their weakness and unfaithfulness, 4. Our Lord had a consolation in
prospect of their desertum. " And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me."
II. The design of oub Lobd's pabtino addeess to his disciples. " These tiings
have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace." 1. The precious legacy of
Christ to his people is peace. (1) It is peace by the cross (Col. i. 20). (2) It is pence
perfectly consistent with severe trial, sore afSiction, and bloody persecution. " In the
world ye shall have tribulation." (3) It is peace in himself. 2. Hie guarantee ^
peace. "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (1) The world is the centre
of disturbance to the peace of God's people. It is the sphere of tribulation. (2) The
summons to have " good courage " suggests the faith which is to have overcoming
power. " This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith " (1 John t. 4]^
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORa
Vers. 2, 8. — Persecution foreseen and foretold. The great aim of the Lord Jesus, in
his final conversations with his apostles, was to convince them of their perfect union
with himself. They were the branches of the living Vine ; they were his beloved and
confidential friends. Were these revelations made merely to assure them of privilege,
merely to make them happy in the consciousness of an honourable and inseparable
relation ? Certainly not This spiritual fellowship was to be the power for holy
service and the motive to patient endurance. It is in this last respect that, in the
verses before us, our Lord relied upon the revelation already made as sufiBcient to secure
his disciples from being " offended " with him. He felt that, having explained the
community of life and interest subsisting between himself and his own, he might open
np before them the prospect of persecution. Forewarned, they would thus l>e fore-
armed. He treated them herein not as children, but as soldiers in a spiritual war, whose
allegiance he did not doubt, and of whose fortitude he was perfectly assured.
I. The natubb of pebseodtion. It was no new thing in the world that men should
bo pursued with bitter hostility for their devotion to truth, to duty, to righteousness,
to God. The history of Israel contained but too many illustrations of the enmity
with which the good have been assailed by those to whom their life and testimony were
% rebuke. And Jesus foresaw that confessors and martyrs were to render a service in
his kingdom, both by establishing the faith upon a basis of hard trial and proof, and
oa. xn. 1-43.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST. JOHN. Slf
by extending the truth amongst unbelleren. Jeans here refers to two ways in which
hia disciples should experience the hostility of an unbeliering world. 1. Ecclesiastical
censure and excommunication. Doubtless the reference here is to the Jews. Even
during our Lord's ministry, those who confessed him were in some instances excluded
from the synagogues. And when the Church was constituted by the descent of the
Spirit) and especially when the broad designs of Christianity as a religion, not for Israel
only, but for mankind, were clearly exhibited, then the hostility of tho bigoted among
the Jewish leaders and the Jewish populace knew no bounds. Beverencing everything
connected with the Law and the prophets, the preachers of Christ would fain have
resorted to the synagogues as of old, would fain have reasoned out of the Scriptures
with a view of proving that Jesus was the Messiah, and of showing how his religion
realized all the types and predictions of Judaism. But the merit and the glory ot
Christianity was, in the eyes of legalists and formalists, its chief offence ; and a sharp
line was drawn, over which the followers of the Nazarene were not suffered to step.
2. Temporal and corporal infliction, reaching even to death. The Jews did, as we know
from the record of the Acts, even very early in the history of the Christian faith,
carry their enmity so far as to inflict capital punishment upon a Christian advocate.
But it seems as if our Lord, in this prediction, looked forward to events which should
follow the proclamation of the gospel among the Gentiles. The annals of the Church
of Christ are rich indeed in instances of martyrdom. And it has passed into a proverb,
that " the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church."
II. Thb motive to pebsecution. Our Lord admitted that the motive to much of
the persecution that should assail the professors of the faith was a conscientious and
even a religious motive. Events have confirmed this attribution of motive. No doubt
there have been persecutors who have acteil from interested, selfish motives. But there
have been those who have persecuted Christians in the belief that they were doing God
a service, offering to him an acceptable sacrifice in the blood of the " faithful unto death."
The Jews particularly were, in many instances, influenced in their hostility to Christians
by a reverence for what they believed, however erroneously, to be the perfect religion,
capable of no addition, no improvement. The professions and claims made first by
Jesus, and afterwards by his servants on his behalf, were of a very high and authorita-
tive character. Christ was either the Son of God or he was a blasphemer ; and we
know that the latter view was taken by many of the Jewish unbelievers. It is no
justification of evil conduct that those guilty of it are sincere ; yet sincere ignorance
is an extenuation, though not a. vindication, of guilt. Alas 1 what evils have been
wrought in the name, not only of liberty, but of religion!
III. The explanation of PERSEonTioN. Our Lord was a Bevealer of all hearts.
He looked below the profession, and even below the belief. He penetrated deep into
the spiritual nature of men, and was familiar with the hidden springs of thought and
of action. There was a reason, not in every case known to the agents themselves,' for
the actions which they committed. The Lord Jesus was able to account for conduct
by searching the inner nature. And so doing he discovered, in the spiritual ignorance
of the persecutors, the true and all-sufiScient reason for their attitude and proceedings.
" They have not known the Father, nor me." They cannot " know " Christ by the
knowledge, that is, of spiritual appreciation and sympathy, who persecute and slay his
friends and the promulgators of his faith. They must utterly misunderstand him, his
character, and his mission, if they suppose that God can be pleased when Christians
are persecuted. For it is not to be believed that the Father can look with satisfaction
upon injuries done to his own Son in the person of his followers. Had the Jews known
Christ, they would not have slain the Lord of glory. And none who truly knew our
Lord could have persecuted his faithful people in order to do hia Father service. — ^T.
Vers. 5, 6. — 2%e absorbing power of sorrow. There was sympathy between our Lord
and his apostles, but that sympathy was not perfect. Even in the latest of the quiet
conversations between the Master and the disciples, it is evident that the perception of
the learners was now and again very dull, and that their response to his communication
waa very inadequate. There is a tone of expostulation, almost of upbraiding, in this
as in other portions of the recorded discourse.
L The chabaotkb of the ebvslations which Chbist hebk bsfkbs to. 1. Con-
316 THE GOSPEL AOOORDING TO ST. JOHN. [ch. ivl 1— Sa
cerning himself. Jesus bad uttered language which both perplexed and distressed his
friends. He bad spoken of bis approaching departure — a prospect which could not but
grieve, and which clearly did depress bis bearers. Their life was bound up in his life,
and separation could not be faced without sinking of heart. 2. Concerning (hem, the
Lord bad opened up a prospect which dismayed, or at least disconcerted, them. He bad
plainly told them that they should be both hated and persecuted. Such an outlook
as thi^ was very gloomy. They were not prepared to endure such tribulation, especially
when deprived of the presence and support, visible and tangible, of their Chief.
IL The effect of thkse aEVBLATioNS upon the minds of the apostles. "Sorrow,"
said Jesus, " hath filled your heart." He bad opened the conversation by bidding them
trust in him, and dismiss fear and trouble from their mind. And he had givon them
reasons for confidence, grounds for hope, motives to peace. But they were conscious ot
their feebleness, their dependence. They had accordingly no thought but for themselves.
As they looked one at another, they must have felt that there was among them no one
upon whom they could lean in the absence of their Lord. And he was going, and going
soon. How were they to keep together? And if they should ^eep together, what was
there for them to do? Had not the Master done everything? Without him, where
would be the meaning of their fellowship — the purpose of their life ? It is a proof of
the reality of their attachment to Jesus, of the bitterness of their disappoiutment at his
departure, that in this hour their souls should be burdened, and all but overwhelmed
with grief.
IIL The effect of sorrow to tukn away the mind from rNQUiRiKS which mat
LEAD TO consolation. The apostles were absorbed in their own grief and trouble.
Hence they were prevented by their own depression from inquiring further into the
Lord's departure. Not that they were altogether incurious and careless concerning this ;
some of them had' put questions suggested by the Lord's words. But they sank back
at once upon their own condition and prospects. If they had turned away from their
own loss, if tb?y had followed Christ's declarations concerning himself with interest and
faith, if they had asked for further revelations, they would both have forgotten their
personal distress, and they would have received inspiration and fortitude as they realized
the victory which should follow the Saviour's humiliation, and as they understood that
in that victory they themselves should share.
IV. The GENERAL principle is thus reached, that the best and most helpful
HABIT OF THE EELIGIODS LIFE IS THE CONCENTRATION OF THOUGHT AND FEELING
bather upon our Saviour than upon ourselves. Experience has shown that it
is a most deleterious practice to direct thought too much inwardly upon our own
sorrows and perplexities, or even upon our joys and comforts. Eeligious progress is
made by fixing the gaze of the heart upon him who is infinite Excellence and infinite
Faithfulness. Let our chief interest, our most earnest questioning, our most ardent
affection, be directed towards him; and then sorrow will vanish and peace will
reign. — T.
Ver. 7. — The adacmtaget of Chrisft departure. The world enjoyed many benefits
by reason of Christ's presence : he healed the sick, and taught the ignorant, and was
a kind, wise, and faithful Friend to all men. How much more were the disciples of
Jesus indebted to that presence I His intimate friends owed their all, their very
selves, to him, and could not look forward to losing him without dismay.
" My Savioiur, can it ever be.
That I ihonld gain by losing thee?"
Yet our Lord taught that it was really for his people's good that he should leave them,
and the experience of the Christian centuries has proved the wisdom of his teaching.
I. The dispensation of personal presence was thus succeeded bt the
dispensation of spiritual power. The ascension of Christ was the occasion of the
descent of the Comforter. The Holy Spirit was indeed no stranger to our humanity
even before our Lord's coming, but his influences were to be more widely diffused and
more ^werfuUy active than in the earlier ages. Why the coming of the Spirit was
made, in the wise counsels of God, dependent upon the departure of Jesns, we can only
partially understand. But the tvanta of Fantaooat are matter of Scripture history,
OH. XTL 1—33.] THE GOSPEL AOCOKDISQ TO ST. JOHN. 317
Th« recorda of this dispensation infonn ub how the Spirit has conviDced the world of
Bin, of righteousness, of judgment. The Church has never, since our Lord's ascension,
ceased to enjoy the enlightening, quickening, sanctifying influences of its Comforter.
IL The life op bmht was thds keplaced by the higher life of faith.
It was necessary that the Sou of God and the Saviour of mankind should dwell upon
earth, and, by the deeds of his ministry and his death of sacrifice, reveal God to hii
sinful children, and furnish a basis for the spiritual life of humanity. A revealed Object
of faith was thus provided. But when the manifestation was complete, it was withdrawn.
The special excellence of the Christian religion lies here : it is a religion which calls for,
justifies, and encourages faith — faith in an unseen, but mighty, ever-present, and ever-
gracious Bedeemer and Lord. " Li him, though now we see him not, yet believing we
rejoice."
IIL ChBIBTIANTTT WAB thus hade no local BELIOION, BCT a BELlaiON FOB
HUMANITY. So far as we can see, the bodily presence of Jesus upon earth could not
but limit his reigii ; it could not well, in such case, be other than partial, local,
national. But the purposes of the Eternal were comprehensive in benevolence. It was
designed that "all the ends of the earth should see the salvation of our God." The
going away of Jesus assured to the new humanity a Divine and heavenly Head, By
his Spirit the ascended and glorified Lord is equally present in every part of his
dominions. Thus all local limitations are transcended, and provision is made for the
extension to all mankind of the blessings of our Saviour's spiritual presence, authority,
and grace.
IV. The HOPE of Christians ib thub ebmovbd fbom earth to heaven. If
Jesus were still on earth, who, would not be content to live and loth to die? What
prospect would have reconciled his firiends to death? But our Divine Friend has gone
on before ns, and we can only join him upon the condition of the taking down of this
perishable tent in which we dwell. It is the prospect of going to him who has gone
away from earth which lends brightness to the Christian's future. His prayer has
secured that, where he is, there also his friends and disciples shall be. Accordingly an
apostle could speak of removing hence as being " with Christ, which is far better."
And there is no prospect m dear to the Christian's heart as that of ever being with the
Lord.— T.
Vers. 8, 9. — Convictton tf sin. Looking' forward to the dispensation of the Spirit,
the Lord Jesus described by anticipation the work of the Spirit in the world. It
cannot be overlooked that this work has been, and ever must be, connected with the
publication of the gospel of salvation through the Divine Redeemer. It is not to be
supposed that we exalt the ofBce of the Spirit when we neglect or depreciate the Word
with which and through which the Spirit acts.
I. The sin of which the Spirit convicts the world. By the world we understand
humanity at large, as alienated from God, and as in rebellion against him. Our race
has been the prey of sin. However the form of sin has varied, the principle has
remained the same. But the most striking and the most awful proof of the presence
and the power of sin in the world is its rejection of Christ. " They believe not on me."
For Christ was goodness incarnate ; a greater sin it was not within the power of man
to commit than to reject the Holy One and the Righteous. Jesus foresaw how he was
about to be treated by bis fellow-countrymen the Jews, and by the Romans.
II. The manner in which the Spirit convicts the world of sin. In the
Mosaic dispensation very much was done to introduce into men's minds the Divine
estimate, the Divine abhorrence," of sin. The Law and the prophets ever kept this
in view, and their work was doubtless that of the Spirit. But in the later and
completer dispensation the Spirit has made manifest in many ways the exceeding sin-
fulness of sin. We may instance the emphatic condemnation of sin in our Lord's words,
in which it is compared to darkness, to bondage, to death ; and yet more in the
contrast presented to a sinful world by the spotless character and perfect moral
example of the Son of man. Yet to the Christian mind the world's sin is brought
home most effectively by the provision of redemption. Jesus was the Sin Offering ; he
condemned sin in the flesh ; he redeemed the sinner at the priceless cost and ransom of
his life. The Spirit, •ooompanying the gospel which conveys these tidings, has rendered
SIS THE GOSPEL AOCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xti 1--«3.
sin obriously and flagrantly such in the view of all who are capable of jad_
Especially the sin of unbelief, of wilfully rejecting the Saviour, has been charged upon
the human conscience in such a manner as to lead multitudes to contrition and
repentance.
m. The bksults which have followed the conviction of the BDnrnL wobld
BY THE Spirit of Ghbist. There is something paradoxical in attributing such a resnlt
as conviction of sin to the Paraclete, the Comforter. Yet it is not to be questioned that
the consciousness of sinfulness is essential in order to its forgiveness. It is the Spirit of
God who renders the sinner not merely aware of his state and of his danger, but contrite
and penitent ; whilst contrition and penitence are necessary and indispensable in ordel
to pardon and acceptance. There is for the sinner no true consolation which does not
come by way of conviction.— T.
Vers. 8, 10. — Conviction of righieousneaa. In order to moral improvement there must
be a sense of sin and its degradation and misery, and there must be some apprehension
of righteousness and holiness accompanied by both admiration and aspiration. It is an
evidence of the divinely wise provision of the gospel of Christ, that there is secured
for man, in the influences of the Spirit of Qod, not only a power which dissatisfies men
with sin, but a power which impels men to righteousness.
L Thebb is a close connection between conviction of sin and conviction of
BiOHTEOUSNESs. The knowledge of the Law gives the knowledge of sin. Obedience and
disobedience are correlative. The good man by his goodness enforces the excellence of
the Law he obeys, and at the same time suggests the flagrant enormity of defying and
desjHsing that Law. There is nothing inconsistent in the performance by the same
Spirit of this twofold office. In a world where tin abounds the functions cannot be
separated.
II. The Holt Spibit convinces of bightbousnkss at the beoobs of Chbist's
JUST Aim HOLY life. The narratives of the evangelists are expressly attributed to the
Spirit of Christ, who brought all that it concerned the Church and the world to know
concerning Jesus to the minds of the inspired and sympathetic writers. What a record
these memoirs constitute I Jesus fulfilled all righteousness, magnified the Law, was
holy, harmless, and undefiled, was actively and benevolently good. It is one thing for
righteousness to be expressed in the Law ; another thing for it to be embodied in a life.
Wherever the record of our Saviour's ministry is read, there the Spirit testifies to the
reader's heart of a righteousness faultless and peerless, fitted to command reverence and
adoration.
III. The depabtubb and ascension of Chbist webe the occasion of this
CONVINCING WITNESS OF THE SpiEiT, His golug to the Father and his consequent
concealment from the bodily eyes of men were mentioned by himself as thus connected
with the conviction of the world. How this was so we, as a matter of fact and history,
can see. A completed life was crowned by a sacrificial death and by a triumphant
ascension ; the Bepresentative and Saviour of man was accepted by the Father ; his
work was secured beyond all possibility of failure. The personal animosity which
beset the Incarnate One came then to an end ; the protest against sin, and the
exhibition of righteousness, both of which were perfected in Christ, were now presented
to men with a completeness which was impossible during his ministry. Righteousness
had been resented and rqected when it conflicted with personal interests, when it
visibly and audibly set itself against individual and national sins. It was necessary
that this should be so for a season. But the time came when the protest of Christ was
heard from heaven as the authoritative voice of Gbd himself. The Holy Spirit works
with this now historical and ideal exhibition of righteousness, in order to make it a
mighty factor in the moral life of humanity.
IV. The Holy Spirit has been during this dispensation oonviotino the
WORLD of its Sm IN REJECTING THE SUPREMELY BlOHTEOUS. The JewS WOuld not
have this Man to reign over them ; bis justice, his truth, his purity, his spirituality,
were an offence to them ; they slew him whose presence was to them a perpetual
rebuke. But to how many was the preaching .of the gospel by the apostles a con-
vincing of sin ? When these fearless heralds, under the guidance of the Divine Spirit,
'hargeid upon the nation their sin and guilt, many were " pricked to the heart," feeling
OH. xn. 1—33.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BT. JOHN. 819
u if tVieir own hands had slain the Prince of Life ; many sought mercy for their onjust
and fearful sin. They saw the righteousness of the Bedeeraer in a new light. The sick
had slain their Physician, the enslaved their Liberator. Thus did the Spirit bring the
enemies of righteousness to seek for themselves the righteousness they had desjdsed
when it had come to them in the Person of the Son of God. And in this the action of
these aroused, repentant Israelites was an earnest of the turning unto God which ihould
follow upon the preaching of Christ to the Gentiles also.
V. It 18 THE OBAOIOUS OFFICE OF THE SpIBIT OF ChBIST TO LEAD THE WOBLS TO
SEEK AHD TO APPBOFBIATE THE BIOHTEOITSIIEBS IT HAS 8C0BNED. It WOuld not h«Te
been in harmony with the character of our Bedeemer to have laid stress upon righteoos-
ness as rejected, and to have lost sight of righteousness as acquired and appropriated.
The Holy Spirit does indeed convince men that they have violated righteousness in
their denial and contempt of Christ. But in this is no gospel. And Christ died, and
the Holy Spirit was given, for the good of man, for the salvation and not for the
condemnation of the sinner. Accordingly, it is by these heavenly influences exerted by
the Spirit of Gh>d that men are led not only to lament their deficiency, but to seek that
that deficiency may be supplied. Jesus becomes to ns who believe "the Lord our
Bighteousness ; " he ii " made unto us of QoA Bighteousness." And it is for the Spirit
that we must give thanks for leading us into the possession and enjoyment of " the
righteousness which is by faith." — T.
Vers. 8, 11. — Oonvictimi of Judgment. It is usually said that the sin of which the
Spirit convicts is the sin of the world ; that the righteousness is that of Christ; and that
the judgment is the judgment of Satan. In this last reference our Lord's language
must be regarded as anticipatory. Satan's power was never so awfully evinced as in the
condemnation and crucifixion of the Son of God ; yet the hour of his apparent triumph
was in reality the hour of his fall. I'Vanslated into ordinary language, this grand say-
ing of Jesus affirms that the Holy Spirit convinces those who ponder the fiicts upon
which the Christian religion is based, that the world is indeed beneath a moral govern-
ment, and that the righteous rule of the Eternal has been and will be vindicated.
I. The horal heqessitt thebb was that the pbinoe ob buleb of this wokld
SHOULD BE JUDOED. , 1. The power of evil had already had a long and prosperous course.
In the lapse of centuries and millenniums every possible form of sin had flourished in
one community or another. Satan had had things almost his own way. 2. Yet the
ruler of this world de facto was not its ruler dejure ; he was a usurper meeting with too
ready a submission on the part of men. 3. Neither the operation of natural laws nor the
occasional judgments and interpositions of the Supreme had been sufiBcient to arrest the
downward progress of humanity. The laws of society, the Law given by Moses, nay,
the very law embodied in the constitution of human afiairs, had been effective chiefly
as a protest agaiust disobedience and iniquity.
II. The fact that the frdtoe of this world was jddoed k the crucifixion
AND BESUBBBOTiON OF Chbibt. It is a grand and solemn hour when an evil ruler or
an unjust, perfidious prince is brought to trial and to the block. How great is the
solemnity and awe attached to the scene, the time, when the power of evil was met on
the field, discomfited, and crippled by the irresistible might of Gkxi's own Son I This
was the issue of the combat, as foreseen by Christ himself As the struggle approached,
the Lord Jesus realized its momentous character and its glorious results. He saw
Satan as lightning fall from heaven. " Now," said he, " is the judgment of this world ;
now is the prince of this world cast out" The hour of Christ's death was the hour
when he " destroyed him that had the power of death." In his resurrection Jesus led
captivity captive, and robbed death of its sting. The sinful, unbelieving world was
judged in its prince. The sentence against the prince of darkness was pronounced ;
the execution of that sentence should follow.
III. The OFFICE of the Spirit was to convince the world that rra anoiemt
usuBPEB HAD been dethbonbd BT Chbist. The two kingdoms — ^that of sin and dark-
ness, and that of light and holiness — could not exist side by side. The stronger must
needs prevail over the weaker. Immediately upon the resurrection and ascension of
JesuB, and upon the gift of the Holy Spirit, the kingdom of Ohrist began to prosper, and
19 nrevail Kainst that «f ^e adversary. The demoniacs who were s^t |i-ee ^om Sntanlf
S20 THE GOSPEL AOOOBDIMG TO BT. JOHl?. [oh. xvi. 1— 83.
possession were the earnest of the liberation of the ransomed humanity. When the idols
were abolished, the kingdom of error and of sin felt the blow. When worshippers of
cruelty and lust transferred their homage to the holy Saviour, the contest issued in
victory for God, And every bum^in soul in which the Spirit has wrought the work of
enlightenmeot and enfranchisement is a new trophy won for Christ. The day shall
surely come when every foe shall be beneath the Master's feet, when " the kingdoms of
this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and of bis Christ." — T.
Vers. 13, 14. — The guidance of the Spirit. In the preceding verses our Lord has
described the work of the Spirit in reference to the world ; he here very fully, though
succinctly, declares what is the work of the Spirit on behalf of the Church.
I. It IB NOT THE OFFICE OF THE SPIEIT TO OEIGINATE AND EMBODY TRUTH. This
is an error into which Christians of different Churches and different tendencies have
fallen — an error sometimes designated "mysticism." Good men have often looked to
the enlightenment of the Spirit for a manifestation of new truth. Light proceeds from
a visible object directly or by reflection, and by the light we see the object and its
visible qualities; but the object must be there in order that the light may reveal it.
So is it in the spiritual n a^m. The Spirit does " not speak from himself; " this is not
his o£Sce. The truth is embodied in revelation, in the Law, the Gospel, especially in
the Lord JesUs, who is " the Truth." If men turn away from the revelation and look
to the Spirit alone for illumination, they will mistake their own tastes and prejudices
for the truth of Qoi.
II. It is the opficb of the Spirit to lead the mind to EECoasizE and appre-
ciate Divine truth. The words here used by Jesus concerning the Spirit are
decisive upon this point ; he will " guide " and " show." The truth exists in the
revealed counsels of God, and especially in the character and the mi diation of Jesua
Christ. But for the ignorant, the untaught, the unspiritual, the tmth is as though it
were not. The work of the Spirit is to witness to tlie soul, i.e. to bring the soul into
harmony with the Divine revelation, to remove the dulness, the coldness, the sin, which
would prevent men from realizing God's truth. A landscape in the dark midnight can
afford no man pleasure, however artistic and sympathetic he may be by nature ; but
when the sun arises and irradiates the scene, and pours the light, in all its power to
reveal the beauties of form and colour, into the eyes of the beholder, then his pleasure
is perfected. So is the case with the soul of man, which needs Divine illumination in
order to value and enjoy Divine truth.
IIL The special office of the Spirit is to reveal and thus to olorify Christ
HIMSELF. He knows the way, and guides God's people into it ; he hears the truth,
and repeats it in the spiritual hearing of the susceptible; be receives, and what he
receives he imparts to those who are prepared to accept it. In these verses the sub-
stance of the revelation is represented in three different lights. There is the Person
Ohrist, only to be apprehended by the spiritual quickening which enables the mind to
discover in him the Gift of God himself. There is the truth, all gathered up in Christ,
and made in him an object of faith and delight to the soul. There are the things that
are to come, the unfolding of the counsels of the Mediator in the growth of the Church
and the universality of the kingdom. — ^T.
Ver. 20. — Orief and gladness. Our Lord gave his apostles to understand that he
was no enemy to the emotions that are characteristic of humanity. By becoming his
disciples men did not exempt themselves from the common sorrows, nor did tbey forfeit
the common joys, of human life. But these emotions were to be excited by greater
and worthier occasions than those met with in ordinary experience. To be a Christian
is to know profounder sorrow, and to rise to loftier joy, than falls to the lot of the
unspiritual. And our Lord's first disciples were to prove this at the very outset of
their spiritual life.
I. The obief occasioned bt the Lord's absence. Probably had the twelve been
perfectly informed, perfectly sympathetic, and perfectly patient, they would not hav«
undergone all the distress which came upon them when their Lord was seized, insulted,
and crucified, and whilst his body lay in Joseph's tomb. But as it was, their experience
w^B mofe Ui^e 01^ own, and therefore more instructive apd helpful. 1. The disciple
OH. XVI. 1—33.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 821
sorrowed tecausfl of their own loss. Jesus wag everything to them, and they were
about to lose him ; this they knew, and the consciousness of this loss, which was
imminent, seems to have occupied and absorbed their souls, to the exclusion of con-
siderations which might have brought consolation. Thus it has often been with all
of us ; grief is so close to the heart that it shuts out the vision of aught beyond. 2.
The disciples sorrowed through sympathy with the sorrow of their Lord. He was to
be hated, to be persecuted, to lay down his life. Yet he was not only innocent, he was
the Friend and Benefactor of men. The treatment he received fiom the world was a
proof of monstrous ingratitude. Those who were nearest to him, and who knew him
best, could not but sympathize with him, and in some measure, though very imper-
fectly, share his grief. 3. The disciples sorrowed because of the cloud which gathered
over their hopes. These hopes were to some extent indefinite ; yet they looked for-
ward to a Messianic kingdom of which their Master should be the Head, and in which
they should hold place and sway and honour. They trusted that be should redeem
Israel ; and they could not understand how such a fate as that which was, according to
his own words, about to overtake him, could be reconciled with the prospect which they
had been cherishing. Hence their weeping and lamentation.
II. The gladness to be obeated bt the Lord's betubh. There wag only one
antidote to sorrow such as that which was oppressing the apostles' hearts, and which
was to deepen into anguish and terror. If their Lord was all to them, their minds
could only be relieved by the prospect of reunion with him. 1. Jesus promised that
after " a little while " his friends should again behold his form and hear his voice.
How this prospect was consistent with the assurance that he was about to be slain,
these inexperienced and bewildered friends of Jesus could not see. But events were to
teach them. That the Resurrection came upon them as a surprise, the narrative makes
abundantly clear. But the disciples were " glad when they saw the Lord." 2. This
fellowship for a brief season to be accorded to the disciples was an earnest of a spiritual
communion never to cease, and of % final and perfect reunion in a higher state of being.
There were in our Lord's last discourses and conversations many intimations of this
glorious prospect. Very inadequately did these simple learners grasp truths so great
and so new, that only time, experience, and the Holy Spirit's teaching could possibly
bring them home to their hearts. The revelation was too grand to be grasped at once.
Yet it was a revelation which was to nourish the faith, impel the consecration, and
inspire the patience, of the Church of Christ through the long ages of the spiritual dis-
pensation. What joy the spiritual fellowship with the unseen Saviour enkindled in
the souls of his faithful people, we know from their recorded experience and from their
confident admonitions. "Joy unspeakable and full of glory" was, in the view of the
apostles, the proper portion of those who believed in Jesus. " Bejoice evermore 1 " was
the exircrtation with which gloom was rebuked, with which privilego and hope of
immorta. progress were indissolubly connected. — ^T.
Ver. 22. — "/ wiU gee you again." The gympathy and the wisdom alike of car Lord's
declarations and promises to his disciples upon the eve of his departure, command our
warmest admiration. He both felt for those who were about to pass through a trial so
severe, and he knew how to minister to their heart's necessities. What a knowledge
of human nature is apparent in this simple but most significant promise 1
I. Thp occasions upon which this peomise was fulfilled. 1. Upon our Lord's
resurrection. Had he not taken this very early opportunity of again seeing his own,
it is not obvious how their faith and courage could have been sustained. They were
depressed almost to despondency by their Lord's Passion and buriaL Had he not
appeared when he did, it would seem that their confidence in him must have been
shaken, and their mutual unity must have been dissolved. But when he saw them,
gladness took the place of sorrow, attachment was strengthened, and hope banished
despair. 2. The descent of the Spirit was a richer and fuller accomplishment of our
Lord's designs of grace towards his Church. He had promised the Comforter, whose
comin" should keep them from being orphaus, abandoned, and friendless in the world.
And in the Spirit he himself came again to his own, visiting them in showers of
spiritual blessing. 3. The return at the second advent must also have been in the
Master's mind when he uttered these gracious word* of friendly auuranc*. Hii
tvaa—n. ^
822 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oa. XYi. 1—88.
parablei and hii direct discourses alike animated the breaHts of th« disciples with this
blessed hope. All the more did they rejoice in this prospect, because they were taught
that he who had come the first time in humiliation and obediene* would come the
second time to judge and to reign.
n. The ruLNEss of imfobt and BLEssina wmoB this FBomsa contains. 1.
The assurance that Christ will see his people is even more precious and welcome than
the assurance ^ven (iu previous verses) that they shall see him. Our religion teaches
us to look away from ourselves to God, to rest on his declarations, his faithfulness, hi?
love. Unless we are in a morbid, self-conscious state, it will give us strength and
comfort to forget ourselves in order to concentrate our thoughts and desires upon him
who holds us dear, and who will never forget and never forsake his own. 2, That
Chriat will see his people, involves an accession to their happiness. To know that the
eye of our dearest friend is resting upon us, and that with interest and approbation,
what so fitted as this to send a thrill of joy through all our nature ? We are encouraged
by the language of the text to think of Christ thus affectionately and (so to speak) in
a manner so truly human. 3. That Christ will see his people, assures them of the
supply of all their wants. Can our dearest and mightiest Friend see us in danger, and
not deliver us ? in temptation, and not succour us 7 in sorrow, and not console us ?
in need, and hot minister to us ? For a Being so sympathizing, to see is to pity ; for
a Being so mighty, to pity is to aid<— T.
Vers. 26, 27. — The Fatheii'$ love. The time here referred to must be the dispensation
of the Holy Spirit. A great purpose of the gift of the Comforter and the establishment
of the Church on earth was that a new, intimate, and happy relation might be con-
stituted uniting the eternal God by personal and spiritual bonds to those who, made
in his image, should become by grace partakers of his character.
I. The objects of the Father's love. The description given of such as the
Father regards with affection is very definite and very instructive. 1. They are those
who love Christ. Undoubtedly, the apostles, to whom these words were originally
spoken, did love their Master ; events proved the sincerity of their attachment. Tet
this qualification is one which may exist in those who have not seen Jesus in the
body, hut only with the eye of faith. Christians, who are such in reality and not
merely in name, cherish a warm and grateful affection towards the Son of God, who
himself loved them and bought them with his precious blood. Their love does not
evaporate in sentiment; it displays itself in their reception of his doctrine, their obedience
to his commands, their imitation of his holy example. 2. They are those who believe
in Christ's Divine mission. If any man thinks of Christ as of One who is " of the
earth," who is a merely human development, who has no special and Divine authority
to save and to rule, such a one is not described in this language, and shuts himself out
from the blessing which is accessible. But he who thinks of Jesus as of the Being
who came forth from the Father, commissioned and equipped by the Father to be the
Saviour of men, and who not only thinks of him aright, but acts towards him in such
a way as this belief authorizes, he may be encouraged to regard himself as the object
of the Divine Father's love. Thus love and belief are both necessary. In this passage
love takes precedence; but some belief concerning Christ must come before love,
though unquestionably the lovino; soul learns to believe more richly and fully con-
cerning the Divine, incomparable Friend.
IL Thu ohabactkb op the Father's love. 1, It originates in his benevolent
nature. His love is not cansed by ours. " We love him,^ because he first loved us."
But the love of Divine pity revealed in Christ enkindles tne flame of love upon our
hearts. 2. It manifests itself in the mediation of the Son. The love of God is not
caused by the intercession of our Divine Advocate and Representative. 3. It is,
towards those who believe in Christ, the love of satisfaction and complacency. Beginning
(if we may use language so human) with pity, the Divine love goes on to approval.
The Father recognizes in the friends and followers of Christ the same moral features
and expressions which he looks upon with delight in his Son. This is a view of God
which'is eminently and distinctively Christian. The God whom we worship is a God
who can love man, whose love flows forth in streams of compassion towards all men, but
whose favour is revealed to those who display moral sympathy with his own b«loT«d Ekin.
etiTLl— as.] THE GOSPEL AOCORDliTG TO ST. JOHN. 821
in. Thb proof or the Father's love. 1. The objects of this Divine affection are
enoonraged to ask for what they need from him who is able to supply their many and
varied wants. What greater evidence can there be of fatherly and filial feeling than
when a son is at liberty to prefer requests to a parent who has confidence in his child
and has the means of satisfying and of pleasing him ? Such are the relations between
the heavenly Father and those whom he adopts into his family. 2. The spontaneous
disposition of the Father is to grant the requests of his children. This language casts
light upon the Scripture doctrine of intercession. Christ is the Advocate with G-od,
but his advocacy does not consist in persuading an unwilling Deity to relent from his
severity and to act with generosity. On the contrary, the advocacy is the appointment
of Divine love and the channel of Divine favour. Christ does not mean that he will
not pray the Father for ua; but that this fact of interces^tion is not the point upon
which he is now dwelling. He is anxious that his friends should understand that the
Father's love is free, that his liberality is such as to secure to his Son's fiiends the
enjoyment of all good. And, as a consequence, every Christian is encouraged to bring
his petitions to God, in the Kame of Christ indeed, yet with the assurance that there
is now nothing on the part of the Father to hinder tiie bestowal of all needed and
desirable blessings.— T.
Ver. 33. — Words of eheer. These last words of our Lord's last discourse must have
rung melodiously in the ears of those who were privileged to listen to them. No more
cheering tones, no brighter vision, could Jesus have left with his bereaved, but not
orphaned, not comfortless, disciples.
L Christ's feofle uust enoube tribuIiAtion. 1. This is the consequence of their
remaining for a season in a world where sin and sorrow still prevail. 2. It is involved
in their participation in their Master's lot. If he was hated and persecuted, how can
his followers escape 7 As the world treated the Lord, so in a measure will it treat
those who are faithful to him, and who tread in his steps. 3. This lot is not one of
unmixed evil. Tribulation is discipline ; the wheat is threshed in order that it may
be set free from the husks and straw, and the character of Christians is, as a matter of
fact, refined and purified by the winnowing of aQiction and persecution.
II. Christ has consolation and BNCouRAaBMENT fob" his people when they
ENDURE THE TRIBULATION OF THE WORLD. 1. His words bring pcacc. The whole
of the discourse which here concludes breathes of peace. His revelations of the present
and of the future are alike fitted to soothe the mind perturbed by the distresses and
the disasters of this life. 2. His sympathy brings courage. It seems to have been
a favourite saying of our Lord, " Be of good cheer 1 " Be courageous and confident I
It was, however, a saying always accompanied by his own Divine presence and voice.
It was powerful because it came from his lips, from his tender heart, because with it
there went- out from him to his afSicted ones the spiritual power which enabled them
to endure and strive and hope. 3. His conquest brings victory. Even now, before he
was overwhelmed with the baptism of sacrificial sorrow, he could speak of himself as
having overcome the world. But a few hours had yet to elapse, and the world should
lie at his feet, purchased, vanquished, subdued 1 And Christ overcame, not for himself,
but for his people ; that, fighting by his side on earth, they might reign with him
above ; that, overcoming in and with him, thay might ut down with Um upon his
throne. — T.
Ver. 7. — Tht expediency of Christ* departure. We shall elucidate the tmths of the
text by the following remarks.
I. That the mission of the Holt Sfibit was essential to the obeat plan
OF redemption. " The Comforter will not come," implying that his coming was
essential to the carrying on of the good work in them and tbiongh them. L A* the
Divine Sevealer. Christ revealed the Father ; the Spirit was to reveal Christ. This
revelation involves : (1) Immtrd light. The illumination of the soul, the mind, the
intellect, the heart, and conscience. (2) Outward light. The great truths concerning
Jesus, and all the &cts of redemption, would be presented in a new and clearer light by
the miaistiy of the Spirit (3) Inward wj^lication. He not only sheds fresh ligu
spon the great beta of redemption, but specially and directly applies them in the soul
324 THE GOSPEL ACCOKDING TO ST. JOHK. [oh. xti. 1—33.
Aa tha Spirit of truth, capable of inspiring and influencing directly the springs oi
action and choice, he is specially adapted for this inward application without which
the revelation is incomplete. 2. As the Divine Regenerator. The Creator of the new
life, the new heart, the new man, and the new world, and the Builder of the spiritual
temple. This new creation is an essential part of the plan of redemption, and is the
department of the Holy Spirit. 3. At the Divine SoMctifler. Carrying on the good
work gradually unto perfection. 4. Aa the Divine Comforter. As such he is introduced
by our Lord. This was their special need, as well as the special need of all believers
in all ages.
IL That the dbpartuee or Jesus was bssbntiai. to the coming of the Holt
Spirit. " If I go not away," etc. 1. His departwe was essential to the completion of
his own work and the fulfilment of his mission. He could say with propriety, " If I
go not away, I cannot finish the work given me to do." This involved : (1) A perfect
atonement for sin. It is true the atonement was begun in his life ; for " he is the
Atonement ; " but completed by his voluntary and self-sacrificing death, and it was
through death he was to depart and by death complete the atonement. (2) His perfect
example. (3) His perfect and glorified life. Only in consequence of his departure
by death these were attainable. He was made perfect through sufferings. 2. Uu
xmpletion of his work was essential to the coming of the Holy Spirit. " If I go not
iway, the Comforter," etc. (1) The Holy Spirit could not come without a complete
commission. In all the Divine proceedings there is perfect order. There is nothing done
at random or by accident, but all according to the strictest laws of order and fitness.
When Christ came, be came with a complete commission, in the fulness of time, and
in the fulness of his Father's love. The Spirit could only come in the same way. (2)
He could not obtain his full commission imtil the triumphant arrival of Jesus at home.
Then his commission would bs complete in the completed work of Christ. Its con-
ditions were then fulfilled and its substance then perfect, ready for use. (3) The
departure of Jesus was not only esseri tial in relation to the commission of the Spirit,
but also in relation to the disciples themselves. The remaining of Christ with them in
the flesh was incompatible with the full enjoyment of the Spirit. He had to ascend on
high, not only to receive the gift of the Spirit, but also to make room for him in their
heart and faith. In a sense there was no room for both at the same time. 3. TAe
completion of his work would result in the certain coming of the Spirit. " If I go
away, I will send," etc. This certainty lies : (1) In i}[i6 finished work and glorified life
of Christ. This deserved and even demanded the coming of the Spirit. The latter is
the natural result of the former. (2) In his personal and official infiuence toith the
Holy Spirit. This was the result of their oneness of nature, sympathy, will, and work.
He was fully conscious of the Spirit's readiness to come at bis request. (3) In the
unerring fidelity of the Divine promises. The promise of the Father to Jesus and that
of Jesus to his disciples : " I will send him," etc. He could not forget his promise, nor
fail to send him. The struggles and agonies of the past would remind him, the
infinite price paid and the importance of his coming would remind him, the tender and
eternal love he bore them would make him careful to send him. They had the earnest
when he breathed upon them. Let him go away, and the Spirit would come in his
Divine fulness.
III. That the ministry of the Holt Spirit would bb mors beneficial to thk
DISCIPLES AND ALL BELIEVERS THAN THE PERSONAL MINISTRT OP JeSUS. " It iS expe-
dient," etc. 1. The personal ministry of Jesus was local ; that qf the Spirit i* universal.
Christ could not be personally present in more than one place at the same time ; the
Spirit can be everywhere. 2. The personal ministry of Christ was outward ; that of the
Spirit is inward. Christ appealed, with words and voice, to man through his physical
senses ; but the ministry of the Spirit is inward, appealing directly to the human heart,
will, and conscience. 3. The personal ministry of Christ had a tendency to keep alive
and foster the material and temporal ideas of his reign ; that of the Spirit had a direct
tendency to foster and establish spiritual ideas of his kingdom. While he remained
with his disciples, they tenaciously clung to the idea of a temporal king and a temporal
kingdom, and this idea would last as long as his personal presence ; but his departure
by death had a direct tendency to destroy this notion and blast this hope for ever, and
prepare them for the advent of the Holy Spirit, who would, on the ruins of the tem>
oa. XVI. 1-33.] THE GOSPEL AOCOfiDING TO ST. JOHN. 326
poral kingdom, establish a spiritnal one, » kingdom of God within. So that to the
advent of the Spirit, in conseqnence of the personal departure of Jesus, they were
indebted fpr true notions of the nature of his kingdom. 4. The ptrsonvH ministry of
Jesui was essentially temporary ; that of the ^^rtt it permanent. He came only fur
a time, and under human conditions was subject to persecutions and death, and would
ever be so, therefore his ministry could only be temporary ; but the Spirit came to
remain with and in his people for ever, and was personally above any physical injury
from the wicked world. Christ, like the Baptist, was only a temporary herald in the
world. As soon as his mission was fulfilled, he disappeared ; but the Spirit is a settled
Minister, and his charge he will never relinquish. 5. Christ, by the Holy Spirit, was
more really and efficiently present with his disciples than he would be by his continual
personal presence. So that he went away in order to come nearer to them, and come
in a higher and diviner form ; not in weakness, but in power; not in shame, but in
glory ; not in the shadow of death, but in the halo of a " Divine and glorified life ; " not
in the flesh, but in the Spirit ; not outside, but within them ; so that his departure
resulted to them in more of Christ and the ministry of the Spirit as welL 6. By the
Spirit, not only he could be m^>re to them, but they also could be more to him and to
his purposes of grace. More to themselves in the progress and development of their
spiritual nature and chamcter. More to the human family in their conversion and
progress in holiness. With Christ's ministry of reconciliation, his perfect example, the
inspiration of his devoted life, and self-sacrificing and atoning death, with the indwell-
ing and accompanying influences of the Spirit, they could do infinitely more for Christ
than if he were alone to remain personally with them. This was demonstratively
proved after Pentecost. Tliey were better missionaries, better heralds of the gospel of
peace, and more heroic and enduring soldiers of t!ie cross. In fact, in this way alone
Christ could fulfil his purposes in them, and through them in the world.
Lessons. 1. All the teaching of Jesus to his disciples was absolutely true. " I tell
you the truth." He never told a falsehood ; he was incapable of this. He knew the
truth, so that he could not mistake. He was true— the Truth, so that he would not
deceive. It would be as easy for darkness to proceed from light as for falsehood to
proceed from him who is the Truth. 2. Be told them the truth, although he knew it
to be at the time most unpalatable. " Nevertheless," etc. This truth concerning his
departure was so. Nothing could be more distasteful to their feelings and sentiments.
Still he told them. He was most tenderly careful of their feelings. Still these were
not the chief regulators of his revelations. 3. Some truths which at the time are m^st
unpalatable prove at the end most beneficial and Joyous when fully understood and
realized. The departure of Jesus was such. It filled, at the moment, their heart with
sorrow, but filled it afterwards with spiritual joy. 4. Christ, in all his sayings, deeds,
and movements, was ever actuated by the supreme good of his disciples. " It is
expedient for you," etc. Not what was best or most convenient for him, but what
would best serve their spiritual interest and that of the world. — B. T.
Ver. 28. — An epitome of Christ's history. Notice —
I. Whence he game. "I came out from the Father." This implies: 1. Unity
or oneness of nature. It is not " I came from the presence of the Father," or " from
a near point to him," but "I came out from him" — ^an expression which would be
highly improper to be used by any one but by him who is equal and one with the
Father, one in nature and essence. It is clearly the language of an equal, and not of
an inferior. 2. Nearness of relationship. The human relationship which best expresses
the relationship of the " eternal Word" t» the Godhead is that of father and son, and
this is used. It must not be carried too far, but we are grateful for it, as it sheds some
light on Christ with regard to the Godhead ; he stands in the most near and natural
relationship to him, and this relationship is not outward, accidental, and transient, but
inward, essential, and everlasting — the relationship of nature and essence. 3. The most
intimate fellowship and acquaintance. The Divine nature is social. We like the
idea of the unity ot God, one supreme Being fulfilling the idea of perfect oneness ; and
we like also the idea of a Trinity which deprives mere unity of its dreariness, loneli-
ness, and monotony, and fills it with the joys and delights of society— the royal and
Diviue lociety of the Divine nature. " I came out from," et«. Their fellowship must
32« THE GOSPEL ACCOftDlN(J tO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvi. 1— SSl
be most intimate, Inspiring, and pure, and their acquaintance perfect. 4. Z%e warmut
friendship. Wliat must be the mutual friendship uf the father of love with the Sue
of his love? It must be the warmest, intensest, sweetest, and most delightful. The
purest and most loving human friendships fade before this. 5. The most dignified and
floriouM position. " From the Father." The most glorious position in the universe,
lis position was equal with that of the eternal Father, his glory was as resplendent,
his throne as majestic, his sceptre as nniversal, and his throne as dignified. 6. A
Divine procession. It is difficult, in human language, to describe the Divine move-
ments, and to add anything in explanation to the simple statement of our Lord, which
to him was quite plain. " I came out," etc. But there must be a special movement
of the Divine nature on the part of the Son, a coming out from the Father, a partial
hut temporary separation, and a procession of him whose goings forth have been firom
of old.
II. Whitheb he came. As we see the first movement of the eternal Son, we are
inclined to ask whither will he go? Doubtless to one of the largest planets, in one of
the most glorious systems in the universe. No ; but he came into the world. He was
in the world before, but now came to it, and came into it in a usual, natural way, by
birth. This implies: 1. A great distance. From the Father into the world. The
physical diRtance must be great, but the moral distance greater still. From the
Divine to the human, from the sphere of Divine glory, purity, and life, to the sphere
of shame, sin, sorrow, and death. The distance was infinite, and the journey was long.
2. A great change. There is a change of air, from the pure air of the Father's presence
to the foul air of this world. A change of sceneries, of society, of associations, of
relationships. The old ones were only partially left, but new ones were formed. A
now nature was assumed ; new conditions, circumstances, and employments under-
taken. The nature of the creature was assumed by the Creator, the nature of the
sinner was assumed by Divine purity, and the nature of weakness was assumed by
infinite power. The Son of God became the Son of man, the form of God was
exchanged for the form of a servant, and the Lord of heaven became the tenant of this
wretched, insignificant, and rebellions world. What a change 1 What a change from
the throne to the manger, from the crown to the cross, from the society of the Father
and angels to that of the rebellious children of the Fall, from the sweet mtisic of heaven
to the malignant execrations of earth I 3. A great mission. " Am come into the
world." This suggests that he came as an Ambassador ; and the very fact that he came
from the Father into the world proves that he came upon a most important mission —
a mission which deeply affected the very heart of the Ring, the honour of his throne,
and the well-being of his subjects. His important mission was to effect reconciliation
between earth and heaven ; to condemn sin and save the sinner ; to conquer for ever the
prince of thiS world and the powers of darkness, and create a new heaven and a new
earth. His mission affected not merely this world, but the whole universe. 4. A great
sacrifice. This was required to meet the demands of justice and law, and the need of
the world. And his mission was a sacrifice from beginning to end ; from the first
movement, the coming out from the Father, the coming into the world, his life in it,
and his departure from it through the ignominious death of the cross, — ^all this was au
infinite sacrifice sufficient to answer the purposes of Divine love involved in the mission
of the Son in the world. 5. A great fact. What is this? That the Son of God was
incarnate in this world, and it includes all the great facts of his earthly history, which
are summed up here in one, " Am come into the world." This is the greatest in this
world's history — ^the fact of the greatest glory, interest, and consequences in all its
annals. It has made this world a centre of interest, meditation, and wonder for all the
intelligent universe. 6. A great responsibility. If the Son of God was in this world,
and for it lived and died in order to bring it into allegiance with heaven, in the face of
such a condescension, expense^ and sacrifice, its responsibility is infinite.
III. Whitheb he went. 1. He left the world. (1) Bis stay here was not intended
to le long. When he came, he came only for a short time. He was a pilgrim in the
land rather than a permanent resident. He came as an Ambassador, to perform •
■pecitd work, and his hard work bespoke a short stay. (2) He aeeompUshed his work
here. He came to the world, not to enjoy, but to work ; not to reit, but to toil ; not
to live, but imther to die. He worked hard, and finishec his work ettlj ; then he Ml
CH. xn. 1— as.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST. JOHN. 827
—there was no mora to do here. The world tried to send him away before his work
was finished, but failed. Not before he cried, " It is finished 1 " he gave up the ghost.
(3) He had a work to do in another place — within the veil. He could not do that work
here. He could not be idle. If there was no work here, he would go where it was.
He was bound to time and special employments. 2. He went to the Father — to the Kims
place as he came from. (1) 2%i« was in the original plan. It was one of the con-
ditions of his departure that he should soon return to the same place and to the same
glory. The inhabitants could not be long happy without him. Heaven was not the
same during his absence. (2) His mission was fulfilled to the Father's entire satisfac-
tion. Jesus was fully conscious of this, otherwise he would not speak with such con-
fidence and delight of returning to his Father. This is the last thing a disloyal and
inefficient ambassador will do. The sweet voice ever rang in his soul, " I have both
glorified, and will glorify thae." (3) His return was most natural and sweet to him,
to the Father, and to aU. He was never so far and so long from home before, and his
return was most gratifying to the Divine heart, and it fulfilled the Divine love. Never
had a conquering hero such welcome on his return. Welcome was the language of all the
happy family, and the sweet burden of every strain which streamed from harps of gold.
It was speciaUy delightful to him. After the hardships of his earthly campaign, home
must be indeed sweet ; but all the sufferings he forgot in the ecstasy of Divine welcome
and the delight of triumph.
Lessons. 1. All the promises of Christ to faith will he fulfilled. He had promised
it plainer revelations of the Father, and the text is the first instalment. Christ's light
is ever in proportion to the strength of the eye, and his revelations, in substance and
language, suitable to the capacities of faith— now in proverbs, now in plainer language
and with greater confidence, introducing to it deeper mysteries and brighter visions.
2. All the movements of Christ in connection with the great scheme of redemption were
purely volwntary. Those indicated in these words were bo. " I came out from the
Father," etc. He had perfect control over all his moTements, and they were invariably
the results of his sovereign and free will. 3. When he went to the Father he took the
cause of the world, especially that of his disciples, with him — in his nature, in his heart,
and wiM never leave nor forget it. 4. When he left the world he left the best part
of himself behind. He left the precious results of his life and death, his example,
his pardoning love, his Spirit, his blessed gospel with all its rich contents. 6. As he
went to the Father, this indicates the direction we should go, and ever look for him.
We know where he is. He left not his disciples in ignorance of his destination ; he left
his fuU address, and in its light we have s Father, and an Almighty Advocate with
him.— B. T.
Vers. 29 — 32. — Faith in calm and storm. Notice —
L The confkssioh of faith. " By this we believe," etc. This indicates : 1. Faith
in the proper Oly'ect. "We believe that thou," etc. They believed in his Person and
character, and in the Divinity of his mission. Their faith, even at this time, had not
nade much progress in spiritual elevation and grasp of its Object; still, this fresh con-
fession of it was encouraging. If not much progress is made, it is cheering to know
there is no retrogression. 2. Faith is founded upon intelligent basis. " By this we
believe," etc. (1) Hhe plainness of his speech. In his last words there was no proverb.
The revelation is clear. He had promised them this, and now it is partly fulfilled, and
fulfilled sooner than they expected. This prompt fulfilment of his promise gives new
life to faith. (2) The Divinity of his knowledge. They are struck with its Divine
extensiveness : " all things ; " and with its Divine quality. It is not derived through
the ordinary human channels of answers to questions, but it is independent of these,
and the inherent produce of his own mind. And this they had learnt, not from hearsay
and observation, but from experience. He revealed and satisfied their most secret
wants and wishes without any questions. 3. Its confession is very confident. " Now
we know " etc. This knowledge is experimental, and such knowledge is the confidence
of faith. 'Knowledge is helpful to faith, and faith is helpful to knowledge. Knowledge
is the resting-place of faith, and the steps over which it climbs the alpine heights of
Divine truth, i. Its confession is enthusiastic. " Lo, now speakest thou," etc. This is
(he glow of £kitb on emerging from darkness into light, its first blosh at tk« sight of a
828 THE 30SPBL ACCOBDINO TO BT. JOHN. [oh. ztl 1— 33w
new vision, its entlinsiasm on the hill of • newly acquired knowledge. The plainer
reTelation of Jesus was sudden, and produced in the disciples a triumphant outburst of
confidence in the Divinity of his mission. The confession has some light, but more
heat. 6. Its confession is united. "By this we," etc. There is not a dissentient
voice. One spote for all, and all spoke in one. It is the chorus of young faith.
II. The examination of faith. 1. It is examined hy Jesus. He is the Object of
faith, and its only infallible Examiner; the examination is short, but very thorough and
improving. " Do ye now believe?" (1) This question is veri/ important. Important
to the Master and the disciples. Every true master feels an interest in the success of
his pupils. Jesus was intensely desirous that they all should pass in faith successfully.
His leputation as a Master and a Saviour was at stake, and he trained them for service
which he required, and for which faith was essential. It was still more important to
them. "Do ye believe?" This is the first and greatest lesson of Christianity, and the
crucial question of Christ to his disciples. (2) This question natnraUy anticipates an
affirmative answer. Indeed, it had been enthusiastically answered in the affirmative
in the confession just made. And this was quite natural and true. Their faith was
genuine, and ought to be strong and firm ; they had great advantages, and Jesus had
taken infinite pains with them. (3) This question is very searching. Do you believe,
and believe now ? And not merely Jesus by this question searches them, but inspires
them to searcli themselves. This was highly characteristic of him as a Teacher. He
did not cram his disciples with his own thoughts, but rather inspired and helped them
to think themselves. He set the mental and spiritual machinery in motion, and this
simple question is highly calculated to inspire them to think and reflect and search
themselves, and to look about within as to the real and present state of faith. (4) This
question is as tender and sympathetic as it is searching. Worthy of the great Master
and suitable to the condition of his disciples. His patience and compassion were Divine.
He does not upbraid them with slowness, imperfection, and vacillation of faith in spite of
all his tuition. He does not break out into a storm of impatience and recrimination,
but tenderly for the moment leaves the question to them, and gradually sends more
light so as to bring it fully home to them. (5) This question involves joy and sorrow.
The joy and sorrow of perfect knowledge. He knew that their faith was genuine and
would be ultimately triumphant : this was a source of joy. He knew as well that at
{^resent it was weak, too weak to withstand the impending storm : this was a source of
sorrow. And in this short question the sad and joyous notes are distinctly heard. 2.
Faith is examined by Christ in convection vnth a most extraordinary trial. His own
trial, the great tragedy of his crucifixion, which also would be the trial of faith. This
is foretold. (1) It is foretold as being very near. "Behold, the hour cometh," etc.
They were within the hour and already within the vortex of the terrible whirlpool,
(2) It is foretold as being certain. There was no doubt about it, and this they would
readily believe from the new glimpse they profess to have had of his perfect knowledge
of all things. (3) It is foretold in the interest of faith. Not to discourage and damp
its ardour, but rather to break its inevitable fall from the height of present confidence
to the depths of momentary doubt and darkness. Over the ladder of his revelation it
had climbed up, and ought to remain there ; but knowing that it would not, he furnishes
it with another ladder to descend, so as not to be destroyed if somewhat daunted. It
was foietold in the present and future interest of faith.
III. The tbmpoeart FAiLtmB of faith. " Ye shall be scattered," etc. 1. It* failure
happened when it was thought to he strong. Think of their enthusiastic confession a
short time ago. The gloom of doubt is often at the heels of the glow of faith. The
fire often blazes brightly just before it is partially extinguished. When wo are weak
we are strong, and when we are strong we are weak. 2. Its failure happened when H
ought to be firm, and when it was most needed hy them and the Saviour. When was it
needed more than when its Object needed sympathy? It was one thing to be loud in
their professions of faith in him during the palmy days of his triumph and miracles,
but quite another to cling to him in his apparent defeat. They left him in the storm,
when their adherence would be most important and valuable. "A friend in need is a
friend indeed." 3. The manner of its failure reveals its real cause. " Every man to
his own." The cause of the failure of faith was selfishness. Faith in Christ is
essentially a denial of self, but in this hour of severe trial futh for s moment left
OH. xn. 1-53.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN, 829
Christ and clung to self. Is not this a true picture of weak and imperfect faith In all
ages? 4. Its failvre is very mdancholy in its immediate results. (1) A tempoiary
separation from one another. " Every man to his own." Weakness of faith in Christ
tends to dissolve society. Genuine faith in Christ sends every man out of himself to
his fellow, and finds strength and happiness in union. (2) A temporary separation
from Christ. "And shall leave me alone." What weakness, inconsistency, and
cowardice! And what a sad failure of even genuine faith at the heginning of its
glorious career ! And this will appear especially when we think that he was a Divine
volunteer from the other world come to fight and conquer their foes. They left him
in the grip of the enemy, and fled. What British soldier would hehave so towards his
general ? But such was the sad failure of the hravest soldiers of the cross in the ever-
memorable battle between self and benevolence. 6. This temporary but sad failwe of
faith engages his sympathy. We describe it as base and cowardly, and so it was; and
80 it is in us often under less trying circumstances. But not a harsh word drops from his
lips, but words of encouragement and comfort. In order that they might not be too
depressed on account of their cowardly conduct in leaving him alone, he tenderly adds,
" Yet I am not alone," etc.
Lessons. 1. Faith may be genuirie, yet weak, inconsistent, and temporarily eclipsed.
It was so in the case of the first disciples. It miserably gave way in the hour of trial ;
yet it was genuine, as the sequel amply proves. We must not judge too soon with
regard to the reality of faith and its ultimate fate. 2. A severe trial is a test of the
strength of faith. But in judging the partial failure of faith we must take into account
the severity of the trial. The most heroic faith will often be baffled in a terrible storm.
Such was the storm in which the disciples' faith was now. 3. Genuine faith, however
weak, will benefit hy its own failures. This vi-as the case with regard to the disciples.
Their faith never gave way afterwards. 4. Tfie partial failwe <f genuine faith often
culminates in a most glorious triumph. Genuine faith seldom sank lower than in the
case of the disciples here, but certainly never rose higher in heroism and victory than
in their after-life. 5. Although genuine faith may sometimes leave Jesus, he never leaves
genuine faith. Hence its ultimate triumph. In his first disciples he nursed faith with
the patience and tenderness of a mother, and in its greatest weakness and shame cast
on it a tender look of love. Faith can only live on Divine love. And although he set
the highest mark before his disciples, and ever encovuraged and inspired them on to it,
yet he was most sympathetic with their failings, and ever treated them as human.
And so successful was his tuition, that eleven out of twelve passed with honours, and
the only failure was the son of perdition. This is the greatest encouragement to th«
weakest faith in him. — ^B. T.
Ver. 32. — Christ alone, and not alone. Notice —
I. Christ alone. " Shall leave me alone." Through the great tragedy which
followed, of which Gethsemane was but a short prelude, and of which the visible was
but a small part, Christ, as far as this world was concerned, was alone. 1. He was
socially alone. He could really say, " And of the peoiJe there was none with me."
The world was against him, and even the existing Church was against him, its chief
magnates being the ringleaders in his crucifixion. And, more than all, he was alone
as to the adherence of his most faithful followers, which he might naturally expect and
would so much appreciate. At this very time one of them was in the city betraying
. him to his most inveterate foes ; another was about to deny him in the most determined
manner; all were about to leave him in terror. So that from Gethsemane to the cross
he was socially alone — alone amidst such a vast throng of men. 2. He was mentally
alone. He was ever so. Even when his disciples were with him, his mental conceptions
towered above them; they could not understand his thoughts, comprehend fiilly his
mission in the world, nor grasp the meaning of his life and death. The Baptist, who
hitherto had the highest conception of him when he exclaimed, " Behold the Lamb of
Godl " was gone, and even the few glimpses which his disciples caught of his scheme
were now extinguished. His mind had no associate, and there was no mental reciprocity
Qe'.ween mm and any human being. He stood in the world of thought the lonely Thinker.
it. Ee was spiritually alone. He was the only sinless Being in the world, and there
was not a single lonl in full spiritual harmony with his. His diiciplea still dung to
8S0 THE GOSPEL ACOOBDING TO ST. JOHN. [«m. itl 1--83.
the idea of a temporal kingdom. Peter manifested hia sympathy in a dumgy attempt
to fight bis foes with a sword, which was to him a greater insult than help. And even
the wail of the tender-hearted women at the cross was misapplied, lacked spiritual
Tirtue, and did not rhyme with the agonizing wail uf his soul for sin. In the yearning!
and struggles of bia holy nature, and the spiritual conceptions and purposes of his heart,
he stood the lonely King and Saviour. 4. To a great extent he was necessarily alone.
In a great portion of his work no one could help. He drank a cup of which no one
could drink a drop, and carried a burden of which no one could carry an atom — the cup
of our curse and the burden of our sin. When making an atonement, satisfying justice
and honouring Law, and manifesting Divine love in sacrifice, he was necessarily alone.
He fought the powers of darkness, vanquished death and the prince of this world in a
single combat. He trod the wine-press alone. No one could help him, and he did not
expect it. But he expected the allegiance of his friends. But even this was denied him
for a time, not for want of genuine love, but for want of intelligent and courageous
laith and self-sacrificing adherence and spiritual discernment. He does not complain
of this ; still, he keenly felt it, and it pained him. Wliat pain was it? (1) The pain oj
petfect and tender sociality at being alone. To be left alone would not aSect an unsocial
hermit, a cold misanthrope ; such would be in their element. But Jesus was the most
social of beings ; he would associate with the poor, and would appreciate the least kind-
ness. The desertion of friends would specially pain such a nature. (2) The paim of
perfect humanity in the total absence of genuine sympathy in suffering. It is not more
natural for the thirsty flower to look to heaven for its dew than for man to look to his
friend for sympathy in suffering. But this was denied Jesus. When he cried, " I thirst,"
there was only the rough and unsympathetic hand of a foreigner to gire him a sip of
drink. (3) The pain which perfect henevolence feds at ingratitude. He felt this with
regard to the nation, and with regard to hundreds in that crowd whom he had personally
benefited, and all of whom he had sought to benefit ; but especially with regard to his
disciples, whom he had loved, and loved to the end. But they deserted him while fighting
their battle and the battle of the world. (4) The pain of an absolutely pure and loving
being at the terrible and wniversal sinfulness and selfishness which his loneliness indicated.
He was face to fiice with this as he was never before. From it there was not so much
as a weak discii^e to shelter him. " Every man to his own," and he alone for all.
(5) The pain <^ perfect sympathy with the weakness of friends. He loved them still.
Hence the special pain caused by their desertion. The betrayal of Judas was to Tiim
more poignant than the nails of steel, the denial of Peter keener than the spear of the
Roman, and the flight of his friends more painful than all the cruel treatment of
his foes.
n. Chbibt hot alone. " Yet I am not alone, because the Father," etc. He had
the fellowship of his Father. 1. This fellowship was essential. Being one in nature
and essence, nothing could separate him from this. It was one of the special and
essential privileges of nature and relationship. 2. I%is fellowship was deserved, and
bestowed upon him as a Divine favour for his perfect obedience. It was not interrupted
by his incarnation, but fully enjoyed by him in human nature and under human
conditions. It was the reward of his voluntary sacrifice and his perfection as a
Mediator and the Author of eternal salvation. He did nothing to forfeit it, but every-
thing to deserve and secure it in the fullest measure. 3. This fellowship was continuous
and unbroken. It is not " The Father was," or " will be," but " is with me " — with me
now and always. He was fully conscious of his Father's cheering and smiling presence
in every emotion he felt, every thought he conceived, every word he uttered, every
purpose he executed, every act he performed, and in every suffering he bore. His
whole life was such a manifestation of his Father's character and love, such an execu-
tion of his will and purposes, that he was ever conscious of his loving and approving
fellowship. It is true that at that darkest moment on the cross he exclaimed, " My
God, my God," etc. — the full meaning of which we probably can never know. When
drinking the very dregs of the cup of our curse, he could not describe his experience
better than by saying that he felt as if the Father had for a moment hid his face from
him. But he was still conscious of his fellowship, addressed him as his Gk)d, and soon
committed his Spirit unto his loving care. 4. Thisfelhwship was fo him how specuM$
tweet and preeious. It was ever precious, liut specially m naw. He could not bt«(
OH. XVI. 1—33.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST. JOHN. 331
the opposition of foes, and especially the desertion of friends, were it not for the
continued fellowship of the Father. And who can render such help and solace in the
hour of trial as an ahle and a kind father? Jesus, the most lonely of human beings,
especially now, was yet not alone ; deserted by the best human fellowship, he still
enjoyed the Divine, and the human desertion made the Bivineall the more precious and
sweet. This was his support in trial, his light in darkness, and his saftity from utter
loneliness. He enjoyed the best and Divinest society.
Lessons. 1. There wm one 'thing which neither friends nor foes could do to Jesus,
vix. deprive him of Divine fdlowship. From the greatest human loneliness he could
say, "I am not tdone, because the Father is with me." Neither earth nor hell can
interfere with Divine fellowship with regard to Jesus or believers. 2. We should not
be disappointed or despair if in the hour of trial vie are deserted by the best of friends.
Think of Jesus. 3. TVue fellowship with the Father by faith in Christ can only preserve
us from utter loneliness. We can bear every loneliness but that in relation to our
Father. 4. When deserted by friends and by all, God comes nearest to us. The least
of man the most of God, often; furthest from earth the nearest to heaven. 5. TIu
fellowship of the Father will more than compensate for all the desertions of earth. One
day in his courts is better than a thousand. 6. Let us cultivate the fellowship of Christ,
especially in hit loneliness, then we shall enjoy with him the fellowship of his Father.
Let us prepare for human desertions, for they will certainly come ; but let them come
upon us in the best society — that of the Father. To be left alone by him is the most
horrible loneliness, but his fellowship will be sufficient in all circumstances, even in
death itself.— B. T.
Ver. 33. — In Christ and in the world. Notice —
L That the Christian nsr ths pbesent state is both in thk world and in
Christ. 1. Se is in the world. (1) He is in the material world. In virtue of his
connection with the material world he is a man, and in it he finds the present essential
sources and elements of his physical life. (2) He is in the social world. He is a
men;iber of society, and subject to its various laws, arrangements, relationships, and
obligations. He eats his bread by the sweat of his brow. (3) He is in the wicked
world. We mean that he lives among wicked men ; for the world in itself is good and
beautiful, but there are in it many wicked inhabitants. As a subject, he may have a
tyrannical sovereign. As a citizen, he may have oppressive and persecuting laws, which
interfere with his rights as a man and as a Christian. As a member of a Church, he
may have more than one Judas to deal with. The world is full of ignorance, carnality,
selfishness, pride, hypocrisy, bigotry, and intolerance. He may have to do with men
who deem it a sacred duty and a Divine service to take away his life. 2. He is also in
Christ. He is united by faith to him. As his physical life is in the world, his spiritual
life is in Christ. (1) As to its source and authorship. (2) As to its support. (3) As
to its Example ana Model. (4) A s to its continuance and safety. (5) As to its present
andfirud end. He is in Clirist, and Christ is in him. But although he is the world,
the world is not in him. He is a mere pilgrim in the world ; his home is in Christ.
3. He is in the world and in Christ at the same time. He is a member of society and a
member of Christ ; a citizen of earth and a citizen of heaven ; the subject of an earthly
sovereign and a loyal subject of the King of kings ; carries on business in this world
and in another; deals with different men and perha|js different nations, and deals with
angels and God ; his feet walk this earth, and bis conversation is in heaven at the same
time. He is two, and yet one. He has physical and spiritual life, human and Divine
nature, and has to do with two different spheres at the same moment. 4. He was in
the world before he was in Christ, not,perhaps, in all its relationships, but he wax certainly
in the wicked world, and the wicked world to a more or less extent in him. From the
world are all those who are in Christ. Some of them were about to pass out of the
world when they passed by faith into Christ. A second birth presupposes a first, and
the first is a birth into the world, and the second into Christ. 5. He will be in Christ
after he has left the world. If the world had him first, Christ will have him last.
The world will soon expel him, but Christ never. The world shall ultimately pass
away, but Christ shall remain. The world shall vanish, that Christ and all in him may
appear and enjoy each other all the more. The Christian was born into the world
382 THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvi. 1— 3a
Hoon to die, but bom into Cbrist to live for ever. When lost from the world he will
be found still in Obrist. His connection with the world is temporal, but his connection
with Clirist is eternal. The requirements of physical life will soon be at an end, but
those of spiritual life are cosTal with the life of Christ himself. Circumstanceii will
inevitably break our connection with this world; but " who shall separate us from the
love of Christ ? " etc.
II. That which the Christian has in the world ib very different from
WHAT HE HAS IN Chbist. 1. Ee hos tribulation in the world. Not in the material
world. This is as kind to him, and perhaps more so, than to any. The material world
has ere this been rather partial to the Christian. This is very natural. He is on tha
side of and friendly with its Author, Proprietor, and Buler, and hns special capacities to
really appropriate and enjoy it. The world in which he has tribulation is the wicked,
ignorant, religious, ecclesiastical, bigoted, and intolerant world. This is the world
which worried the patriarchs, killed the prophets, martyred the apostles, and persecuted
and butchered believers through many ages. And the wicked world is still full of the
genius of tribulation. 2. He has peace in Christ. There is no peace in the world ; there
is no tribulation in Christ, but unmixed peace. One of his names is the Prince oi
Peace, and the motto of his kingdom is " Peace on earth, and good vnll." He is the
Author, Medium, and Supporter of Divine peace to all connected with him by faith.
3. He has tribulation in the world because he has peace in Christ. (1) The passage
between the world and Christ is rough. In a sense it is but a narrow sea, but the
hostile world and its prince from within and without manage to make it generally
stormy. Many have commenced the voyage and almost reached the shore, but were
swept back by the storm. That young man who came to Christ asking, " What must
I do," etc., almost had reached " the Bock of ages," but was dashed back by an awful
wave of worldliness, and was disheartened. (2) The passage through the world in Christ
is rough. He is safe in Christ, but cannot reach the desired haven without storms and
hurricanes. If a man is in Christ, he must steer through the same course, and, if so,
must go through tribulation, shame, persecution, and perhaps martyrdom. Whoever
has invariably fine weather on the Christian voyage may well question whether he is in
the right vessel and in the right course. For " through much tribulation ye must," etc.
Some may fare better than others, but it is ever true that " whoever will live godly in
Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." The nearer to Jesus the greater the tribulation of
the world. 4. The Christian has peace in Christ because he has tribulation in the tuorld.
Those who have the world's frowns have Jesus' smiles. At every point the world troubles
Jesus has provided special peace. At every stage of the voyage there is a harboni of
refuge, and at every port there is a " Sailors' Home." When persecuted in Christ we can
bless our persecutors; when misjudged by a selfish world we can well wait in him for
the day of revelation and redress. When the Christian has most tribulation in the
world then he has most peace in Christ — then he needs and is driven for it. It was
never so dark with Stephen as when under that terrible shower of stones; but it was
never so bright between him and above, — then he saw heaven opened, and the " Sun of
man," etc. When Paul and Silas were in chains in the world, then they sang in
Christ. When the world banished the beloved disciple, then he was received into
Christ's inner court of revelation and peace.
III. That all which Christ said and did on earth was in order that
HIS peaok should otrrwEioH the tribulation of the world. " These things,"
etc. Notice : 1. What he said as a source of peace. (1) He foretold the tribulation of
the world. He laithfuUy drew the map of their pilgrimage, and indicated their suffer-
ings in red lines and marks. No tribulation, however severe, could take them by
surprise. And to be forewarned is to be forearmed. (2) He explained to them its
nature, degree, causes, and effects, and how to behave in it. He describes the tribulation
as only limited and temporary, and, under his gracious direction and influence, sanctifying
and spiritually advantageous. It is a tonic to the soul, a furnace to purify, a storm to
blow them from the material to.the spiritual, and ultimately from a foreign and hostile
land to their peaceful home. (3) He pointed them to an infinite Source <)f comfort.
" That in me ye may," etc. Himself as a Source of peace, he describes as never faUing,
ever near, and most communicative and satisfying. The cruellest storms of tribulation
can only drive the COiristian nearer to the Source of peace, and its last wave can only
ea. xn. 1— 83.J THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. S38
cast him on the ahorea of the pacific ocean of endless life and love. Every word ot
Christ, especially his last words, is a pipe through which the oil of pace flows to the
believing heart, and a golden pitcher with which to draw water iiom the wells of
salvation. 2. What he did as a Source of comfort. " I have overcome the world."
This is a source of something more than peace. It is a source of joy. "Be of good
cheer," etc. What good cheer is this? (1) The good cheer of 9 compht* victory over
the greatest foe. The wicked world is the greatest foe of God and man. Christ over-
came it completely in all its corrupt elements and forces, temptations and destructive-
utss, including its prince. He gained a complete victory over the great empire of evil.
The world was the champion before Christ appeared, but he is the Champion now.
His followers have only a conquered foe to fight. (2) The good cheer of a complete
victory ever the world for us. It certainly would be some source of comfort in fighting
the wicked world to know that it had been conquered at all, but this comfort rises into
a cheer when we know that it has been conquered for us. This Christ did ; (a) As our
Substitute. He fought and conquered for ua. This is self-evident. He was infinitely
above the world, and would be eternally happy apart from our destiny; but in his love
he took up our cause. (V) As our Example. In our nature and in our circumstances,
tempted in all things as we are, but without sin, he has shown us in his own life
that there is something in us that is superior to the world, superior to suffering and
death ; that we can live a spiritual life independent of this, and can conquer every
element opposing our progress. He conquered the world to show us the way to conquer
it ourselves. M As our Inspiration. All he said, and especially what he did, cheers us
in the battle. (3) The good cheer of a certain victory in and through him. " I have
overcome the world," and it is unquestionably understood, " you will also overcome in
me." Those who fight the world in him, his presence is theirs, hia substitution is
'.heirs, his example is theirs, his good cheer is theirs, and his conquest will be theirs.
He throws all he said, and did, and does, and will do into the balance on their side, and
the result will be certain victory over the world.
Lessons. 1. The great difficulty of a Christian life is to live in the world and in
Christ at the same time. It would be easy to live in the world in complete agreement
with it, and it would be easy to live in heaven as a perfect saint ; but to live in the
world and in Christ means a conflict with the former, audit is the difficulty to triumph.
2. This is alone possible hy vital union with him. In him alone there is peace, and
through him alone there is victory. 3. Then the certainty of victory depends entirely
upon our union with him. There is a great danger of misappropriating the greatest
truths. " I have overcome the world." This may be developed into a delusive con-
fidence; still it is highly intended to cheer the weakest but honest faith. Let the
practical side of his substitution inspire us to make an honest effort in our spiritual
conflict with the world ; and let its meritorious, vicarious, and gracious side keep ua
from despair, even in our failures, but even down under the foe's feet let us cling And
look to Christ, ever remembering the inflnite possibilities of his complete victory for us,
and, if we fail, we will fail in faith in him, and not in victory over the world in him. — ^B. T.
Ver. 14. — The Christ glorified by the Spirit. " He shall glorify me : for he shall receive
of mine, and shall show it unto you." Thus our Lord sums up the work of the Holy
Spirit within the Church. He had just said that the Comforter is not to come as it
were on an isolated and independent mission. " He shall not speak of himself." For,
though he is another Comforter, he is not a second Mediator between God and man.
He is not a second Eedeemer, Prophet, Priest, and King. No ; there is but one Name
under heaven given among men whereby we must he saved. The office of the Holy
Spirit is to reveal to us that Name. He is to limit himself, if we may so speak, to
bearing witness concerning Christ. This may be said with perfect reverence. Doubt-
less to the infinite Spirit of the Eternal all secrets of creation and providence, and all
the most hidden things of the Divine counsels, lie open ; they are all his own. But
markl it is not to reveal these that he oome» as the Church's Comforter, the one
economy of grace that is the sphere of his mission, the one mystery of godlinesi that he
has taken upon himself to dispose. He it to continue Christ's own inatmctioni. H«
is to guide the disciple*, itep by step, "Into all the tratb," the whole tnith •■ It U in
Jwiu.
SS4 THK GOSPEL ACGOBDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. Xtl 1— 3d
I. This promise was laboblt folfillbd in thb ministbt op the apostles them*
SELVES AFTEB Pbntboost. They knew all the facts of our Lord's history already — hii
birth of a virgin, his death on the cross, and his resurrection and ascension into gloty.
But they were not left to themselves to interpret these facts and explain their spiritual
meaning. Far from it ; their eyes were opened, and their understandings guided from
above. They and the Apostle Paul, who was ere long to be added to their company,
had the mighty work entrusted to them of explaining to all ages the true significance
of the mission of Christ in the flesh. They were inspired to do this. A. wisdom not
their own was given to them. They were no longer " fools and slow of heart to believe
all that the prophets had spoken." Formerly they had been like children ; now they
were m°n of fidl age, and became the authoritative heiralds and expounders of the
gospel. Paul was fully conscious of this when he said, "God, who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts," etc. (2 Clor. iv. 6). It is
important to observe the order, so to say, of the Spirit's revelations concerning Christ.
The great outstanding facts, as just noted, of our Lord's manifestation to men are (1)
his incarnatiim ; (2) his cross ; (3) his crown. It is around these that all the doctrines
of the faith are clustered ; out of these facts they may be said to grow. From the very
first — that is to say from Pentecost — the Holy Spirit bore a certain witness concerning
them all. But in what order did he bring them into prominence ? Which did he first
show forth in light and glory to the eyes of men ? Plainly it was not the birth of
Christ, but his exaltation to the right hand of God. This was the great and urgent
theme of Pentecost and of the days which immediately followed (see the Book of Acts).
The words of the Apostle Peter, " God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have cruci-
fied both Lord and Christ," — these words were the beginning of the ministry of the
Holy Spirit. And then, as time went on, the full meaning of the cross was unfolded,
and the Apostle Paul, who, above all things, preached Christ crucified, was inspired to
declare it as no one else had done. And, last of all, the deep mystery of Christ's incar-
nation, how " the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us," — that in its turn was
chiefly explored by the beloved disciple John. Thus, through the illumination of the
same Spirit, the crown shed its light upon the cross, and the cross and the crown shed
their united light on the cradle. The ripe fruit, the imperishable record of all this, is
to be found in the Scriptures of the New Testament. How did the Spirit of truth
glorify Jesus in guiding and inspiring their human authors I What a revelation do they
contain of the Person and work, the mind and heart, of the Holy One, never to be
superseded by any newer Testament so long as the world lasts 1
II. This promise has been fubtheb fulfilled in the bubsequent histobt and
life of the Church. It was by no means exhausted when the eye-witnesses and first
ministers of the Word had gone to their rest, leaving behind them the memory of their
oral teaching and the Books of the New Testament. So far from this, it has ever been
by the Spirit of truth that the voice of Christ, even in the Scriptures, has continued to
be audible and mighty, and that his presence in any of the means of grace has been
realized. We are warned that the letter killeth ; and, alas 1 there have been Chm-ches
whose candlestick has been removed out of its place. But in each living Christian
community there are men whose lips and hearts are touched by fire from God's altar,
that they may interpret the gospel to their own times and their own brethren. Like
householders, they bring forth out of their treasures things new and old. By their
spoken words, by their written treatises, perhaps by their hymns of faith and hope,
they declare afresh to those around them the unsearchable riches of Christ. In its
essence and substance their message is still the same — " That which was from the
beginning ; " in its form and expression it varies with the aspects of providence and the
problems of human life. In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,
and the age will never come when these treasures shall be exhausted, or the Spirit's
ministry of revelation shall cease. " The world will come to an end when Christianity
shall have spoken its last word " (Yinet). Great, indeed, is the responsibility of Chris-
tian pastors and teachers, called as they are to be fellow-workers with God. The means
of grace, the lively oracles, are committed especially to their trust. It is theirs to trim
the lamps of life in a dark world ; it is theirs to feed the flock of Christ, to stand by
the wells of salvation and draw water for every one that is athirst. And who is sufii-
cient for these things? But it is the Master's work, and here is the promise which ha
«H. XTL 1—33.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. I3S
has given for the encouragement of all his servants. Light and power from on high
are assured hy it, and God will give his Spirit to them tViat ask him.
in. This promise is constantly fclfillbd in all tbue Christian expebibnob ;
for in the case of each individual believer the Holy Spirit takes of the things of Christ,
and shows them to his soul. It is no doubt true that the gospel record is the common
property of all mankind, and that any man in the mere exercise of his natural intelli-
gence can see clearly enough how the great doctrines of the faith are founded on the
record, and grow out of it. And thus, in point of fact, there are thousands who look
upon Christ as a great historical Teacher, and content themselves with making what
we may call an intellectual study of his own words and those of his apostles. Bat his
true disciples go further, much further than this. How shall we express the thoughts
of their hearts about Christ ? May we not say that these correspond to his own words,
"Behold, I am alive for evermore;" "Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of
the world " ? They think of him not as a Being separated from them by eighteen long
centuries of time, but as One who is really, though spiritually, present with them, at
once human and Divine. They habitually rejoice in his exaltation aa "Lord of all."
They feel a present peace in the blood of his cross. They bow before the mystery of
his taking on him our nature. His authority over them i* supreme, and altogether
welcome. His example is ever immeasurably in advance of them, though they humbly
seek to follow it ; and his words are like no other words — spirit and life to their hearts.
And we may say that these feelings and convictions of Christ's disciples are altogether
reasonable — that is to say, they are entirely in accordance with the supernatural fact
that Jesus is the Son of God. But whence came these convictions? Whence their
depth and their permanence and their power ? There is but one explanation, and we
find it in the promise before us: "The Spirit of truth shall receive of mine," etc.
Not that he brings any fresh tidings from the invisible world concerning Christ, or
adds a single fact or truth to what the Scriptures contain ; but to those who resist not
his teaching he manifests what is already known in its reality and glory. He opent
their eyes, purges their vision, sweeps away the veil that comes between them and their
Lord. And it is ever the same Christ that the Spirit of truth reveals to the soul of
man ; and yet under his teaching what room there is for variety and progress of spiritual
apprehension I The same sun puts on a different glory every hour of the longest day.
His light is as various as the landa on which he shines ; and so it is with Christ, our
unchanging Sun of Righteousness — ^himself " the same yesterday, and to-day, and for
ever." He has an aspect for every period of life, and for all life's great vicissitudes, to
those who believe. In childhood he may chiefly appear as a gentle Shepherd, in youth
as an earnest Counsellor, in manhood as a mighty King, and in the evening of life,
when its battles are well-nigh over, and its companions scattered, as a faithful, never-
dying Friend. What is tlie result of this teaching of the Spirit of truth ? Under his
illumination the soul cannot remain unchanged. It is true that here below Christians
see through a glass darkly — ^not yet face to face. Still, amid all the imperfections of
the life of faith, what they do see of the glory of Christ makes them see all things in a
new light, and judge all things by • new standard. The world cannot be to them what
it was before, for their horizon widens out far beyond its frontiers. Self can no longer
he their idol, for they have become conscious of a Presence which raises them above
themselves. In their own measure and degree "they have the mind of Christ." Grandly
and powerfully does the Apostle Paul describe the ultimate effect of the Spirit's teach-
ing : " We all, with open face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are
changed," etc. (2 Cor. iii. 18).
IV. In conclusion, who shall put bounds or limits to the fulfilment of this
PROMISE IN THE FUTURE? We kuow that men shall be blessed in Christ, and all
nations shall call him blessed. On this earth, where he was despised and rejected, he is
yet to be crowned with glory and honour from the rising to the setting sun. Human
life in all its departments is to be gladdened by his presence, inspired by his example,
moulded by his wUl. Through what means, or after what convulsions or shakings of
the nations, this is to be brought about we cannot tell; but it will not be by humaa
might or power, but by the Spirit of the Holy One, that the grand result will be
achieved. It is written that " he will destroy in this mountain the face of the coverinc
cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations ; " and when that vefl
SM THE GOSPEL ACOOEDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xtl 1— Sa
is rent from the top to the bottom, then the gloiy of the Lord shsll be lerealed, and
all flesh ehsll lee it together. — Q. B.
Ver. 1. — Coneemed/or the itumbling-blocki. The discipleB of Jesus evidently enter
tained many expectations which, though plausible and excusable enough, were not
reasonable ; and hence inevitably, sooner or later, there must be a crushing collapse ol
their hopes. Indeed, the sooner such a collapse came the better. Terrible and over-
whelming was the experience, but it was brief; and once over, it did not return. And
all the while we can see that Jesus had these experiences constantly in mind.
I. Tee figure here emfloved. Jesus would speak words of such a kind as that,
-by attending to them, the disciples would escape offence. The allusion is to something
coming in our way which may cause us to stumble, perhaps to fall. This agrees with
the whole spirit of the discourse, in which Jesus again and again speaks of his disciples
as making progress in a particular way. And what Jesus wants is to take out of the way
all diiSculties coming from wrong notions and expectations. We all have difSculties
enough in our Christian life, what we may call external difficulties, without adding to
them difficulties of our own making. And surely in that same spirit Jesus deals with
us still. He seeks to spare us the stumbling-blocks. Others may have stumbled, but
that is no reason why wo should stumble too. And just as we put up signals of all
sorts to catch eye and ear in dangerous places, so Jesus does the same. If any one has
to do with guarding against the main dangers that beset human life, surely it is he
who is eminently' called the Saviour. He who leaves the ninety and nine to bring back
the wanderer will take all possible means to keep him from wandering again.
II. The effect of such an intimation on our minds. 1. A continuous feeling oj
tdf-distruat. We must never forget how easy it is to go wrong. The longer we live
the more reason we have for distrusting ourselves. We need a wisdom, a foresight, a
largeness and depth of view, altogether beyond our own. Our hesitatirg, vacillating
actions come often just because we listen too entirely to the suggestions and prophecies
coming out of our own hearts. Our natural boldness and our natural fearfulness are
equally without reason. We must not listen too readily either to the suggestions of self
or the suggestions of others. Be warned by the experiences of these first disciples. All
their notions had to be upset, all their dearest fancies dissipated, before they could get
at the truth. 2. A continuous regard to Jesus. Jesus must be ever in the foreground
if self is to be ever in the background. Stumbling begins the moment the hand of
Jesus is let go. We are but of yesterday, and know nothing ; Jesus is of eternity,
and knows everything. He who seeks to sweep all stumbling-blocks out of our way
never stumbled himself. We can only take a step at a time, and it must be just
where Jesus tells us to plant it. That is the secret of safe progress, and progress always
in the right direction. — Y.
Ver. 7. — Absent in the hody, present by the Spirit. L The need of a btbonq
ASSERTION. Jesus says, "I tell you the truth.'\ Jesus never says anything but the
truth, and yet we can see here clearly what need there was for the most solemn and
emphatic mode of statement. For what an antecedent improbability there was that
his absence could ever be better than his presence 1 For him to vanish from the natural
sight of his disciples might well be reckoned the greatest of calamities, until actual and
abundant experience showed it to be one of the greatest of blessings. Jesus had to
make it clear that he meant exactly what he said, nothing else and nothing less. Until
v/e become vriser, it is the natural, the inevitable view that to lose what we can see is
a loss never to be made up from some unseen source. Kot without reason did these
disciples set value on the incarnate life of Jesus.
IL Look at the assertion in the light of historical confirmation. It is clear
to us, looking at all the facts in their connections, that the departure of Jesus was an
advantage to the disciples. If we had been numbered among them we should have
said beforehand, " Impossible 1 " And now looking hack on all in the light of history,
it is plain that what caused at the time such exquisite grief opened wide the door to
joys aBd blessings unspeakable. It is also plain what a boon the death of Jesus yni
to kimseU, deliTsring him, as it did, from all further exposure to pain of body and grief
of heart. But what Jesus would ever have tu comprehend is how his depaituie is dia«
OH.xvLl— «3.] THE GOSPEL ACXX)RDINa TO ST. JOHN. 837
tinctly an advantage to his people. He wants us to feel how much better the spiritual
is than the natural ; how much better it is to have the invisible Jesus doing good to our
inner life than the visible Jesus doing good to our outward life. If ever the visible is to
be made better, it will be through the invisible. He who made the outside made the
inside also, and to get the inside thoroughly pure and strong is the only way to make
the outside the same. We are but extending the great principle whiich Jesus laid
before Nicodemus, when we say that flesh can only minister to flesh, spirit only to
spirit Even as the old dispensation was preparatory to the new, so the manifestation
of Jesus in the flesh was preparatory to the manifestation of Jesus in the spirit.
III. An illustration of how the plans of Heaven aee bettbe than the
WISHES OP earth. Well was it that Jesus did not leave his disciples to decide. They
would all have said, " Stop with us longer ; " but who of them could have said how
much longer? That would have sent their thoughts in a direction by no means
pleasant to follow out. If Jesus must be more to humanity than any one else who
ever trod the earth in human form, it can only be by having a different end to his life
and a different result of it. Fancy Moses or Elijah (those two names which are so
eminently coupled with Jesus) saying that it was expedient for the people they had to
do with that they should go away. When we consider what we owe to the Paraclete,
when we consider all his deep and abiding ministries, here is a fresh cause of profound
thankfulness to Jesus that he accepted the sufferings of death that the Paraclete might
come. The Day of Pentecost was not easily achieved ; other days had to go before —
the day when he sweat as it were great drops of blood, the day when he stood among
the soldiers with the thorny crown, and was afterwards nailed to the cross. — Y.
Vers. 8 — 11. — The convicting work of the Spirit. Here surely is the true and abiding
blessing for those who labour to look under the surface, and see Jesus dealing with the
deep, ancient, and malignant causes of all human trouble. Jesus came teaching, pro-
claiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of disease and all manner
of sickness. The blessing of his incarnate ministry was just as deep, just as shallow,
as the recipient chose to make it. But when the incarnate Jesus departs to make room
for the Paraclete, the work must be deep, or practically it is nothing. You shall know
the Spirit's blessing only as you accept the two-edged sword piercing even to the
dividing of soul and spirit, and joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and
intents of the heart. The Spirit can only bless as it works into the very depth' Qf the
conscience and affections.
I. Note with whom the Spirit has to deal. His work is with all who are cv,-_
prised under that wondrous and frequent word in this Gospel, " the world." Elsewheie
Jesus speaks of the world hating the disciples. But that very world which hates is not
merely to have its malignitits warded off; its hatred must, if possible, be changed to
friendship, its opposition must give way to support. The spirit of the world in all of
us is to be beaten down ant starved out by the persuasions of a nobler Spirit ever
striving to make friends with the conscience within. This word "reprove," or "convict,"
is a grand word. It shows us what noble thoughts God has of us. There is no truo
submission to God in Jesus unless through persuasion. The door of the heart must ever
be opened from inside.
II. The objeotb of his oonvinoino work. (1) Sin ; (2) righteousness ; (3) judg-
ment. The connection of these three words is obvious. The presence of sin is the
absence of righteousness, and vice versa. And the possilality of sin and the possibility
of righteousness mean the coming of a judgment which shall settle with authority
whether sin has overcome righteousness or righteousness overcome sin. The Spirit
comes, making it clear to men what is the deep, underlying cause of all human um'est
and weariness. The work of conviction as to sin, righteousness, and judgment all goes
on together. It is, of course, not so much an appeal to the intellect, though the intellect
cannot be left out of the operation. The process is one in which there goes on contem-
poraneously a revelation of self and a revelation of Jesus. Old words have to be emptied
of old, insufficlept meanings. When the Holy Spirit brings the word " sin," he bring* no
new word.( The «"d covenant was full of it, the thoughts of men were full of it, but as
of something w^ch could be easily put'away by the blood of some slain animal. The
Holy Spirit makes us ask the question why uw are so different from Jeius. The image
TOsir— n. •
»M THE GOSPEL ACCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xti. 1—88.
of Jegvuto ovir understandings should always be a rebuking image, filling us with a
deep sense, in no way to be removed by mere lapse of time, of our shortcomings and
pollutions. The greatest miracle about Jesus is his pure and perfect character, and tha
more intense becomes our desire after likeness to him in this respect the more it iii
evident that the convicting work of the Spirit is going on in us. Ever the humbler we
become at the sight of ourselves, the more hopeful shall we become at the sight of Jesns.
For, as Jesus goes on to say in a sentence or two later, the Spirit's work is not only a
Kvelation, but a guidance. — Y.
Ver. 13. — Htyw to get at the fulness of truth. Jesus said, "I am the Truth." Hence
it is just the thing to be expected that he should tall; again and again concerning the
blessing to men which is so bouiid up with his being. The truth as it is in Jesus must
become truth in us. What glorious aims he has with respect to his friends I He wants
us to master the whole truth of what every human being ought to experience. We cannot
look ahead to the fulness, but Jesns can. He sees the end toward which we are to be
guided, and he points out the Guide. He cannot do things all in a hurry, in grace, any
more than in nature.
I. Look at the possibility herb set be poke us. We may be led into the whole
truth. He wants us thoroughly to know the fulness of which we already know the part.
What we need above everything, and what is quite possible if only we choose to make
it possible, is to get the full benefit meant to come to every human being from the
entrance ol Jesus into the world. We are already better off in an indirect way. But
indirect benefit must always be superficial benefit. Jesus, having great expectations
for us, wants us also to have great expectations for ourselves; expectations going out
after the true crown and glory of humanity. Our own wish surely ought to be to know
all a human being can know about this wondrous Jesus, and have all the transactions
with him that a human being can.
II. The way in which this whole teuth is to be gained. 1. There ia the signi-
ficant word about being guided. We may be among those taking things just as they
come, following our own inclination when we can, and, when we cannot, submitting to
necessity ; or we may be distinctly conscious that we are led — ^led as by one in authority,
whom we feel that we ought to follow. In lesser things it makes all the difference
whether we are led or not led. The child left to grow up pretty much as it likes, with-
out any attempt to guide it and put something like order into its life, is sure to sufter.
We always gain in being led by those who are competent to lead. Those whom we call
pioneers, who seem to have found out a way for themselves, have often been under some
overmastering impulse which has really amounted to a leading. And if the loss of
leading be so serious a loss in lower, visible affairs, what must it be in dealing with the
unseen and eternal I 2. The Ouide is pointed out. The Spirit of the truth will lead us
into the whole truth. The process is a gradual, persuasive, and certain one. The Spirit
of Jesus did for these disciples what Jesus in the flesh was never able to do. The
Resurrection came to lift the obscuring film from their eyes. Their thoughts were sent
into a new channel. The ordinary objects of human ambition became very paltry and
worthless. What a difference between the Peter of the Gospels and the Peter of the
First Epistle! These men were actually guided into a firm and satisfying grasp of the
whole truth ; and we want the same. We want a power all-sufficient to guide our
feelings and behaviour every day of life. The influence of the unseen and eternal
must swallow up the influence of the seen and temporal. And this is all secured
by submitting to the leadership and absolute disposition of the Spirit promised fay
Jesus. — Y.
Ver. 24. — 77ie ground of successful prayer. The presence of the Lord JesuB In the
land of his sojourn during his incarnate life made a great difference to many dwellers iu
that land. It made a great deal of difference in point of resource and hope to all suffer-
ing from afSicted bodies. And thus also Jesus brought a great change in the region of
religious need and duty. He did not coiue into the midst of a land all unused to prayer.
The quality of the prayer may have been very defective, but there is no reason to doubt
that the quantity would be great. And now Jesus comes to make a difference, an
abiding differsnca, in prayer. To pray with ■ knowledge of Jexna in our minds, and
60. XVI. 1—33.] THE GOSPfiL ACCO&DINO TO ST. JOHN. 889
jet without the constant thought of him mingling in every element of the prayer, It
really not to pray at all.
I. Obsbbve bxactlt what Jebus hebb bpeakb about. He is dealing with a part
of prayer — the petitionary part, the part where need should he deeply felt and clearly
expressed. And yet, after all, in what part of prayer can the sense of need he absent T
For instance, it will not be pretended that it is an easy thing to give adequate utter-
ance to adoration. As we go on in the spiritual life, we shall more and more feel that
all true prayer, from the very beginning to the end, has asking lying under it. Though
there be not always petitionary Ibrm, there will he petitionary reality. The spiritual
man is not one whit less needy than the natural man. The further he advances, the
more do his own needs and the needs of the world press upon him. Left to himself, he
is very likely to become confused among a multitude of perplexing thoughts. Now,
here is a recommendation and promise of Jesus which most assuredly will simplify and
concentrate prayer.
IL What it is to pbat in the Name of Jesus. No particular name can be sud
here to be meant. All the names are needed, and even then there is not enongh to
indicate the fiilness of the person named. We must get underneath names to things.
Asking in the Name of Jesus means fundamentally asking in connection with him.
Think of yourself habitually as the servant of Jesus, bound to attend to his interests,
bound to consult his wishes, bound to carry out his purposes, and then you will get
wonderful light as to what things you should pray for, and wonderful help in making
them really subjects of prayer. A banker honours immediately all cheques that a
servant presents signed by his master. The self-willed and the self-indulgent cannot
truly pray ; their cry may be genuine and intense enough ; but it is only the cry of exas-
peration and disappointment. No prayer is worth the breath it is uttered with that
leaves the Lordship of Jesus out of the question.
III. Thebb must be a real connection with Jesus. It will never do to go by our
own notions of what Jesus wants. There is such a thing as unwittingly presenting
forged cheques at the bank of heaven. Each of us must be like a hand of the living
Jesus, in immediate and flexible connection with his will. We must be really at his
disposal, ready and ready ever for the doing of his will and his will only. There must
come a time in the history of the heart when everything less than the truth as it is in
Jesus will fail to command us, — Y.
Ver. 32. — Tlie londinesa of Jesut. L A pbematube boast. Faith Is necessary, faith
is possible ; but a deep-rooted faith that shall itself be trustworthy is not easy. Jesus
knew that in due time he would have full power over the devotion of his disciples, but
their hearts had yet to be won from that fear of the world which bringeth a snare. A
faith that shall be superior to all conceivable temptations miist be the result of much
humble and patient watchfulness. It is for Jesus rather than for us to say when true
faith is attained. Faith must show itself by its fruits. Not he that commendeth him-
self is commended, but whom Jesus commends.
II. How THE LONELINESS OF Jesus COMBS ABOUT. By the departure of those who
professed to be his own. It is plain that as yet there had been no real Kotyaina. There
had been outward companionship ; service of a certain sort ; generous intentions ; but
the disciples had not yet entered into the aims of Jesus ; and directly their lives seemed
to be in peril, they showed how fragile was the bond that united them to him. They
showed that they could not believe in Jesns whatever happened. As long as Jesus bade
a calm defiance to the worst plots of the Jews, as long as he escaped out of their hands,
'as long as he went on adding one wondrous deed to another, they seemed to believe.
But when the hour and power of darkness came they lost at once what little presence
of mind they ever had. Hence we see that the loneiiness of Jesus did not begin with
that hour when his disciples forsook him and fled. No one ever knew more of what it
is to be alone in a crowd than Jesus did. With regard to many, the solitude is simply
that of the stranger ; in proportion as they become acquainted with others, the solitude
passes away. But tiie more Jesus mingled with men, the lonelier in a certain sense he
became. The nearer they drew to huu, the plainer it became what an immense change
must take place in' them before they could look on all things just as he looked at them.
He said he was like the seed, abiding alone till it is plant^ in the Kround. Bat tint
S40
THE GOSPEL ACOOBDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvn. 1— 2fi,
seed cannot feel, and Jesus had to know the loneliness that comes from having higher
aims than all round about him. Moses and Elijah had the same feeling.
III. The loneliness was only bblatitb. In one sense Jesus did not know near
BO much of loneliness as John the Baptist. He was a great deal in society ; he, the
loneliest of beings, was also, after a fashion, the least lonoly. Jesus always had One
with him whom the world knew not, whom his own disciples knew not. Jesus con-
1 inually carried about with him the essentials of heaven. When men showed themselves
furthest from him, God was nearest. The wide gulf that separated Jesus from even his
closest companions was well made manifest, for so it was also made manifest that he
had resources far beyond any that human intercourse could supply. Jesus meant his
disciples not to reflect too hardly on themselves when they came to look back on their
leaving him alone. They were hut showing the weakness Jesus expected them to show.
It is well for us that, so far as human support was concerned, we should see Jesus alone;
for so it becomes clearer and clearer to us that through those hours of seemins solitude
a presence gloriously superhuman, and full of all possible atrength and comfort, must
have been with him. — Y,
EXPOSITION.
OHAPTBB XVIL
Vert. 1 — 26. — 4. The high-priestly tnterces-
turn. Audible communion of the Son with the
Father. The prayer which now follows re-
veals, in the loftiest and sublimest form, the
Divine humanity of the Son of man, and the
fact that, in the oonsciouaness of Jesus as the
veritable Christ of God, there was actually
blended the union of the Divine and human,
and a perfect exercise of the prerogatives of
both. The illimitable task which writers
ef the second century must have set them-
selves to accomplish, if they had by some
unknown process conceived such a stupen-
dous idea without any historical basis to
support it, has actually been so effected,
that a representation is given which ade-
quately conveys such a synthesis. The
author of the Gospel does, however, draw
rather upon his memory of that night than
upon his philosophical imagination for a
passage which surpasses all literature in ita
setting forth the identity of being and power
and love in the twofold personality of the
God-Man. We are brought by it to the
mercy-seat, into the heaven of heavens, to
the very heart of God ; and we find there a
presentation of the most mysterious and
incomprehensible love to the human race,
embodied in the Person, enshrined in the
words, of the only begotten Son. It need
not perplex those who believe that we have
the woida of Jesus, that this prayer of sublime
victory and glorious promise should be fol-
lowed by the agony and the bloody sweat of
Gethiemane, where the gloriflcation of the
Son of man passed into the advanced stage
of his willing and perfect surrender to-tbe
Supreme Will. Hengstenberg finds explana-
tion of John's silence touching that agony
in the supplemental character of the Gos-
pel, which does not repeat a description
of a scene already familiar to all readers
of the synoptic narrative. Thig may ac-
count for the mere form of the record, but
does it meet the perplexity that arises as to
whether the scene of Gethsemane could
possibly follow John's narrarivo? la not
such a conception incompatible altogethrr
with the cry, " If it be possible, let this cup
pass from me " ? Our answer is a reference
to ch. xii. 27, where there is the exact
counterpart of the scene in the garden. Nor
is a mysterious troubling of the Redeemer's
soul elsewhere absent from the Johannine
narrative. At the grave of Lajarus, as well
as when the Greeks wrung from his lips the
cry, " Father, save me from this hour," fol-
lowed by " Father, glorify thy Name," we
have the blending of an utterly indescribable
affliction with a triumphant acceptance by
him of the Divine purpose of his miasion .
and the will of his Father. Throughout
these disooursei he is meditating his de-
parture with all its accompanying grief and
agony. He describes the way he is abont to
take as one which would be like the travail-
pang of a new humanity; but in his oapaoity
of living in the light of the Father'i will.
he treats the whole mystery of the cross,
the grave, the resurrection, the ascension, as
OH. XTO. 1— 26.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST. JOHN.
841
already aohieved. Thionghont this prayer
he regards the work aa finiihed, and the
new order of things as already existent.
Thus he had prayed for Lazarus and for
his restoration from the grave, and he knew
then that Crod heard him ; hut still he wept,
and, groaning within himself, came to the se-
pulchre. It should also be remeni bered that
(oh. xiv. 30) he had expressly said that he
was then about to encounter the prince of
this world. The perfect humanity of Jesus,
on which John continually insists, does en-
tiiely justify the rapid changes of mood and
the Tehemcnoe of the emotions which were in
their conflict issuing in sublime courage and
perfect peace. The school of Benan, Strauss,
and others, following the lead of Bret-
sohneider, see insuperable difSoulties, because
they have an idea of Christ's Person which
would render it inconceivable and incredible
(see Introduction, p. cvl.}.
Vers. 1— 5.— (1) With reference to himself.
Ver. 1. — Jesus spake these things ; i.e. the
discourse which precedes, and then turned
from his disciples to the Father. The place
where the prayer was offered is compara-
tively unimportant, yet it must have been
uttered somewhere. It has been well sug-
gested that the Lord, with the disciples,
sought the comparative quiet of the Father's
house, and in some of the courts of the
temple, within sight of the golden gate with
its mighty vine, .had enacted all that is
recorded in ch. xv. — xvii. This does not
interfere with the idea that the starry sky
was visible to them, and that from some
portion of the temple-courta our Lord should
have lifted his eyes to heaven; for the
heavens are the perpetual symbol of the
majesty of God, and show that side on which,
by instinctive recognition of the fact, men
may and do look out upon the infinite and
the eternal. And having' lifted up his eyes to
heaven — or, lifting (Revised Version) up his
eyes to heaven — he said, in a voice which the
wondering, believing, and troubled disciples
might hear (see ver. 13), and from which
they were intended to learn much of the
relation between their Lord and the eternal
Father. There is a twofold division of the
prayer : From vers. 1 — 5 he offers prayer for
himiel/, but in special relation to his own
• The reading iripas inrtead of lirffpe, and
the omission of xai before tJirev, is preferred
by Tischendorf, Meyer, Westcott and Hort,
the B.T. on the aathority of K, B, G, D, L,
X, namerons oursiTei, ItaUis Vnlgate, and
Ooptio.
power over and his own grace to the children
of men ; from vers. 6 — 19 he contemplates the
special interests of his disciples, in their
present forlorn condition, in their work,
conflict, and ultimate triumph; from vers.
19 — 26 he prays for the whole Church,
(a) for its unity, (6) for its expansion, (o) its
glory. "For himself he has little to ask
(vers. 1 — 5), but as soon as his word takes
the form of intercession for his own (vers.
6 — 26), it becomes an irresistible stream of
the most fervent love. Sentence rushes upon
sentence with wonderful power, yet the
repose is never disturbed " (Ewald). Father;
not "my Father," nor "our Father," the
prayer given to his disciples, nor "my God"
as afterwards upon the cross; nor was it
the customtuy address to " God " of either
Pharisee or publican; but it recaUs the
" Abba, Father " of the garden, which passed
thence into the experience of the Church
(Rom. viii. 15 ; Gal. Iv. 6). The hour which
has so often presented itself as inevitable,
but which so often has receded, and which
even now delays its fiill realization (ch. ii.,
vii., xii., xiii.) as part of a Divine plan con-
cerning him, the hour of the fiery baptism,
of the solemn departure, of the conflict with
the prince of this world, and of complete
acceptance of the Fathei^B will, has come ;
glorify thy Son, that (thy*) the S8n may
(also ') glorify thee. Lift thy Son into the • .
glory which thou hast prepared, that the \
Sou whom thou hast sanctified and sent into '
the world may glorify thee. It is very
noticeable that he speaks of himself in the
third person. This is justified by the fact
that he here conspicuously rises out of him-
self into the consciousness of God, and loses
himself in the Father. The glorification of ;
the Son is first of all by death issuing in Ufe. i
He was crowned with glory in order that he
might taste death for every man. The con-
flict, the victorious combat with death, was
the beginning of his glory. In taking upon
himself all the burden of human sorrow, and
exhausting the poison of the sting of death,
he would "glorify God" (cf. ch. xxi. 19).
This does not exhaust the meaning, but the
further forms and elements of his glory are
referred to afterwards.
Ver. 2. — Even as thou gavest him authoril^
— an indefeasible claim of influence and inti-
mate organic relations with humanity — over
all flesh. [This phrase answers to (col hosor)
the Old Testament term for the whole of hu-
manity, the entire race, and is one adopted
by New Testament writers (Matt. xxiv. 22 ;
Luke iii. 6 i 1 Cor. i. 29 ; Gal. u. 16).] This
• The second aov and xai are omitted by
the R.T., Tischendorf (8th edit.), etc., on the
authority of X, B, 0, 47, 64. Godet urges tha
retention of the lad.
Ui
THE GOSPEL ACOOBDINO TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvu. 1— 2&
authority was implied in his inoaTDation and
Baorifice, and in the recapitulation of all
1 thingB in him. St. Paul sayg, " Because he
[ tasted death for every man, God has highly
, exalted him, and given him the Name that is
; above every name," etc. These opening
words reveal the universality and world-wide
j aspects of the mission and authority and
( saving power of the Son of God. He holds
the keys of the kingdom and" city of God.
The government is upon Ids shoulder.
Through him all the nations on earth are
to be blessed. But the dependence of " all
flesh " upon a Divine gift of eternal life
through him is no less conspicuous; hence
the hopelessness of human nature as it is
and ^apart from grace. The end of this
I gloriScation of the Son in the Father is
tiiat, in the exercise of this authority, he may
'i give eternal life to all whom then hast given
( Mm. The construction is unusual, and lite-
rally rendered would be, that with referenee to
the while of that which thou hast given him,
to them he should give eternal life. The
clause. Trap '6 SeSaKas, may be a nominative
or accusative absolute, which, by the defining
airoTs, is subsequently resolved into indi-
vidual elements. The redeemed humanity
of all time has been given to the incarnate
Bon, and is undoubtedly different from the
(ndira irtipl) "all flesh" of the previous
clause, but it is further explained to mean
the individual men and women who receive
from him eternal life. The bestowment of
eternal life on tliose thus given to him is
the method in which he will glorify the
Father (see notes on ch. vi. 37, where
the Father is said to draw men to himself
by means of the unveiling of his own true
character in the Son, and where this drawing
is seen to be another way of describing the
( Father's gift to the Son). Those who are
' given to Christ are those who are drawn by
the Father's grace to see his perfect self-
revelation in the face of Jesus Christ, of
whom Jesus says, " I will by no means cast
them out " (ch. vi. 37), and concerning whom
he avers, " No one cometh unto the Blather
but by me " (ch. xi V. (!). Zti7)a((J«'ios,life eter-
nal, is frequently described as his gift. From
the first the evangelist has regarded fcurj as
the inherent and inalienable prerogative of the
"Logos," and the source of all the "light"
which has liglited men. This "life," which
is " light," came into the world in hia birth,
and became the head of a new humanity.
I It is clearly more than, and profuundly
different from, the principle of unending
I existence. Life is more than perpetuity of
being, and eternity is not endlessness, nor
I is "eternal life" a mere prolongation of
dnration; it refers rather to state and
quality than to one condition of that state ;
! it la the negation of time rather than in-
definite or infinite prolongation of time- ,
That which Christ gives to those who believe i
in him, receive him, is the life of God him- 3
self. It is strongly urged by many that this
eternal life is a present realizable possession,
that he that hath the Son hath life, and that
we are to disregard the future in the con-
scious enjoyment of this blessedness; but
we must not forget that our Lord obviously
refers the life eternal to the future in Matt,
xix. 29; iilark x. 30; Luke xviii. 30; Matt.
XXV, 46. Nor are these statements, as some
have said, incompatible with the representa-
tions of this Gospel (see ch. vi. 40, 54; xi.
25; xii. 25). The aionian blessedness may
have a partial realization here and now, but
not till our vision is less clouded and our
perils are less severe shall we folly ap-
prehend it. Nor is this inconsistent with
ver. 3.
Ver. 3. — The Mfe eternal, of which Jesus
has just spoken, is this (cf. for construction,
oh. XV. 12; 1 John iii. 11, 23; v. 3), that'
they might know — should come to know —
thee, the only veritable God. AH ideas of
God whioh deviate from or fall short of
"the Father" revealed to us by Christ, are
not the veritable God, and the knowledge
of them is not life eternal. The Father is
here set forth as the forts Veitatte. Tliis
does not exclude " the Son," but is incon-
ceivable without him. The Fatherhood
expresses an eternal relation. The one ele-
ment involves the other as integral to itself:
"I am in the Father, and the Father in me."
There is a knowledge of the Father possible
even now. "Henceforth, he has said, ye
have seen him, and known him; " yet not till
the veil is lifted, and we see face to face,
shall we know as we are known (1 Coi. xiii.
12 ; 1 John iii. 2), shall we see him as he is.
And him whom thon didst send, Jesus the
Christ (not Jesus to be, or as Christ, but
rather " Jesus the Christ," as the expansion
and explanation of the more indefinite term,
" him whom thou didst send "). Why does
our Lord add to this expression one that at
first sight seems so incompatible with the
idea of this prayer ? It has led so careful
and reverential a commentator as Westoott
to remove the difiioulty by supposing that
the whole verse is a gloss of the evangelist,
expressing the sense of what our Lord jnay
have uttered at greater length. We are
loth to admit this method of exegesis, espe-
cially as the sole reasons for it are the sup-
posed strangeness of our Lord's here using
a phrase so unaccustomed, and thus ^ving
liimself not only his Personal Name, but
his own ofiicial title. It is unusual. The
phrase does undoubtedly belong to a latei
* 'Iva here has the defining fane to the
predicate atr^.
OH. XVII. 1—26.] THE GOSPEL AOCORDlNa TO ST. JOHN.
84^
period for Its ouirent and constant use. Yet
it must not be forgotten (1) that this is a
unique moment in his career, and unique
expresBions may be anticipated ; (2) that it
was calculated to strengthen his disciples,
to allow them to hear once from his own lips
the solemn claim to MesslahshipCsee Godet);
(3) that John himself at once adopted it as
bis own (Acts iii. 6, 20; 1 John i. 3; ii. 1,
22; iii. 22; iv. 2, 3; t. 1, 20 ; Eev. i. 1,
2, 5); moreover, (4) in 1 John v. 20 Jesus
Christ is himself lifted up into the region of
the aKi\9ivos, and the apostle adds, " This is
the true God, and eternal life " (Hengsten-
berg). It is from these very words that some
critics imagine that the evangelist, rather
than the Lord himself, framed the clause ;
(5) yet it is quite as rational to suppose that
the words uttered by Jesus dwelt like a
strain of sacred music in the memory of the
apostle. Moreover,. (6) the knowledge of
tlie only ti-ue God is really conditionated by
the knowledge of him who was indeed the
great Revelation, Organ, and Effluence of the
[Father's glory. The fulness of this know-
ledge is the end of all Christian striving.
/ Paul said, " I count all things but loss for
f the excellency of the knowledge of Christ
I Jesus . . . and that I may know him " (Phil,
iii. 10). How much is there yet to know I (7)
' Finally, as our Lord is rising more and more
into the glory of an utter self-abandonment,
and into the glory which he had with the
Father from eternity, the human nature
which he still inhabits becomes almost an
appendage of his Divine Personality, and
he might with awful significance, when
referring to the object of human faith and
knowledge, say, "Him whom thou hast
sent — Jesus the Christ." Moreover, on any
hypothesis of the composition or framing of
an intercessory prayer for the Logos Christos
to utter, there is an equal difSoulty in the
insertion into such prayer by St. John of
this reference to himself as the Christ. The
knowledge of Uie Father as the only true
God, in opposition to the heathen traditions
and philosophical speculations of the
world, coupled with a corresponding know-
ledge of the only adequate expression of
the Father's heart and nature, sent forth
from him, as One promised, consecrated,
and empowerer* to represent him, is life —
eternal life.
Ver. 4. — He continues the prayer which
he is offering for himself: I glorified thee
on the earth, having finished* the work
' TeA6i(4(roi is preferred by Tregelles,
Tischendorf (8th edit.), Meyer, Westcott
and Hort, and B.T., on the authority of
f{, A, B, 0, L, and 1, 33, 43, with numerous
other oursivei and quotations, to irtXtiaaa
at T.B., whiob ' 'S« on later unoiali and
vhioh thon hast g^ven me to do. Many
expositors urge a proleptioal or anticipatory
assertion of the completion of his earthly
work, as though the Passion were already
over, and he were now uttering the consum-
matum eit of the cross. This is, however,
included in the next clause. The night has
come when the earthly ministry is at an
end. The Jesus Christ, whom the Father
has sent, has completed his task. The
whole work of the earthly manifestation of
the Word was at an end. Suffering remains,
the issues of the conflict with evil have to
be encountered ; but the die is cast — the
thing is done. The godly life, as well as
the atoning death, are correlative parts of
the merits and work of Christ, and have
glorified the Father. But what a self-
oonsciousness beams forth in these simple
words 1 St. Paul, on the verge of his martyr-
dom, in the midst of the horrors of the Neru-
nian persecution, exclaimed, "I have fought
a good fight, I have finished my course."
But our Lord is unconscious of any coming
short of the glory of God; and he even
counts on higher power to glorify God by
returning to a position which he had for a
while vacated.
Ver. 5. — ^And now (vBr) — the very point of
time has come — glorify thon me, 0 Father, ex-
plaining the opening of the prayer, "Glorify
thy Son." He identifies his own Person-
ality—" me " — with that of " tlie Son," and
"thy Son." With thy own self (ira^tt asavrw);
in closest connection and fellowship with thy-
self— a relation which has been arrested or
suspended since Jhave been "Jesus Christ,"
and glorifying thee amid the toil and sorrow
of this earthly pilgrimage. This immediate
glorification of the Son embraces the glory
of vicarious death, the triumphant resurrec-
tion, the mystery of ascension in the strength
of his human memories to the right hand
of God (oh. xiii. 31, 32). He still further
defines this wondrous prospect, as with the
glory which I had with thee before the
world was — before the being of the K6<riJ.os
Trapct ffeauT^ . . • iropck (rot, Ilapck in John
represents local relationships (see oh. i.
40 ; iv. 40 ; xiv. 25 ; Eev. ii. 13) or intimate
spiritual associations (ch. xiv. 23). So our
Lord remembers and anticipates a "glory
with the Father." That which ho refers to
as before the existence of the world has
been softened down by Grotins, Wettstein,
Sohleiermacher, and some modems to mean
the glory of the Divine thought and desti-
nation concerning him ; but the expression
irapii (rat is far from being exhausted oy nioh
a rendering. He who wrote the prologue (eh.
i. 2, 18) meant that, as the Logos had bera
numerous quotations from Oyiil, BaatL and
Athanasiui.
844
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. oh. xvn. 1—26.]
irphs rhv e^av and tb rhp xiKitov ToS Tlarpis,
«nd at a ipeoial epooh " became flesh," the
beamings forth of bis glory on earth were
those which belonged to human life, to the form
of a servant, and were profoundly different
from that ixopipii 0eoO in which his innermost
self-consoiousness, the centre of his Person-
elity, originally dwelt. And now he seeks to
carry this new appanage of his Sonship, this
Uod-glorifying humanity, up into the glory
of the pre-exieteut majesty (cf. Phil. ii. 9;
1 Tim. iii. 16; Heb.i. 8, 13). The S6^a which
was viiible to the disciples on earth (ch. i.
14) was glory limited, coloured, conditioned,
by human lue and death ; but so complete
was the Lord's union with the Logos, that
it did not quencli his memory of the glory
of his omnipresent, eternal Being, nor
his remembrance of absolute coexistence
with the Father before all worlds. He
would lift humanity to the very throne of
God by its union with his Person. This
stupendous claim both as to the past and
future would be utterly bewildering if it
stood alone ; but the Old Testament has
prepared the mind of the disciples for this
great mystery (Prov. Tiii. ; Isa. vi.). The
theophanies generally, and ch. viil. 25 and
Heb. i., with numerous other passages, sus-
tain and corroborate the conception that the
Logos of God was throughout all human
hibtory on the verge of manifestation in the
flesh. The record of the extraordinary
God-consciousness of Jesus does transcend
all human experience, and baffles us at
every turn ; but the human consciousness of
Jesus appears gradually to have come into
such communion with the Logos who had
become flesh in him, that he thought the
veritable thoughts and felt the emotions of
the eternal God as though they were abso-
lutely his cwn. In addition to this idea of
his resumption of his own eternal state,
Lange and Moulton,in opposition to Meyer,
lay emphasis on the answer to this prayer,
consisting in such a manifestation of the
premundane glory «'« W«/e«fc,that it should
perfectly establish the relation botween the
glory of the Father before all worlds, and
the glory of utter and complete self-sacrifice
for the redemption of the world. The glory
of omnipotence and omnipresence is lost in
the greater glory of infinite love. Thus
the glory which he had with the Father
would be best seen in the completion of his
agony, the rtrihtaTai of the cross.
Vers. 6 — 19.— (2) The prayn for hit dit-
tiples.
Vers. 6 — 8. — Here the Divine Intercessor
turns from himself, and from the approach-
ing glory of hii own mediatorial Person and
position, to meditate, for the advantage of
w« disciples, on what bad already been done
for them, fa tham, to them. He cbtlies
these meditationi in the form of a direct
address to the eternal God, and makes the
series of facts on which he dwells the
groundwork of the prayer which follows for
his disciples, as representative of all who,
like them, have come into relations with
the Father through him. I manifested thy
Name (k<pavipaiffa here corresponds to ii6^aaa
Te\fiti(ras of ver. 4. The force of (pavepoa is
different from kiroKaKvirTa or ijiipivi^a ; see
on ch. xiv. 21). "I poured light upon, and
thus made appreciable, apprehensible, thy
Name." This Name was but partially and
imperfectly understood before. The Name
of God, the compendium of all his excel-
lences, the essential features of his substan-
tial Being which Christ has thus illuminated,
is "the Father." "Whatsoever is made
manifest is light." This light is the efful-
gence of the glory of the Father. By being
and living on earth as Son of the Father,
the Father was revealed. A full revelation
of the Father involves and is involved in
a manifestation of his own Sonship, The
relation between the Father <ind the tSon is
one of infinite complacency and mutual
affection, and the revelation of it demon-
strates the fact of the eternal and essential
love of the Divine Being. Thus the fact
that " God is love " is marjlfested in the life
of the Son of man, who was in himself a
revelation of the Son — the Son of Grod. "I
manifested thy Name," said Jesus — showing
that he regarded his work of self-manifesta-
tion and God-revelation as virtually complete
— to the men whom thou gavest ' me (cf.
here ch. vi. 44 and x. 29). The Father's
" giving " of the sons of men to Christ refers
primarily to the men that were, made suscep-
tible of his special grace and revelations,
who in seeing, saw, in hearing, heard, who,
being drawn by inward monitions and
Divine grace, and verily taught of God,
came to Christ. Thus the Father gave
them to Christ. The first monitions, sus-
ceptibilities of soul for Christ, which are
found throughout the world and the Church,
are God's way of giving men to Christ.
The supremacy and monergy of grace is
involved in the whole of this representation.
Out of the world. They were in the world,
but have been drawn out of it by the re-
velation of the Father. Thine they werq
and thou gavest* them me. Bo that tht
approach even to the Lord Jesus, the dra\)
ing to Christ and to the blessed revelatioj
of the Father, was preceded by a previo i
condition — " Thina they were," Before \ti
' Tregelles, Tiichendorf (8th editV *ti«
B.T. read (taixis here, in place it ih«
SeSaiKas of T.B., in the first clauE>' «i||i
K, A, B, D, E, n, and Fathers. T- e|l««
stiU reads ZiSuKis in the second oU.
OH. xvn. 1—26.] THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN.
848
process of giving and drawing was begnn,
there was a sense in wliicli tliey bore this
great designation. Their position as crea-
tures, or as Israelites, or as believers in the
Old Testament manifestation of the Name,
seems to fall short of the solemn assertion,
" Thiue they were." There were in every
case spiritual predispositions. They were
"of God" (oh. viii. 47); "doers of the
truth" (ch. iii. 21); "willing to do the
will of God" (oh. vii. 17); they were of
the truth (ch. xviii. 37; vi. 37, 44). All
these expressions reveal an extraordinary
relation of human souls to the Father, which
is presupposed, and precedes the power over
them and advantage to them of the grace
of Christ. This may throw light on the
work of grace in pre-Christian and non-
Christian times and places. Thine they
were, and thou gavest them me, and they
have kept thy A<i7oi' — the sum total of thy
revelation or Word to them. They, these
men, thtse special representative men, have
been true to their light, and know of the
doctrine whether it be of God. Their own
quickened conscience has been strong enough
to justify all my SiSaxhy my f-ti/iara, as
Divine assurances. To Christ's eyes they
have already come out of their fiery trial
faithful and true. New, at this point in
their training, they have known, by a strong
experience, by tasting, handling, seeing,
trusting, by vivid flashes of light, by keen,
clear intuition of the reality, that all things
whatsoever which thou hast given me, are
from thee. Tlieru is no tautology here ; the
icra are the truths, the fresh revelations,
the glorious communion of the Son of man
with the Father, which he made known to
tlie disciples — truths which have a world-
wide bearing, and also a direct bearing upon
tliemsel ves — are from thee (iraph <ro5, not irapa
ffoi). This obscure utterance, in its mystic
vagueness, is clearly expounded in the next
sentence, which is the echo of the grand
ai-sertion of ch. xvi. 30, which drew from the
breaking heart its loud and sublime note of
triumph. Because the words, the various
sayings, utterances of Divine reality, which
thou gavest to me, I have given to them.
This blessed recital and exposition of liis
previous ministry is followed by the record
of the effect, without which the whole Chris-
tian dispensation would that very niglit
have come to an abrupt end. They believed
that all Christ's words, works, energies, reve-
lations, warnings, promises, like Christ him-
self, came from the eternal Father, there-
fore represented the supreme reality, more
certain than demonstration, more vivid than
intuition. They have rendered invincible
assent to them as the Divine, absolute, un-
changeable, irrevocable, eternal truth. In
this overwhsbuing and satiifying conviction
was laid the foundation of the Church of
Christ. And they received them.' This was
a dire'ot consequence of the Divine giving and
of the Divine drawing. And they came to
know — discerned, i.e. by personal experience
— and truly that I came out from thee, and
believed that thou didst send me.' This
knowledge and belief is the germ of the com-
munication to others of the Divine mani-
festation ; it is the Lord's reward for all the
toil and sacrifice and Divine humiliation oi
his earthly ministry (ch. xvi. 30). The in-
carnate Word is recognized as such, the only
begotten Son of the Father is known to be
the Brightness of his glory. We see in this
great utterance the true origin of the evan-
gelist's own words (ch. i. 14 — 18; 1 John i.
1 — 5). This thovight of Clirist's has now be-
come their voluntary, spontaneous, assured
conviction. The inward reason corresponds
with tbe objective facts.
Ver. 9. — I — very emphatic — am praying
for them (for this use of Sparu, see note, ch.
xvi. 23). We must remember tliat this is
perfectly consistent with the fact that, in
the day of the spiritual manifestation to the
disciples, when both the Father and Son
came to them, the disciples would ask the
Father for the gifts which his love to them
was waiting to supply ; and he, Christ him-
self, would hear them if they asked in his
Name; and that then there would be no
need that he should pray the Father for
them. That time had not yet come, though
it was coming. Both statements are also
perfectly consistent with his " intercession "
for us. Not concerning — or, not for — the
world am I praying. Surely this is not an
assertion that he would never pray, or that
he had not already prayed, for the world.
Nay, his entire ministry is the expression
of the Father's love to the whole world (ch.
iii. 16). He came as Jehovah's Lamb to
take away its sin (ch. i. 29), he bade his
disciples (Matt. v. 44) pray for their enemies,
and he cried at the last for a blessing on
his murderers. He " came to seek and save
the lost," to "call sinners to repentance,"
"not to condemn, but to save the world."
Moreover, in this prayer (ver. 21) he does
pray for those who should ultimately, though
they do not now, believe on him through
the word of the disciples ; therefore it is in-
conceivable that he should here dogmatio-
ally limit the range of his gracious desire.
Calvin liere observes, " We are commanded
to pray for all (I Tim. ii. 1)," and quotes
Luke xxiii. 84 that Christ prayed for hi*
murderers. " We ought to pray that this
* The historical aorists, e\a$ov, cTvanroK
i^T}\6oVf eiriffTivffav, airt(rTfi\aSf are well
worthy of notice, contraated with the pe«i
foots, TtTiifi\KaTi, SiiuKos, iiSuKa.
8M
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvu. 1—26
man and that man and eyery man may be
laved, and tlins include the whole human
lane, because we cannot distinguish the
elect from the reprobate." Calvin implies
tl at Chrigt is here within the sanctuary, and
places before his eyes the secret judgments
of the Father. Lampe goes much further.
Lutlier says, " In the same sense in which
ho prays for the disciples, he does not pray
for the world." But the best explanation
is that the high-priestly intercession at this
siipieme moment is concerned with those
wlio were already given to him, and who
liave come to believe in his Divine Person
and commission. He expressly and divinely
comuiends to the Father those whom thou
hast given me — the burden of the thought
is contained in the motive he suggests for
tliis commendation, viz, — ^because they are
thine ; i.e. though thou hast given them to
me, though they have "come to me,"
through thy drawing, they are more thap
ever " thine." This most fervent yielding
to the attraction of Jesus, and utter moral
surrender to his control, do not alienate the
heart from the Father, but make it more
tlian ever his.
Yer. 10. — And aU things that are mine
are thine ; whether they be these sonls, o*
these powers that I wield, or these words
that I utter, or these works that I do, — all
are thine. This statement is in perfect har-
mony with all his teaching, and is not in-
compatible with the reverential sentiment
that any servant of God might utter ; but he
adds words to show that the union between
him and the Fatlier is much closer than
this, and quite unique. And thine are
mine. Luther observed, " No creature could
say this." Perliaps he went too far, be-
cause we are taught to believe that "all
things are ours," etc., and the irdvTa cavers
much (see 1 Cor. iii. 21). In the full con-
fidence of filial relation we can believe it
true that the heavenly Father says to every
one of his veritable children, "All that I
have is thine." Here the words must not
be drawn out of their connection; it is
human souls who are of God, and are there-
fore Christ's. The dogmatic lesson is that
every one who has heard and learned of the
Father does come to him. Such an assurance
gives a sublime hope to the world. And I
(have been and) am glorified in them. Once
more the Divine Saviour rejoices in the
victory he lias won in securing the faith of
the disciples. How much he loved and
trusted them 1
Vcr. 11. — And I am no more (no longer)
in the world (cf. ch xvi. 28). The earthly
ministry is over ; for a while he must leave
them in the pitiless storm, bereft of his care
and counsel exposed to infinite peril and
temptation. Headless, scattered, tempted to
belieTe that all he had laid to them was on*
huge delusion. And these are in the world,
without me, without visible sight of the
mirror in which thy glory has been reflected,
and I come— I return — to thee. These are
the conditions on their part and on mine
which justify this prayer for them ; and mj
prayer is, Holy Father, keep — or, guard —
them. This grand title stands here in soli-
tary grandeur (though let ver. 25, irdnp
Slxate, be noticed, and the fact that Eev. vi.
10 speaks of " the Holy and True," and 1
John ii. 20 of " the Holy One "). The very
holiness of the Father is appealed to as the
surest basis of the petition. They have
already been taught to pray, "Hallowed
[made holy] be thy Name." The eternal
holiness and righteousness of God is involved
in the saving and sauctifioation of the be-
liever in Jesus. " Keep them, holy Father "
(says our Lord), in and by thy Name, those
whom thon hast given me, ois SeSaxas lioi
is the reading of the T.B., on the very feeble
authority from the codices, simply D^ 69,
and some versions. It is also thus quoted
by Epiphanius twice ; but the reading of all
the best uncial manuscripts, N, A, B, 0, L,
Y, r, A, n, etc., numerous versions and.'quo-
tations, is ^ SiSaxas not. Some very unim-
portant manuscripts read t, which Godet
prefers as practically equivalent to o6s, re-
garded as a unity, "that which," and as
calculated to explain the ^ of the uncials,
and the reading oils. T.achmann, Tischen-
dorf (8th edit.), Tregelles, Meyer, Westcott
and Hort, and B.T. all read ^, which is
thrown by attraction to Mfiarl into the
dative, and requires the translation. Keep
them (in or by) in the power of thy Name
which thon hast given me. And since & is a
resolution of the attraction, it is quite as
likely that it is a correction of cS as that
the reverse process should have taken place.
The expression is very peculiar, but not in-
explicable. Phil. u. 9 is the best illnstra-
tiou of the clause. It reads, according to the
true text, "He hath bestowed on him the
Name (rh ivoixa) which is above every name,"
».e. the eternal Name, the incommunicable
Name (cf. Kev. ii. 17 ; xix. 12) of .Tehovah.
Meyer objects to this that the Father's
Name was simply given him as an ambas-
sador or for purposes of revelation and mani-
festation. This may be a partial limitation
of the thought. He has already said, "I
have manifested thy Name, thy fatherhood
to the men," etc. And now he adds, " Keep
them in the power and grace of this glorious
Name, of which my Person and message have
been the full expression." That they may
be one, united, formed into a unity of being,
even as we are, not losing their personality,
but blending and interchanging their in-
tereits and their affections after the PiviiM
oa. xra. 1—26.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
847
I»ttem of the Father and Son. The rela-
tions between GhristianB, whidi constitute
the eBBentibl unity of their corporate being,
are of the eame kind as those which pertain
to Christ and God, and prevail between t) i em,
therefore lying far oehind the shifting
phases of organization and human order,
in the essence and substance of spiritual
life. Some writers have found in this
analogy between the union of believers and
the hypostatic union of the Persons of
the Godhead, either a species of tritheism
in the Godhead, or a minimizing of the
entire conception to what is called moral
union between the Father-God and his
Son Jesus Christ. But the effect of the
utterance is rather to lift the idea of the
unity of the body of Christ to a superlative
height, and to interpret still further the
nature of its oneness with the Father and
Son (see ver. 23).
Ver. 12.— While I was with them (in the
world '). He speaks of the earthly ministry
as completed, and reviews the whole of his
influence over them. I kept them in thy
Name which thou hast given me. Tlie very
process that I can no longer pursue, and the
cessation of which becomes the ground of
the plea for the Father's riipija-is. This an
earthly father mjght say, without irreverence,
of children whom he was about to leave, but
the quality of the keeping is characterized
by the Divine Name which was given him,
and that manifested the Sonship which
carried with it all the revelation of the
Father.' And I guarded (them) — iriifow
signifies watchful observation; £</)uAa£a,
guardianship as behind the walls of a
fortress — and not one perished — went to de-
struction— except that the son of perdition
(has perished). Christ does not say that the
son of perdition was given him by the
Father and guarded from the evil one, and
yet had gone to his own place ; the excep-
tion refers simply to the " not one perished."
El nh has occasionally a meaning not exactly
equal to dWa, but expresses an exception
which does not cover the whole of the ideas
involved iu ttie previous clause (see Matt. xii.
4 ; Luke iv. 26, 27 ; Gal. i. 19, etc.). This
' The clause, iv -rif xiapm, of T.B. is want-
ing in S, B, C, D, L, igrd is rejected by Lach-
mann, Tischendorf (8th edit.), B.T., and
Westcott and Hort.
' The reading of ^ instead of oSs is not
80 strongly supported in this place. OSs is
read by A, C, D, X, Y, and other uncials,
by Vulgate, Gothic, Syriac, and by Lach-
mann ; and not only Godet, but Meyer and
Lange here prefer oZs. Tischendorf (8th
edit.), Westcott and Hort, E.T., and Tre-
gelles not only adopt the change of oSs, T.E.,
into (Z, !nit imd y Sc'Si»«ii /*oi, khX ifiXaia.
awful Hebraistic phrase is used by St. Paul
(2 Thess. ii. 3 ; cf. 2 Sam. xii. 5) for anti-
christ, and numerous phrases of the kind
show how a genitive following vihs or t4kvov
expresses the full characteristic or the chief
feature of certain persons (thus of. vths yee-
rni, TfKva <j)aTos, Kardpas, etc.). This victim
of perdition, this child of hell, has completed
his course ; even now he has laid his plans
for my destruction and his own. He has so
perished in order that the Scripture might be
fulfilled. Even if the full telle force of imia
preserved here, he does not free the " son of
perdition " from the responsibility of his own
destruction. The Scripture portraiture of
Messiah lias been realized. Ps. xii. 9, which
has already been quoted by our Lord in oh.
xiil. 18, is probably still in his mind (cf. also
Isa. Ivii. 12, 13). Some commentators^Aroh-
deacon Watkins, Dean Alford — press the
fact that the " son of perdition " must have
been among those who were given to Christ
by the Father, who were watched, guarded,
taught by God ; but that Judas nevertheless
took his own way and went to his own
place. Thoma compares the lost disciple
with the lost sheep of the synoptists, as
though we had a reference to a true repro-
bate, a son of Belial, Apollyon, and the
like. Moulton justly protests against any
countenance being found iiere for the irrevo-
cable decree. But if the interpretation of
the el fiij given above is sound, there is no
inclusion of the traitor among those who are
"of the truth," etc. ; but lie was one who, not-
withstanding boundless opportunity, went to
his own place in the perversity of his own will.
Ver. 13. — But now oome I to thee. So
that the condition, the shielding protection
of my love is removed, thou, O my Father,
must be their Sun and Shield. And these
things I am uttering in the world ; uttering,
i.e. in their hearing before my last step is
taken, and perhaps in the very midst of the
machinations which are going on against
me. That they might have the joy that is
mine fulfilled, fully unfolded and completed,
in ' themselves. By overhearing the high-
priestly prayer, they would be assured of the
Divine guardianship, and would receive the
transfer of even his joy as well as of his
peace. They would find the higher joy also
of the return of their Lord to the bosom of
the Father. Christ has taught his disciples
to desire such joy and peace aa he found on
the night of the Passion.
Ver. 14. — ^I have given them thy word
(SfSaiKo, a permanent endowment) ; and the
' Tregelles, Tischendorf (8th edit.), West-
cott and Hort, and R.T., with N, A, B, X,
n, read iv famois ; while T.B. and Laol>
maun read iy a&rois, with C, D, and other
authorities.
MS
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvn. 1—28.
implication ia that they have received it
(ver. 8). The phrase is rather more con-
densed than before, and carries all the con-
sequences previously mentioned, and others
as well to which the Lord had referred (ch.
xvi. 1 — 5). As a matter of fact, the world
iiated them, because they are not of the world,
even as I am not of the world. This con-
stant contrast between the mind of Christ
and the spirit of the world pervades the
New Testament. Christ had expused its
hypocrisies, and denounced its idols, and in-
verted its standards, and repudiated its
smile, and condemned its prince, and was
now indifferent to its curse. His disciples,
as far as they shared his sentiments, came in
also for its malediction and hatred (cf. the
conflict with the Pharisees in the synoptic
narrative).
Ver. 15. — ^The prayer of Jesus based on
this. I pray Qpura, not otrea? ; see ver. 9 ;
the Jva here defines the contents of the
pi-ayer) not that thou shouldest take them
away — lift them up and out — out of the
world, as thou art taking me by death. This
natural desire on the part of some of thera
is not in harmony with the highest interests
of the kingdom. Those interests it would
henceforth be their high function to sub-
serve. There is much testimony for them to
bear, there are many great facts for them
completely to grasp, many aspects of truth
which they must put into words for the life
and salvation of $ouU, individuals for them
to teach and train, victories for them to win,
examples which they must set before the
world. If they are all to vanish from the
eyes of men as Christ will do, the end of
the manifestation will be sacrificed. The
Lord prays, not that they should be taken
out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep
them {Ti)fiiaris, not ipvX&^ris) from the evil.
The ix ToS TtovTipov is different from Matt,
vi. 13, QTri Tov TTovripoVf and may pos-
sibly mean " from the evil one." Eeuss,
Meyer, and Bevised Version accept the same
translation here in virtue of 1 John ii. 13 ;
iii. 12; V. 18; Kev. iii. 10, where the devil
is regarded as dominating, the realm, the
fltmosphere, the spirit, and the kingdom of
this world. Over against this kingdom the
Lord Christ, as the devil's great Rival, rules
in the kingdom of grace. Luther, Calvin,
Hengstenberg, Godet, Authorized Version,
and numerous other commentators, have re-
garded TOO wovripoO as neuter, as referring
to the great characteristic and all-subduing
temper, the far-reaching glamour and the
godless disposition of the world. Ti vov^ipov
includes b vorfipot.
Ver. 16. — They are not of the world, even
fts of the world I am not. This verse simply
repeats, with alteration of order, the clause of
K>r. 14 as the haaia of the next great petition.
Ver. 14 diawi the comparlion between Chiist
and the disciples; ver. 16 layi, by a trans-
position of words, the greater emphasis on
"the world." Alas that this great ntter-
ftnce should so often be utterly ignored I
How often in our own days, is other-worldli-
ness and un worldliness derided as a pestilent
heresy, and " a man of the world," instinct
with its purpose and saturated with its
spirit, lauded as the true man and ideal
leader of a Christian state I
Ver. 17. — Sanctify them ; consecrate them
(cf. oh. X. 36, of the sanctilication of the Sou
by the Father to the work of effecting human
redemption), separate them from the evil of
the world, as for holy purposes. Devote them
to the gloiious cause. Let them be sacrifices
on the altar. The a-y'dCoi, to sanctify, is
not synonymous with KaSxpt{u, to purify;
&7I0S is not a contradiction of the defiled so
much as of the purely natural, and involves
the higher ends of grace (Exod. xxix. 1, 36 ;
xl. 13). The sanotification of the Old Testa-
ment is a ritual process effected by cere-
monial observance ; the sanctifiiation of the
New Testament is a spiritual process passing
over heart and conscience and will, and is
the work of the Divine Spirit. Meyer, West-
cott, and others translate the next clause, in
the truth,' as the atmosphere in which the
disciples dwell ; but a large number of com-
mentators, with Godet, take iv rf a\ri$elif as
equivalent to " by the aid of," with the instru-
mentality of, "the truth :" consecrate fliem, by
revealing to them the reality, making known
to them the truth. If they see the truth
they will be discharged from the iUusiong
of the world, the flesh, and the devil. (Luther
takes iv Tp aXTjflefa adverbially, and as equi-
valent to "verily and indeed; but this can-
not well be, seeing the article is present, and
taking account of the subsequent definition
of a\7idela, it becomes improbable.) But what
is "truth"? what is the fall expression of
reality ? how are we to know where to find
it ? Thy Logos (thy Word), the utterance of
thy thought, is truth. If we can ever cog-
nize what is the Divine thought about any-
thing, we shall reach the absolute truth.
What God troweth is truth per ««. The
Logos of God, the full, God-choson utter-
ance of the reality of truth, is the nearest
approach to truth that we possess. This reve-
lation of God is the closest correspondence
with the reality. God sanctifies his children,
consecrates them to the service of his kingdom
by revealing the truth, by making known the
otherwise transcendental facts of his king*
dom. A long controversy has prevailed ia
the Church as to whether the Spirit's gracious
' The a-ov is omitted by a great group of
uncials, though i< omits the whole oUnse
from <rav to iKriStlf.
.xviil— 28.] THE GOSPEIi AOCORDmO TO ST. JOHK.
S49
openition* are or ue not limited by the
operation of truth on the mind. Numerons
aasuiances of the New Testament seem thus
to limit the grace of God, or to measure it
by the ordinary effect produced on the
understanding.by Divine truth ; e.g. " Of hia
own will begat he us by the Word of truth ; "
the parable of the sower, 'and other Scrip-
tures. But seeing that the regeneration,
the conference of new and supernatural life,
is set forth by images of resurrection and
new creation, and as a purification of taste,
bias, and desire, the gift of a new heart and
right spirit, the voice of a heavenly sonship
crying within us, " Abba, Father," and see-
ing that the ministration of the Spirit is
variously directed and operative, and that
there is shadowed forth an immediate work on
the heart, " back of consciousness " itself, and
that the witness of the Spirit and the teach-
ing and indwelling of the Holy Ghost are
continually referred to, — we are loth to
accept the dogma. The Spirit of God is not
limited to the normal operations of the Word.
Ver. 18. — ^As thou didst send me into the
world from the glory which I had with thee
before the world was — a primal fact in the
earthly consciousness of the Lord Christ, and
one on which he repeatedly laid emphasis (ch,
X. 36 ; xvii. 8) — even so I sent ' them into the
world ; i.e. from that higher sphere of thought
above the world to which I had called them.
" They are not of the world," but I sent them
■ from the unworldly home and from the high
place of my intimate friendship, from the
groundofelevated sympathy with myself, into
Sie world, with my message and the power to
claim obedience. Christ gave this apostolic
commission near the commencement of his
ministry (see Matt. x. 5, etc., and Mark iii
11, "lea &ITI /ier' avTov koX Xva hroiTTiKKf)
atiTohs iei]piaaiiv), and that first act, the
type of the whole apostolic commission,
which was finally confirmed (Matt, xxviii.
19, 20 ; ch. XX. 21, 22), is here described in
the timeless force of the aorist, so that the
word embraces the entire ministerial function
of all who believe in the mission of the Son.
Ver. 19. — And for their sakes — on their
behoof — I sanctify, coneecrate, myself. The
Father had consecrated him and sent him
into the world, but over and above all this
• In ch. XX. 21, " Even as the Father hath
sent me, I also send (^iriinru) you." 'AircJ-
aTiXKa and irf/iirw may differ, as the former
suggests "commission" for special purposes
and the latter "mission," which calls into
prominence the authority of the "Sender"
and the obedience of the "sent" (Moulton,
in loeci). In twenty verses of this Gospel
our Lord employs ire/^Ku of himself, and
often the two words are used in close con-
nection (ch. V. 36, 37; vii. 28, 29).
there were tpeoial *nd laoriflolal aoti of lore
and devotion which he made on behalf of
his own. He went np voluntarily into the
wilderness to be tempted for them; he
wrought for them while it was jet day. He
now was ready to commend himself to thr
supreme will of the Father, and to offe.
himself through the Spirit in his perfected
humanity without spot of sin to God.
'Ayid^a is equivalent irpoatpipu ao\ tuiriav,
as Cbrysostom says, and it is used for e'^^pn
(Exod. xiii. 2; Dent. xv. 19). Christ is the
Priest and the Victim, and the dedication
of himself to this climax of his consecrated
life is for the sake of the disciples (so Lange,
Meyer, Godet, and Westcott). That they also
may be sanctified indeed — truly or veritably.
(1) We have to notice that the passive form
of the second clause shows that Oiat which
the Lord, in its highest form, effects for
himself, they receive as a work wrought In
them by another. (2) Using the word
ayitt^eiv in the same sense in both clauses,
the consecration effected in the disciples
must correspond with Christ's consecration
in self-sacrificial love, in abandonment to
the power of the Word which has revolu-
tionized their whole being, in entire equip-
ment for their calling, even to the point of
hatred and antagonism from the world, and
death for his sake. They are indeed to drink
of his cup, and be baptized with his baptism.
They must be crucified with him and buried
with him, and rise again with him, in the
activity of their faith. (3) 'Ek a\ri9eiif,
without the article, has the sense of " verily
and indeed" (Matt. xxii. 16; 2 Cor. vii. 14;
1 John iii. 18, etc.). It is not certain that
2 John 1 or 3 John 1 can be thus translated,
but the classical usage of this phrase, and
also of ill' oAijSelat, leaves little doubt about
its use here.
Vers. 20— 26.— (3) Prayer for Oe Church
CathoUo in'all time.
Ver. 20.— Neither do I pray {ipan-ii) for —
concerning — these alone, but also for those
who believe* on me through their word.
The Lord summons the future into the pre-
sent. He speaks of having once for all sent
them, and he sees rising before his eye the
multitudes in all ages who would believe
their testimony as if already doing so. The
upiversal Church rejoices in the fulness of
his love and the greatness of his wish con-
cerning the individuals who believe. The
prayer is an eternal intercession.
Ver. 21.— That they all may be one. My
prayer is that the many may become one,
' TluTTtvivrav is here preferred to iiurrfu-
aivrai/f on the authority of nineteen nncials
and numerous cursives and versions, by Tre-
gelles, Westcott and Hort, Tischendorf (8th
edit.), and R.T.
850
THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. ivh. 1—26.
fonu one liTing glorioTU unity;— every part
of which spiiitual organiBm, while living a
■epaiate and differentiated life, is yet a part
of a whole. In the natural sphere, as the
parts of • whole organism are more and
more developed, and increasingly resemble
individualities in their separation, they are
in the same proportion dependent on the
whole for the life that is in them. Even in a
higbljr organized community, as the separate
individuals have more and more personal
consciousness of Bpecial function, they be-
come the more dependent on the whole, and
in one sense lost in the unity to which they
belong. The branches in the vine form
together one vine ; the members of a body,
being many, are one body and members of
one another. It is open to discussion
whether the xaSiis clause, which here
follows, characterizes the above statement,
M Meyer and many others urge, or whether,
with Godet, the sentence, "That they all
may be one," should not be taken as a
general statement, to be followed by the
KaBiis clause, which characterizes the follow-
ing words. The first method is a more
rational interpretation, nor does the sen-
tence drag. According as thou, Father, (art)
in me, and I (am) in thee ; i.e. the relation
between the Father and Son, the manner in
which the Father lives in the Son, as in his
organ or instrument of manifestation and
object of supreme affection, and as the Son
is in the Father, abiding ever in the light
of his glory, in the power of his Name, and
as these two are thus One in being, so, or
similarly, the believers are to live in and
for each other, becoming a unity, just as the
Father and Son are unity. Li order that
they themselves also may be [one'] in us.
This Ji/a does not offer a parallel sentence
in apposition with the former, nor is the
"that" to be inverted, with Godet, who
translates, " that according as thon . . . they
also may be one in us ; " but it is the climax
of the whole unifying process, after the
likeness of the union between the Father
and the Son, viz. that they themselves may
be included in this unity. Though they
are thus to be lost in God, yet they do not
lose their own individuality. Nay, in pro-
portion to their organic reljition to the ful-
ness of the Godhead and the completeness
■ The tv is omitted by Tischendorf (8th
edit.), and by Meyer, Westoott and Uort, on
authority which does not convince Laoh-
mann or Godet, who regard it as essential
to the meaning. For the omission, B, C*,
D, a, b, 0, and numerous quotations ; while
tr is found in K, A, 0', and numerous other
nnoials and cursives. Westcott regards the
idea of nnity more thoroughly confirmed by
the omission than by the presence of the tr.
of their own spiritual fellowBhip with one
another, will this personal consciousness of
theirs become more and more pronounced.
There is yet a further process contemplated,
viz. in order that the world may beliava
(iriffTc^), as in the next verse; ytvdaicji, in
the present sulpunotive, rather than the
aorist) that thou didst send me. The
spiritual life and unity of the Church will
produce an impression on the world which
now rejects the Christ and does not appre-
ciate his Divine commission. The union
which springs from the blended life of the
various and even contradictory elements in
the Church will prove the reality of its
origin. The world will believe, — this is the
final purpose of the intercession concerning
the disciples; so though above he did not
pray for the world es the then immediate
object of his intercession, the poor world is
in his heart, and the saving of the world
the end of his incarnation. If the union
between the Father and the Son is the
sublime type of the union between those
who shall believe, it is not the union of a
great society in accordance with certain
invincible rules of affiliation and govern-
ment. The union between the Father and
Son is not a visible manifestation, but a
spiritual inference. The common indwell-
ing in the Father and Son, the identity of
the spiritual emotion and purpose in pU who
have one Lord, one faith, one baptism, will
convince the world by producing a similai
inference. Alford : " This unity is not mere
outward uniformity, nor can such uniformity
produce it. At the same time, its effect*
are to be real and visible, such that the
world may see them."
Ver. 22. — Our Lord now proceeds to reooid
how he has already oontribnted to produce
this result. I also — ^very emphatic — ^have
given to them — ^that is, to my ^sciples — the
glory which thou gavest me. Numerous
interpretations of this "glory" have been
suggested, as e.g. the glory into which he is
about to enter in his glorified body ; but the
emphatic perfect Sc'Sm/ca, in connection with
the iSuxds, viz. : " I have given and am now
and still giving," renders this improbable.
Meyer, who does not accept Baumgarten-
Crusius's view that SiSdvai here means " to
destine," yet comes very much to the same
thought, and regards it as the heavenly
glory of which he had eternal experience,
and would ultimately share with his people.
But the view variously set forth by Olshau-
sen, Hengstenberg, Maldonatus, Bengel,
Tholuck, Moulton, and Godet appears
to be in full harmony with the context,
viz. the glory of the supernatural life of
Divine Sonship and self-sacrificing love
as of the very essence of God. This
glory that he should taste death for eveiy
CH. XTO. 1— 26.] THE GOSPEL ACCOEDINQ TO ST. JOHN.
361
man, this glory of natnre and character as
the incarnate Head of a new humanity, I
have giv»a to them, in order that they may
be one, living in and for each other, even as
we are one. The contrast between his own
relation to the Father and theirs is most
wonderfully maintained. The union be-
tween the Father and Sou is once more
made the typo, in his own unique consoiona-
nesB, of the union among men who have
received as his gift the eternal lire and
glory of a supernatural love. This is more
evident from what follows.
Yer. 23. — ^I in them, and then in me. He
does not say, "Thou in them, as thou in
me," nor " They in thee, and I in thee ; "
but he includes in the 7iii.e7s of the previous
verse, 'Eyij koI 2^, and distinctly regards
liimself as the mediating link of relation
between the Father and the disoi|)les. The
'£71^1 is that of the Son of God, manifested
in Christ's consciousness of the God-man-
hood; the 'Si is the eternal and non-incarnate
God, Ood is in him, as he is in them.
They are in him, as he is in the Father.
That they may be perfected, completely
realizing the end of their being and the
meaning of the gift of eternal life, fully
ripened in their graces until they reach up
into one, into the fulness of the stature of
the perfect Man, until they become the one
new and immortal body of the living Christ,
(cis cV indicates the sublime result so far as
they are concerned). Each individual be-
liever reaching the highest perfection of his
being, as according to his own capacity and
function he fills his place in the one living
body of the Lord. The end is not here,
however, so far as others are concerned ; for
this unity, when consummated, is to bring
about a yet further result on this earth, and
in order that the world may oome to know
(yiv^ffKjj) that thou didst send me, and lovedst
them as tboa lovedst me. Our Lord has
advanced upon the assertion of ver. 21, (1)
by discriminating between " believing " and
" coming to know " by personal experiences,
overwhelming conviction, and processes
which lead to invincible assent. Faith in
ts highest form melts into knowledge, full
assurance, complete certitude. (2) There is
superadded to the conviction concerning the
Divine mission of the Christ yet another,
viz, a conviction of the wonderful love
which thou hast shown to them in thus
lifting them out of the world into the unity
of the spiritual life, into the fellowship of
the Son of God. This has twofold bearing.
So far as the world is concerned they will
■ee that the love shown to the believers in
Christ will be compatible with the same
kind of treatment as Christ himself received,
and BO far as the Divine reality is concerned,
it will be seen that they are so dosely
identified with Christ that the infinite 1ot«
of God to Christ flows over in its Divine
superabundance upon those who are gathered
together into him. It is impossible to ex-
clude from these verses the idea of tha
visibility of the union and life of the Church,
and of the Divine love to it. Nothing is
said or hinted, however, about the nature of
that visibility. Christians are not, by reason
of their diii'erenees, to exclude from this
passage the promise that the whole assembly
of the Firstborn would make this gracious
and convincing impression on the world.
They are far enough, in days of mutual
recrimination, from realizing the Divine ideal,
and should set themselves to remedy the
crying evil ; but they have no right to import
into the words, by reason of their predilection
for particular forms of Church organization,
an identification of the body of Christ with
any specific form. The spiritual union of
Christendom in its one faith, hope, and
character, is, notwithstanding the divergence
of some of its forms of expression, the most
stupendous fact in the history of the world.
The flite of all Churches are drawing more
and more into a visible unity.
Ver. 24. — Now passing from this glorifi-
cation of his people in the convictions and
knowleilge of the world, our Lord offers " as
a Son to a Father," and therefore with pro-
found naturalness, the prayer of the incar-
nate Logos to the eternal Father, and
therefore an address indubitably supernatural
and lifted above all human consciousness.
It is a prayer, too, which rises from the high
and unique term iprnTw (one which he never
puts into the lips of his disciples) to a yet
higher one, B4\ai, as one who speaks with
i^ovcrla which God had given him over all
flesh, that he should give eternal life to
those whom God had given him, @(\oi
means less than " I will," and more than " I
desire," and is destitute of that element of
"counsel" or deliberation that is involved
in $ov\6iiai. Very soon after this, when the
full force of his human consciousness pressed
upon him, he said (Mark xiv. 36), " Not what
(e'-yi BeKa) I wUl, but what thou wiliest."
But here he is so conscious of the Father's
will concerning others that he cries, Father,
as for them whom— or, as some ancient
codices read, that ' which — thon hast given
me, regarded as a mystic unity, as the Bride
which he has redeemed, I will that they
also be with me where I am, Kaice7yot
resolves the t into the elements of which it
» Tisohendorf (8th edit.), Westcott and
Hort, Alford, Tregelles, and E.T., even
Godot and Meyer, on the authority of K, B,
D, read % ; but Laohmann, on the authority
of A, 0, L, X, T, etc., numerous versions
and qnotationi, reaids tZt.
ssa
THE GOSPEL ACOORDINQ TO BT. JOHN, [obu xvh. 1—26.
1b composed. This ii the first part of the
final petition, and it embraooB everything.
« With Christ ; " " For ever with the Lord ;"
in his glory and part of it, in the platse
which he is going to localize and prepare
for them, is heaven. The glory which he
had already given to his disciples (ver. 22)
falls far short of this fellowship with him
where his nndimmed radiance shines, is
only a preparation for sharing with him in
his ultimate triumph over the world and
death, and also for sitting down with him
on his throne (Rev. iiL 21). In this world
fellowshipwith him in his suffering humanity
did not finally reveal the transcendent glory
(though in ch. i. 14 the apostle says, " We
heheld his glory," etc.) of his Person. To
realize this he prays. And that they may also
behold the glory which is mine, which thoa
hast given me. The glory given cannot be
the glory of the \6yos turdpKos, according to
Meyer, for that is not given, but belongs to
him by eternal right ; yet Meyer admits that
the Father gave the Son to have life in liim-
self ; and that even the eternal Sonship itself
may be regarded as the eternal bestowment
of an infinite love. Seeing that the Lord
goes on to give a reason of his 6e\r)ntt
founded on an eternal or at least pre-
mundane manifestation of a conscious love,
surely he is tblnking of the exaltation of
humanity into the eternal glory, which he
distinctly relinquished and veiled in the
days of his flesh. That which they had
hitlierto seen they only partiallly appre-
hended, though he had even given it to
them (ver. 22), and though they had been
drawn out of the world to high places of
transfiguration, that they miglit behold it
and learn how it coexisted with and was
compatible with a perfect resignation to tlie
will of God in human redemption. Our
Lord prays, nay, wilh, that they should
hereafter see it in its fulness of grace and
beauty, see it when relieved from obstiuctive
hindrances due to the flesh and to tho world,
see it on the grandest scale, see it as it
really is, see the full capacity and infinite
momentum of the glory «hich he had
already bestowed upon them. For thou
lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
This, say Meyer and Luthardt, is given as a
reason of the prayer for liis disciples, not as
an explanation of the glory wliich he had
with the Father before the world was. It
is often said that the exaltation of the Son
of man is a reward for his self-humiliation,
and the crown of his sacrificial death (Phil,
ii 9; Eev. iii. 21; Heb. i. 1, 2), but these
very passages couple that exaltetion with
the premundana glory of him who was, to
begin with, and before his work of re-
demption, the "Effulgence of the Father's
glory," who was "in the form of God," and
regarded the being eqnal with God as no
apiray/iis — not as a thing to be seized, prized,
and held in its integrity. And in Heb. ii_. 9,
" He was by reason of his intended passion
crowned with glory and honour, in order that
he might taate death for every man." So that
the glory which he had with the Father
before the world was, and therefore before
his incarnation, was that very glory of self-
devoting and unutterable love into which
he would come again with all the trophies
of his redemptive work. The new and
higher embodiment of his humanity would
prove of such a kind that his essential glory
would shine through it in undimmed lustre.
If this be the meaning, we cannot dilute
this pregnant saying, one of the most
mysterious of all his words, one which leads
us up to the highest possible conception of
the relations between the Father and the
Son. The eternal love of which the God-
head itself is the socbob and the object is
that to which we shall be introduced, and
which our Lord would have us see and
share (cf, 1 John iii. 1 — 3).
Ver. 25. — The prayer is thus over, and
once more the great High Priest and Victim
declares concerning himself some of the
mysteries of his Person and of his relation
with his disciples and with the world. 0
righteous Father (cf, vers. 1, 5, nirep
simply ; ver. 1 1, Udrep Sryie ; ver. 24, Uirep
without any characterization). The right-
eousness of God is a more exalted perfection
than his holiness, one that might seem more
at variance with the exercise of his paternal
compassion ; yet this righteousness is con-
spicuously displayed in the redemptive love
which Christ had thus manifested, and the
beloved disciple (1 John i. 9) declares that
God is faithful and " righteous " in forgiving
the repentant sinner. The blending of the
idea of righteousness with Fatherhood is the
sublime revelation made by the Lord Jesus,
and he gathers the two ideas together into
an indissoluble unity. Justice and meroy
are seen by the whole work of the Sou of
God to have been the outflow and efi'ulgeuce
of the one all-comprehending and infinite
love. The ko! that here follows has created
some difBoulty, though some manuscripts
omit it (D and Vulgate), probably in con-
sequence of its inappropriateness ; but it is
received on strong ancient authority. Meyer
and Hengsteuberg take it thus: Mighleotu
Father (j/ea,«uc7i thou art), and (,yet) the world
knew thee not. But would our Lord have hesi
tatod, as it were, to express this truth, with-
out justifying it against the unbelief of the
world ? Moulton tries io explain the simple
adversative force of the koI and Si by " both
the world learned not to know thee, but I
learned to know thee." Godet has ex-
pressed the ml more effectively by trans-
CH. x-ra. 1—26.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
863
lating, The world, it U true, knew thee not,
but I knew thee. The Bevised Version hag,
with the Authorized Version, simply omitted
the Kol. It i8 one of the most solenm of
the Lord's condemnations of the Kiia-juai.
The Apostle Paul said (1 Cor. i. 21), "The
world through its wisdom knew not God ; "
and in Bom. 1. 18 — 23 he shows that thia
ignorance was wilful and practical and with-
out excuse. The liietory of the struggling
of the world after God has shown how dense
the human darkness is. There have been
signs that men groped after the idea of a
Father who should be blind to their faults
and indifferent to their follies, and after a
righteous Lord who has exalted righteous-
ness and hated iniquity ; but it was left for
Christ to blend these apparently discordant
beams into the radiance of a perfect glory.
How many illustrations do the sad and
shameless perveLsious of human intelligence
supply I Bat I knew thee, because of the
eternity of that ineffable love wherewith
thou hast loved me, and because of the
depth of that righteous love which thou hast
manifested to the world in sending me upon
my mission. And these knew — came to kaow
by personal intuition — that thou didst send
me (cf. ch. xvi. 27, and vers. 8, 23) on the
mission of redeeming the world. They have
learned that I have come with all thy
authority and in all thy power ; that I have
come out from thee; that I entered into
the world ; that I have glorified thee among
men; that my thoughts are thy thoughts,
and my " words " QrindTo) are thy (Logos)
"Word;" that my works of love are the
works of the Father ; and that my promises
are the manifestation of thy Name to the
men whom thou hast given me.
Ver. 26. — Since they have " learned that
thou sentest me," our Lord, to complete the
awful monologue, adds. And I made known
thy Name to them, pointing back to the
i^avepaai. aov rh ovo/ia of ver. 6. " To make
manifest " is not eijnal in potency with " to
make known, to cause them to know ; " there
is more direct work done in them and to
them in order to effect knowledge. Our Lord
also declares that he has duue this already,
but his work of manifestation and teaching
are not complete. There is more and more
for these to learn. And (yvapta-a) I will make
them to know it. A promise of Divine expan-
sion reaching onward and outward for ever-
more. By the power of his Spirit, by his
return to them in his resurrection-life, by the
ministry of the Paraclete, he would prolong
and complete the convincing process. In order
that the love wherewith thou hast loved me
(notice the unusual expression, ii irydTrri, V
^7«TT)(r(ii; and of. Eph. ii. 4)--the eternal
love of the Father to the well-beloved Son —
^e love which has flowed forth upon lum as
the perfect Son of man, and BepresentatiTeof
man, upon him who laid down his life that
he might take it again (cf. ch. x. 17) — may
be in them ; may alight on them as knowing,
receiving, loving me (cf. ch. xvi. 27, " The
Father himself loveth you, because ye have
loved me"). However much was involved
in the utterance just quoted, in this closing
utterance still more is conveyed. The waves
on this boundless ocean of love pour in, one
behind the other, each nobler and freighted
with richer blessing than that which pre-
ceded ; and the motive of this infinite
fulness of eternal love being thus lavished
upon them is added : I in them. On this
profound suggestion he has already said
much, but not until we reach these last
words do they flash forth in all their mystic
grandeur. His life wUl be so identified with
their life, his abode so blended with their
being, his life so repeated in their experi-
ence, his personality so much entwined and
blended with theirs, that he in tliem, and
because he is in them, prolongs and repeats
himself as the Object of an eternal love. We
see the same ideas in the Pauline teaching,
and can only explain Gal. i. 16; ii. 20; iv.
6; Bom. vui. 9, 10, 11; Eph. ii. 18; iii.
19 ; Col. ii, 7 ; iii.. 4, as echoes of the class
of teaching which, long before John had
recorded the prayer in this form, had yet
become the seed and life-principle of the
Church. This is not only true of the closing
verses, but of the whole prayer and preceding
discouna.
5. Review of the difficulties attending the
presenilation and characterietics of this dis-
course and prayer. The sublime comprehen-
siveness of the prayer ; its augmenting swell
of thought ; the awful depth of its self-con-
sciousness ; the limpid simplioity of its style;
the movement from himself to his disciples,
to the entire Church, to the outlying world ;
the ground on which he bases every prayer ;
the imperial dignity of the Pleader; the
total absence of any sense of personal weak-
ness or sinfulness ; the revelation and insight
thus granted into the heart of the God-Man ;
its naturalness, if we concede the foregoing
character ; its profound humility, if we bear
in mind his unique claims ; — constitute
this page a supernatural phenomenon
Christ himself is the greatest of his miraclea
The supposition that some unknown writer
of the second century excogitated such a
conception out of the synoptic narrative, the
Pauline Epistles, and the Alexandrine philo-
sophy, refutes itself.
We itdmit, with F. W. Nswmm, with
ai A
S64
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvn. 1— 26.
Benas, and wiib. sL the rationaliBt critics,
that it ia difflcnlt to undeistand how the
apoitle could have reproduced so accurately
this wondroua discourse and the prayer;
bnt the author practically admits that it
was a supernatural process of memory (ch.
xIt. 25, 26). Still, there are facts enough
in the natural sphere and within the know-
ledge of all, that such extraordinary efforts
of memory are by no means uncommon.
John was the contemporary of men whose
surprising memory held the whole ' Mishna '
and thousands of iUustrative comments,
•Halacha,' and 'Hagada' ready for constant
reference and application. The rit>his of
India, the Greek rhapsodists, medinval
minnesingers, and wandering bards, have
had imprinted indelibly and verbally on
their recollection ten or twenty times the
bulk of this wondrous discourse. John was
young, impressionable, intimately acquainted
with his Lord, though needing many things
to complete his apprehensioa of his glory ;
and, even apart from Divine or spiritual aid,
there is no reason to dispute its accuracy.
The impression that this discourse and
{nsyer have prodaced on the general con-
■oiousnesa of the Church, is, that none bnt
Christ could have uttered these words, and
he only at such a conjuncture.
Keim insists that John, if it were he, by
this narrative annihilates (he tynoptio tradi-
tion of the agony in the garden. And we
do not deny that the intercalation of that
agony between this prayer and the sublime
manner in which Jesus meets the band of
soldiers, renders a harmony of the Gospels
at this point very difScult. The difficulty
does not so njuch arise from the fact that
the profound and awful strife should follow
upon this sublime and lofty calm, upon this
Imperial and Divine prerogative, but that
throughout the Johannine recital of the
events which occurred on the night of be-
trayal and Passion, the same exalted de-
meanouris preserved, and numerous incidents
and sayings are recorded which appear dis-
crepant with the utter prostration and over-
whelming affliction revealed in the synoptic
narrative. This contrast must not be
minimized, and cannot be disputed. The
qneetion to be decided is whether the two-
fold aspect of the loene can possibly repre-
•ent the trath, or whether it piooeeds firom
the theological prepossessions of a latei
writer, who imagined the behaviour of the
incarnate Logos under these conditions
without any real and deep foundation in
reality.
By way of preface to an expository treat-
ment, it is desirable to observe that John
throughout received impressions from his
Lord of a profoundly different character
from that of the other observers, and through-
out he saw the Divine manifestation which,
while they witnessed it, they did not pene-
trate as he had done. The veil of the human
phenomena concealed much from their spiri-
tual apprehension. The different manner in
which the same event is described by two
witnesses, and the different constructions
put upon the same action when viewed with
diverse presuppositions, is of too common
occurrence to need illustration. Luke re-
presents the tradition concerning the Son
of man in the hour of his deepest dejection.
John represents what he saw of the ine&bly
Divine element which triumphed over the
human. The angle of vision was different,
the sensitive brooding and susceptible
nature of John was unlike the impetnoiu
human passion of Peter's soul, and the result-
ant impression on them both of the whole
cycle of events was correspondingly different
Then let it V noticed that John, who knew
the synoptic narrative, deliberately omitted
what had passed into universal credence,
such as the Transfiguration, the Holy Supper,
and the Ascension : why was he not at liberty
to omit the agony in the garden and the
traitor's kiss ? He takes up his story after
the surprise was over, and when the Lord had
resumed the tone of the voluntary Sufferer
and Divine Saviour ; and if we compare the
two descriptions of that scene, they supple-
ment and explain one another. Numerous
incidents throughout the closing scenes,
which are omitted by John, are recorded by
one or more of the evangelists, and some
facts and words are peculiar to the Johannine
narrative. These omissions from and addi-
tions to the synoptic narrative have been
supposed to reveal the purpose of the
theologian rather than the record of the
eye-witness. It is rashly asserted that John
omits the symptoms of human weakness and
shame, and exaggerates the signs of Divine
indwelling and of lofty prerogative. Thfa,
OH. xvn. 1-26.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
K6
however, is by no meatiB true. He doei
omit the agony in the gaiden, but he gives
in oh. zii. the analogue of that awful scene,
and the same Divine spirit with which it
was consummated. He omits the " traitor's
kiss," but he hints the occurrence of that
crowning treachery. He does omit the re-
cord of the desertion by the disciples, but
(ch. xvi. 32) be records the prediction of it.
He omits the inciient of the false witness
aad the adjuration, but it should in all
fairness be remembered that he also omitted
the great confession of the Lord's Messiah-
ship and exaltation ; and while he passes by
the incidents of the mockery of the Lord,
he records other matters and methods of
mockery which are equally humiliating (ch.
xix. 12), If he omits the examinations
before Caiaphas and Herod, he gives that
which the synoptic tradition had lost sight
of in the first examination before Annas
»nd in the private interview with FUate.
The hand-washing of Pilate and the dream
of his wife are passed over, but the conduct
of Pilate is made far more intelligible by
that private interview. The evangeliita
Luke and Matthew both record features of
sorrow and words from the cross and por-
tents attending the Omcifixion, which confer
a royal prerogative and a Divine signifi-
cance on his death. The rending of the veil,
the confession of the centurion, the great
earthquake, the supernatural darkness, the
repentance and acceptance of the dying bri-
gand,— all these we might reasonably expect,
on the theory of theological prepossession;
to have been found in the Fourth Gospel ;
and what is more remarkable still on that
hypothesis is that the most pecnliar and
pathetic feature of the last honn is an exhi-
bition of Christ's perfect humanity and filial
love, which the other narraturs fail to touch
(oh. xix. 25 — 27). We conclude, therefore,
that the matters in which the narratives
agree are abundant and remarkable, and their
divergences cannot be accounted for on the
ground of theological bias. The exposition
of the following chapters will bring the
several lacunas, correspondences, and peon-
Uarities into yet ftiller promineno*.
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 1 — 5. — Ohritfs intercessory prayer. The great High Priest appears on the ev«
of his final sacrifice of himself for his people. He prays, first, for restoration to his
Divine glory.
L The attitude and spikit of this pbatbb. " He lifted up his eyes to heaven,
and said. Father." 1. His attitude, as lis looked upwards, lespoJce his reverence/or Ood,
whose throne is in heaven, his confidence in Ood, and his expectation of help and comfort
from on high. 2. Eis spirit is that of confidence and filial affection. If his prayer
was in Aramaean, he said, " Abba," which henceforth passes into the usage of the
Church, as the term so sacred to Christians (Rom. vii. 15 ; Gal. iv. 6).
II. The purpoet of this pkatbb. " The hour is come ; glorify thy Son, that thy
Son also may glorify thee." 1. T?iere was an hour appointed in the Divine cminsels
for his death and Passion. It was the fitting time. The best remedy for such a sad
moment is prayer. 2. It was an hour that involved in its consequences the glorification
of the Son. (1) Not by his mere death, (2) nor by his resurrection, (3) but by thu
change in his piersonal condition, which would enable him in heaven to consummate
the work he had begun on earth. 3. Mark how the glorification of the Father and the
Son are inextricably linked together. 4. Mark the authority which Christ ?ms received,
as Mediator, over the whole human race. " As thou hast given him authority over all
flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." (1) Mark
the universality of the go.spel ; for it applies, not to Israel only, but to all people
(Matt, xxviii. 19). (2) The authority of the Son over the race of man is conferred Dy
the Father. It is not implied that the Son was not God, because he received all from
his Father, for the text speaks of his authority as Mediator. (3) The design of this
authority is that he might give eternal life to his own people, (a) All believers are the
Father's gift to the Son, as his charge and as his reward (Isa. liii. KJ), We may, there-
fore, infer that such a gift will not be in vun. (ft) Eternal life is Ohrist's free gift to
sinners, (a) It is not temporary lite, but life without break or end. (/I) It U a ma^ ai
• Puritaa sayi, unbought, unsought, unthought, by siitMn.
356 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xm. 1—24
in. Thk TRtTB NATUBB OF ETERNAL LIFB. "And this IS life eternal, that they
alight know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." _ 1. Tht
life of grace legins with knowledge. (1) Ignorance is the great hindrance to life. (2)
Christ, by his Spirit and Word, removes this hindrance, enlightening our understanding.
2. 2%e true objects of holy knowledge are Ood and Christ. (1) The only true God, in
opposition to the error of polytheism. (2) It is the whole essence of the Godhead —
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This is the only true God. (3) Christ is to be known
as the manifestation of the Godhead, (a) Without him, we do not know God as
reconciled, and therefore cannot come to him with boldness. (&) The dependence of
eternal life in the knowledge of the Son implies his coequal Godhead with the Father
and the Spirit. How could the knowledge of a mere creature be equally necessary to
salvation with that of God himself? (e) The mission of the Son was (o) from God
and heaven ; (0) it was into this world ; (y) it was in our business and for our benefit.
(8) Therefore we ought to honour the Son as we honour the Father.
rV. The Son's olokification of the Father on earth. " I have glorified thee
on earth : I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.'' 1. The Son glorified
the Father by (1) his doctrines, (2) his miracles, (3) his obedience, (4) his sufferings
till death. 2. 2%e work of his life was now ended. (1) This implies that his work
was finished before his death.. He refers to his obedience in life in our stead, which
was as necessary as his obedience unto death for our salvation. (2) Because it is
a finished work, it is sinful and foolish for man to add to it.
V. The pbatbb fob the Son's glorification in heaven. " And now, 0 Father,
glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the
world was." These words imply : 1. That the Son had an essential glory with the
Father iefcre the foundation of the world. 2. Tliat he emptied himself for a Ume of
that which he received again. (Phil. ii. 7.) 3. That the glory of his Divinity tuas ful-
filled in his ascended manhood. 4. Mark the glorious advancement of our nature in
the Person of Christ. 5. The true fulfilment of this prayer is set forth in the exaltation
described in the Philippian EpisUe. (PhiL ii. 9 — 12.)
Vers. 6 — 11. — Owr LordCi prayer for his disciples. As he had prayed for himself, he
next prays for his disciples.
L Christ's manifestation of the Father to his disciples. "I have mani-
fested thy Name to the men which thou gavest me out of the world." 1. He only
could make swih a discovery of t?ie Divine mind and wUl (1) by his appearance in the
flesh ; (2) by his Word ; (3) by his Spirit. 2. Those who received the revelation were
OocFs. "Thine they were:" (1) by creation; (2) by election; (3) by gift of the
Father to the Son, (a) as his charge, (V) as his subjects, (c) as his apostles, (d) as his
reward.
II. The apostles' faithful beoeption of the Father's Word. " And they have
kept thy Word." Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given
me are of thee. 1. Christ's Word is the Father's Word. 2. The disciples kept it (1) in
their memory as sacred treasure ; (2) in their hearts by believing ; (3) in their lives by
a steadfast obedience. 3. The complete loyalty of the disciples to the revelation of Christ.
(1) " They have received them" — upon the authority of my testimony. (2) "They
have known surely that I came out from thee " — by their spiritual insight, rising from
the reception of his Word to the recognition of the Divine origin of his Person. (3)
" And they have believed that thou didst send me " — by the absolute surrender of their
being to his guidance.
IIL Odb Lord's prater fob his disciples. " I pray for them : I pray not for
the world, but for them whom thou hast given me ; for they are thine." 1. Christ is
our graciouB Intercessor. (1) This fact should give us boldness in prayer; (2) support
us under a sense of our imperfections; (3) assure us of the succoss of our petitions.
2. Christ at present prays only for his disciples, who were to continue his woi-k. The
world is only for the moment outside the sphere of his supplications. It will by-and-
by be reached by those for whom he first prays. (1) His prayer for the world will be
for its conversion ; his prayer for the disciples is for their sanctifi cation and preservation,
(2) He will in a few hours pray for the world. " Father, forgive them : they know not
what thay dou" (3) There is an implicit prayer for the world implied in the prayv
OH. xvn. 1—26.] THE QOSPEL AOOOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. 867
for Christian unity. " That the world may know that thou hast sent me.** 3. The
aniwer to his prayeri/or [t?ie disciples is giiaraiiteed Jy a three/old claim. {1) They
were the Father's; he could not, thererore, but provide for hia own children. (2)
They were Christ's, by gift of the Father ; therefore the Father might be expected
to watch over his own gift. (3) Christ was glorified in his disciples. " I have been
glorified in them," (a) in their grace (6) and in their glory.
IV. The danobbs to which the disciples would be exposed. "And I am no
longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee." 1. Christ thinks
of his departure as all hut already accomplished. (1) He had no more to do in this
woi'ld but die. (2) His departure would leave the disciples without his personal sup-
port. (3) Tet he suggests that he has much to do in heaven : (a) by sending his
Spirit ; (6) by interceding for his people ; (o) by preparing a place for them ; (d) by
ti'iumphing over all his enemies. 2. Z%e world is always aplaxe of danger to the dis-
ciples. (1) By its open hostility ; (2) by its threefold solicitations : (a) the lust of the
fiesh, (i) the lust of the eye, (c) and the pride of life.
V. OuB Lokd's entebatt fob the pebseevatiok of his disciples. "Holy
Father, keep through thine own Name those whom thou bast given me, that they may
be one, as we are." 1. The term of address suggests the thought of the petition. The
name, " Holy Father," suggests at once the filial relationship and the consecration
which mark ofT our separation from the world. 2. It is the Father who will maintain
this continued separation. (1) The perseverance of the saints is the fruit of Christ's
prayer. (2) It is effected through the Almighty power of the Father, guarding his
saints and jstrengthening them against temptations. (3) We are strong, therefore, not
in ourselves, but in Ood. (4) We ought, therefore, to have constant recourse to hii
"Name," which, as the revelation of the Divine character, is " the enclosing wall, as it
were, of the sacred region in which they are kept." 3. The end of this Divine keeping
is the wiitiffif the disciples in estrangement from the world. " That they may be one, as
we are." (1) Christian unity is important (a) for growth in grace, (6) for comfort, (c)
for the furtherance of the gospel. (2) It is hindered (a) by carnal pride, (jb) by selfish
interests, (e) by intellectual restlessness, (d) by the diversity of human temperaments.
(3) It ought to be an earnest subject of prayer to God (a) that man may attain to
a union like that between the Father and the Son ; (b) that God may be thus abun-
dantly glorified ; (e) that the world may be thus attracted to Christ by the visible one*
ness and love of his disciples.
Vers. 12, 13. — Chrisfs petition for his disdplet supported by various considerations.
He looks back upon the work he had already done, and sees that it must henceforth be
taken up by a different agency.
I. Those who abe to be saved abk ooumitted to Cebut's KEBPrtto. "While
I was with them in the world, I kept them myself in thy Name. I have watched over
those whom thou hast given me." 1. Believers cannot keep themselves. 2. Christ takes
them wholly in charge for safe ke^ng. 3. They are kept, (1) not from suffering, (2) nor
from all sin, (3) but from perisUng everlastingly. " Not one of them is lost." (a)
Christ has an individual care of beUevers. (6) The loss of a single believer would be
(a) a dishonour to Christ, (j3) and would weaken the comfort and confidence of his
people, (c) Christ keeps them "in the Name" of the Father, out of love and duty to
him. 4. jttdas — "the son <f perdition" — prepares himself for his own foreseen ruin.
(1) He was not included among those whom the Father had given to the Son. (2)
Jesus discharges himself from all responsibility La relation to Judas. (3) The fall of
the traitor had its place In the scheme of Divine provision (ch. xiL 38 ; Ps. xli. 9). It
was foretold in Scripture.
II. The object of oub Lobd in this fbateb fob thb disciples. "And now J
come to thee ; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy
fulfilled in themselves." 1. Mis prayer was offered up thai their joy should not be
diminished by his approaching d^arture, but rather increased by the coming of the
Comforter. (1) Ghnst is the Author of joy. "My joy." (2) He dispenses it (a) by
gracious ordinances, (b) by cheering promises, (e) by the witness of the Comforter
1. The importanM and necessity ^ this joy. (1) Christ ^vea it as a mark of his
CBllow-fieeliag — as One who was himself " anointed with the oil of gladness above his
868 THE GOSPEL ACOOBDma TO BT. JOHN. [oh. xvn. 1— 26
fellowi." (2) To recompense them for the gorrows of life. (3) To give them strength
for duty and suffering, " The joy of the Lord shall be your strength."
Vers. 14— 19.— Tfte world's hatred and Ohrisfs prayer for the disevpM mft ketping
ttgainst it. L It was Chbist's Wobd in the disciples that kioited thb wobld's
HATRED. "I have given them thy Word." They who receive the Word cross the
world's path (1) in their true judgment of things, (2) in their God-like wills, (3) in
their holy lives.
IL Thb ofebation of thb world's hatbbd. "The world hath hated them,
because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." 1. It is the honour
of believers that they are linked with Christ as the objects of the worlds hatred. 2. This
hatred is seen in (1) persecution, (2) in calumny, (3) in the misconstruction of things
doubtful, (4) in the blasphemy of God and religion. 3. The hatred of the toorld i» no
hindrance to the believer's blessedness.
III. Christ's fbater is not fob thb translation or bblibvbbs to hxatin,
BUT FOB THBiB PBESEBVATioN ON BAETH. " I pray uot that thou shouldest take them
out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." 1. The desire of
death is mlawful in the saints, (1) because Christ has his work to do by us in the
world ; (2) because the victory is to be gained through conflict ; (3) because God can be
more honoured by our steadfast endurance than by our escape from duty. 2. There it
provision made for the preservation of the saints from evU. (1) It is better for us to be
kept from sin ii^ our afflictions than from the afflictions themselves. (2) Divine aid is
needed for our safe keeping. (3) Such as devote themselves to Christ's service are
sure, not only of his prayers, but of his Divine support. (4) The evil that surrounds
the Ijeliever in the world will (a) awaken him to a true sense of his danger, (6) humble
him, (c) and lead him to a nearer dependence upon the Lord.
IV. The teub method of pbbsbbvation. " Sanctify them throng thy truth :
thy Word is truth." 1. There must be a complete consecration to the task the disciple*
have to fulfil in the world. (1) This consecration implies a prior conseoration of
heart and life to God, in the ways of practical holiness. (2) This cOnsecratioii was
necessary to the faithful discharge of the apostleship. 2. The Word cf God it H*
great instrv/ment in Ood» hand for his peoples sanctification. (1) It is here implied
that the Word of God is the truth of God — truth at once (a) infallible, (b) eternal,
(c) and holy. (2) It is to he read with diligence, preparation, and prayer. (3) It is to
be maintained (a) by our arguments, (6) by our obedience, (e) by our sufferings.
3. Jesus presents tivo motives in support of this petition. (1) One was taken from the
mission he had entrusted to his disciples. " As thou hast sent me into the world, even
so have I also sent them into the world." (a) The apostles went not unsent upon
their mission. (6) They looked to Christ, not only for authority, but for equipment.
(c) They carried his message, (d) They kept in view his end in preaching the gospeL
(2) The other motive was taken from the work which he had effected in li^self.
" And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth."
(a) Christ consecrated himself wholly to his work. " His human life received in an
ever-increasing degree the seal of consecration till the entire and final sacrifice of
death" (5) The end of his consecration was the conseoration of his members. The
union of Christ and believers is the abiding source of this continuous consecration.
Vers. 20, 21. — Ohrisfs prayer for all believers. Our Lord, having prayed for himself
and for his apostles, now prays for the whole body of believers.
I. He prats for the believers of all generations till the end of tikb.
"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe on me through
their word." 1. All believers have, therefore, an interest in Ohrisfs prayer. 2. Z%«
word of the apostles — that is, not merely their narrative of gospel facts, but their
revelation of gospel principles — is the instrumental means of faith. (Bom. x. 17.) A
eapital place is thus assigned to the Word in the conversion of the world. (1) Consider
the sad condition of those who have not the Word. (2) The sin of those who reject it.
(3) The dishonour done to the Lord by those who deceitfully handle it.
II. Thb obbat knd of this rsBAcmNa of thb Wobd. " That they all may be one ,
that as thon, Father, art in m«, and I in thae, they alio may be one in na : that th«
OH. xvn. 1—26.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 8M
world may believe that thou hast sent me." 1. Vie oneness prayed fnr it not that tf
believers ivith one another, hit that oneness which is the foundation of visible unity —
the union of believers with Christ, and through him with God. 2. It cannot refer It
a viiible tmity, because it is a unity of successive generations of believers, who cannot
be in the world at one and the same time. 3. It is a unity resembling the union of tht
Father and the Bon, and is therefore more than a mere moral unity of purpose, or
opinion, or co-operation. It is an essentially vital unity (Bom. xii. 6 ; Eph, iv. 4).
God is its essential Centre. 4. The ultimate design and result of this oneness it its
effect upon the viwld. Where disciples are seen to be (1) of one faith, (2) of one spirit,
(3) and one love, the world will have better thoughts of God and his gospeL
Vers. 22 — 24. — A prayer that the disciples may share in the Lord's glory. Jesus
supports his petition by declaring what he has already done for his disciples.
I. He has already imparted to thbm a share in his glort. " And the glory^
which thou hast given me I have given them." 1. This glory is not apostolic office or
gift of miracle. 2. It is not the glory of the future kingdom. 3. It is the glory of
adoption. As Christ's glory consisted in his Sonship, so that of believers consisted in
their filial dignity, as children of God and brethren of himself as the elder Brother.
4. Hie effect of this glory is twofold. (1) The formation of a closely united family in
heaven and ia earth. " I in them, and thou in me, that their oneness may be perfect."
God living in Christ, Christ in each believer, reproduce the Divine unity on earth.
(2) A demonstration to the world of Christ's mission, and the Father's love to his
children, (a) Christ's mission would be manifest in its blessed and enduring effects.
(b) The Father's love to believers would be manifest as a love resembling that with
which he regards his Son. (a) He loves them in Christ ; (/3) he loves them through
Christ; (y) his love is the guarantee that he will uphold them, as he did Christ, assist
them in his service, provide for their wants, and reward them for their services.
5. Chrisfs will is that his disciples should share his throne in the heavejis. " Father,
I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am ; that they may
behold my glory, which thou hast given me : for thou lovedst me before the foundation
of the world," (1) His will is that his people should be where he is. (a) Love seeks
the companionship of the loved, (ft) Heaven is wherever Christ is. (c) Union with
Christ draws after it everlasting communion with him. (2) His will is that his people
should see his glory ; (a) not his essential glory, for that could not be given him, (6) but
the glory of a consummated fellowship effected between God and man.
Vers. 25, 26. — An appeal to Ood't righteousness. Our Lord approaches the climax
of his prayer.
L Mark the mode op address. " Righteous Father." Six times in this prayer hai
Christ addressed God as Father ; but the name here used implies that Christ insists
upon the reward of his service and his sufferings. Justice pleads on behalf of the
disciples. The thought of a " righteous Father " is : 1. Comforting to the righteous and
the oppressed. 2. Terrible to the ungodly.
II. Mark the contrast between the unbelievdjo world and the faithful
Son and Servant op God. 1. Consider the vjorUHs ignorance of Ood. " The world
hath not known thee." (1) The heathen want the means of knowledge. (2) The
world is unwilling to know God. (3) The world does not know him so as to delight in
him, or to serve him, or to obey him. 2. Consider Chrisfs knowledge of Ood. " But
I have known thee, and these have believed that thou hast sent me." (1) He knows
God immecijately. (2) And he is the Source of all saving knowledge to believers.
3. Christ will make still fuller declarations of hit Father's Name,to the worlcFs end,
" And I have made known unto them thy Name, and I will make it known." (1) This
will be realized through (a) his Word, (jb) his Spirit, (c) and his ministers. (2^ Th«
design of these fuller revelations, " That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may
be in them, and I in them." (a) God's love ought to dwell in believers as an habitual
experience. (Zi) It is the safety and the glory of believers, (c) It is the means at oai
growing conformity to God's image, (d) Wherever love is Christ is, "dwelling" in
believers, (e) They who have Christ in them have (a) safety, (3) access to Mm at ijl
times, (y) peace in their aoula.
S60 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvn. 1—26
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORa
Ver. 1. — The Divine idea of glory. There hare ever been prevalent among mei
false views of glory. It is natural to admire pomp and splendour, wealth, magni-
ficence, and power. Christianity has done much to counteract the common tendency
to place glory in external greatness, to rebuke and to banish such conceptions from tha
higher thinking of men. Our Lord employs the term •' glory " in a higher, a moral and
spiritual acceptation. He teaches us what true glory is when he prays, " Father,
glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee."
I. The glorification op the Son by the Pathbb. For this Jesus prayed ;
therefore it was something yet to be. 1. Christ sought to be glorified in and after his
approaching suffering and humiliation. The scenes through which he was about to
pass, the pains and sorrows he was about to endure, were snob as could not easily in
most minds be associated with glory. Still, to the enlightened and sympathetic mind,
there was even in the cross a majesty unparalleled. The demeanour of the Crucified
was a demeanour morally glorious. But th6 prayer of our Saviour probably had
reference to the victory which he should reach even through his seeming defeat.
The Resurrection and Ascension completed and crowned the work of humiliation and
■uffering.
" The head that once was crowned with thorns
Is crowned with glory now ;
A royal diadem adorns
The mighty Victor's brow."
2. Christ songht to be glorified in the efficacy and results of his mediation. The results
ol his earthly ministry might to some minds seem meagre. But the " greater works "
which followed his ascension were such as to excite the amazement of the world. The
new dispensation excelled in glory. The trophies of Immanuel were mauy and illus-
trious. The conversion of nations, the submission of kings, the homage of society, all
proved to be glorious, all contributed to render glorious, the Name of the Son of man.
And this spiritual glory never wanes ; it is destined to grow and brighten with the
advancing ages.
II. The glorification of the Father by the Son. This is represented by the
Lord Jesus as consequent Upon that glorification for which he prayed. The ultimate
end of all is the glory of the Eternal himself. How is it that this result is brought
about ? 1. The Father is glorified when there is imparted to men a true knowledge
of himself. 2. By the diffusion throughout humanity of the new and Divine life.
3. By the obedience and praise offered consciously, willingly, and reasonably, to the
Father, by the growing multitudes of Christ's redeemed, through countless ages, on earth
and in heaven, — T.
Ver. 2. — Christ's consciousness of power. The early discourses of our Lord show us
tliat he commenced his ministry with the conviction that he was anointed and conse-
crated by the Father for the greatest work of all ages. And as his ministry drew to
its close, he retained the same assurance. Even although he was aware of the approach
of the awful end of his earthly career, of the apparent victory of his foes, his faith
did nut falter. He still anticipated the complete fulfilment of the purpose of Ms advent.
In his prayer to the Father, this consciousness of power accounts for the confidence
with which the results of his ministry and sacrifice are anticipated.
I. Christ's authority over all. We may consider : 1. Its origin in the appoint-
ment of the Father., 2. Its realization in the incarnation and sacrifice of the Redeemer.
The authority was native to our Lord Jesus ; but it made itself recognized and secured
its exercise by his earthly ministry. 3. Its range over all humanity independently of
the character of individual men. 4. The new view which, by the aid of this glorioui
truth, we are able to take of the providential and mediatorial government of the world.
5. The rebuke thus administered to our fear and faithlessness.
II. Christ's gift to some. 1. The mystery of the limitation. This lies in th«
counsds of the Divine wisdom, and attempts to explain it are usually of little val-je.
2, The pncelew and glorious nature of what is bestowed. Nothing higher tlm life—
«B ivn. 1—26.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN, 861
i.e, the life of the spirit— can possibly be conceived as coming into the poBsestdon of those
otherwise dead in trespasses and sins. It is, however, of the very essence of this life
that it is imperishable, and independent of all that is earthly and transitory; — ^T.
Ver. 3. — Knowledge and life : a sermon for the yotmg. We cannot doubt that God
knows ns. We cannot conceive of him otherwise than as knowing all things. " He telleth
the number of the stars ; " and at the same time he reads the secrets of every heart.
The psalmist took a just view of his God when he exclaimed, " Thou art acquainted
with all my ways : for there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, 0 Lord, thou knowest
it altogether." But whilst God knows us perfectly, we can only know him imperfectly.
Yet it is both a wonderful and a happy thing that we can know him at all.
I. These is much wb oawstot know op God. If we are often baffled in studying
the works of his hands, we cannot be surprised that the Divine artificer is too high for
us to comprehend him. If we are perplexed in our endeavours to understand the soul
of man, how can we expect to fathom the mysteries of the Divine nature ? It is said
that King Hiero asked the philosopher Simonides, " Who is God ? " The wise man
asked for a day to reflect and to prepare an answer. Finding this insufficient, he asked
a week, and then a year. But time and meditation brought no light which could satisfy
him, and the query remained unanswered. God in the spiritual realm is like his
universe in the material realm ; of which the great Pascal said, " It is a circle whose
centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere." It is said that the Emperor
Trajan, addressing a Jewish rabbi, Joshua by name, said, " Show me your God."
The sage answered, " Come out of the house, and see one of his ambassadors." Leading
him into the daylight, the rabbi hade the emperor look upon the sun, then shining in
his strength. "What I cannot you look in the face of the ambassador? are you blinded
by his dazzling presence? How can you look upon the countenance of the King?"
" No man hath seen God at any time." Who can by searching find out God ? We see
glimpses, we hear whisperings, of his power and wisdom; but there js an infinity which
comes not within our ken. A child follows the course of the brook which flows through
his father's fields; he reaches the point where it joins the river in the valley; but he
dreams not of the sea into which that river empties itself.
IL We can know ot God what is of 'most value to us. If we cannot under-
stand the Divine nature, if there are some of his attributes, as, for example, his omni-
presence, which utterly baffie our intellect, still there is much that is within our
apprehension. We can know that the Lord our God is one God, that he is wise, that
he is just and faithful, that he is compassionate and merciful. Now, what does it matter
to a child that he cannot understand his father's occupations, that he is not able to
appreciate his father's abilities, so long as he is sure that his father will give him
good advice, so long as he is sure that his father will provide for his wants, bodily and
mental ? Suppose the father to be a statesman; the child cannot enter into the reasons
of national polity. Suppose the father to be a lawyer; the child cannot form any
opinion of his father's conduct of a case in court. But the child can know that his
father will receive with kindness any application which may be made to him for
guidance, for help, for the means of acquiring knowledge or rational enjoyment. The
child can know that the father's house will not be shut against him, that he is ever
welcome to the father's table, that the father's time is always at his service. In like
manner we are quite capable of knowing what is God's will, of understanding the
propriety of obedience to that will, of valuing the opportunities we have of learning
and obeying our heavenly Father.
III. ThEBE are special WATS IN WHICH GoD GIVES US KNOWLEDGE OF HIMSELF.
We cannot see him directly, but we can see him, so to speak, by reflection. He has
given us two mirrors in which the spiritual lineaments of his Divine character become
visible to ns. 1. There is the mirror of nature. It is allowed us to " look through
nature np to nature's God."
"There's nothing bright above, below,
From flowers that bloom to stars thftt gloWi
Bnt in its light my soul can see
Some feature of the Deity."
881 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvn. 1— 2a
It is said that on one occasion Napoleon Bnonaparte was on the deck of a ship on a
calm summer night, when his officers around him were magnifying nature, and dis-
puting the existence of God. The great commander listened, and then pointed to the
hosts of heaven, saying, "All very well, gentlemen, but who created these? " 2. There
is the mirror of our own spiritual nature. The psalmist looked into this mirror, and
saw therein the reflection of the Lord, the Ruler, the Judge, of all. " As the hart
panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God."
IV. It is in Jesus Christ that God qbants its the chief bevelation of himself.
Kature and conscience are mirrors ; Christ is the very shining forth of the Divine glory.
We must not make an image of God; but God has given us a perfect image of himself,
of his moral attributes. When we have once seen God in his dear Son, we recognize
his presenri everywhere and in all things. As the sun illumines a hundred snow-clad
peaks, and every summit glows and glitters forth his splendour, so when God appears
in Christ, his attributes are seen in all his works and all his ways. Especially do
we through Jesus come to the knowledge of the Divine holiness, righteousness, and
love.
V. In the knowledge of GK)d in Christ is the eternal life. Of our Lord
Jesus an apostle affirms, " This is the true God, and the Eternal Life." Now, an ignorant,
uninformed, uninstructed soul is a dead soul. It is knowledge that enkindles mental
life, that calls forth the intellectual powers. And it is the highest knowledge which
is the Divine means of awakening the highest life. This life is called eternal, because
it is not like earthly life which perishes, but because it is of a higher kind — because it is
the life of God himself, spiritual and Divine. A boy taken from an inferior position,
with few opportunities of improvement and no profitable companions, may be brought
into a position where advantages are many, opportunities precious, associates inspiring.
He may come to say, " This is life indeed I " So Saul became Paul — when he had seen
and known Christ. — T.
Ver. 4. — The perfect worh. Even good men, when they approach the close of life and
take a retrospect of the past, are constrained in candour to admit that they have failed
to realize their own ideal, to satisfy their own conscience, to approve themselves to their
God. They have to lament and confess infirmities and negligences. Christ alone could
look back upon life without discovering any cause for reproach. Addressing the Father
himself, he claimed to have accomplished the work which had been given him to do.
L Christ's conception of his ministry. 1. In his view this was a work to be done.
The serious and sacred nature of this earthly life was never realized by any as by him.
•' I work," said Jesus, with a sublime simplicity ; and the record of his labours proves
the truth of his assertion. 2. In his view Christ's ministry was a trust from his Father.
Every true servant of God can speak of the work which Divine authority has assigned
t(i him as bis vocation. Of this the Son of God, who became the Servant of God, has
given us the most glorious example. Obedience and subjection were characteristic of
the Saviour's earthly ministry.
II. Christ's conscious completion of his ministry. 1. From the beginning our
Lord had possessed a clear conception of the nature of the work to which he bad been
designated and commissioned by the Father. 2. Our Lord had been conscious of the
possession of all the qualifications necessary for the fulfilment of his work. He was
well aware that his mission would not fail through any deficiency on his part. 3.
Amidst all his labours and sufferings Jesus had been sustained by the conviction that
his work was advancing to its completion. The very circumstances which to another
mind might have seemed fatal to his great enterprise, were to his clear knowledge the
conditions of its prosperous issue. 4. The approaching sacrifice was regarded by the
Redeemer as if already offered ; it was so in intention and resolve. 6. The results of
the Saviour's work were present to his holy and benevolent mind. By anticipation the
results were already reaped — a glorious harvest from the seed sown and seemingly
perished in the earth.
Application. The example of Christ is a rebuke to all desultory views of life.
Those who regard this existence as an opportunity for personal pleasure, enrichment, or
aggrandizement may well ponder the spirit displayed by the Lord Jesus, who looked
upon his life here as sacred, as allowing of a consecrated service to the Father. Cbrist'i
eaa. XTO. 1— 26.] THE GOSPEL AOCOEDINa TO ST. JOHN. 863
Biniit e«n animate his followers ao that they may both undertake and complete soma
good work for the Divine glory. — ^T.
Ver. 5.— 'The tranteendent glory of the Divine Word, Still the Saviour's mind runs
upon glory. How unlike the thoughts of a man, however great and good, are these
thoughts expressed in this recorded prayer of Christ 1 It was not vanity, it was not
egotism, it was not assumption ; it was the consciousness of Divinity which accounted
lor this language.
I. Ghbist had qlobt with the Fathbb befobb the world was. Of this we only
know what our Lord himself has revealed to us. But we are assured that this world is
not the only scene of the manifestation of the glory of the eternal Word. In what
manner, through what circumstances, to what order of intelligences, this ante-natal glory
was .displayed, we have no means of knowing.
IL Ghbist gathebed to biuself fbesh qlobt dubuto his eabthlt hanifbsta-
TiON AUD MiNiSTET. This was emphatically a moral and spiritual glory — the glory of
truth, righteousness, purity, and love. It was emphaticallv the glory of sacrifice — glory
which could only be realized through incarnation and humiliation. This glory is
discerned and appreciated only by the spiritual ; to the view of such it excels all the
tinselled splendour of worldly greatness.
III. Chbist took with him to the fbesenoe or THE Fatheb a oIiOBY which hab-
MONIZED with THAT WHICH WAS NATIVE AND OBIQIKAL, AND WHICH EVEN GNHANCEB
IT. This prayer opens up before the mind three stages of Divine glory as belonging to
Christ. The Incarnation did not create his glory, for he brought it with him from the
heavens. But his earthly sojourn was the occasion of accession of glory. And when
he ascended on high to receive the reward of toil, to reap the harvest of sacrifice, he
appeared, and he ever does and will appear, irradiated with a splendour which, as
mediatorial, is at once sacrificial and triumphant. — T.
Vers. 6—10. — The Advocate and the dienti. The High Priest now turns firom him-
self to the special objects of his intercessory prayer.
I. The CALLING OF THE CLIENTS. 1. They are separated from the world. Made a
select and consecrated class, they are set apart from others in the prayer of the Lord.
2. They are the property of the Father. 3. They are the gift of the Father to his Son.
The Father drew them with the bonds of love, and they became Christ's.
II. The mabks of the clients. It is not to be supposed that there is anything
arbitrary in the calling of God. Those for whom the High Priest here pleads : 1.
Becognize the Divinity of Christ's works. 2. And the Divinity of his words. These they
received, i.e. as from God through him who is " the Word." 3. And the Divinity of
his mission. Christ came forth from God ; God sent him. Bat this great fact, the
greatest in the history of mankind, was by no means generally recognized. Its recog-
nition became at once, and still remains, a " note " of Christ's people. The just esti-
mate of the words and of the works of Christ leads to a true appreciation of Christ
himself.
III. The seouritt and dionitt of the clients. 1. All Christ's are his Father's,
and all the Father's are Christ's ; therefore the clients who have the Saviour for their
Patron and Protector are doubly secure and doubly blest. 2. Christ is glorified in his
friends. Wonderful is the condescension here displayed. The Lord of glory allows
those, who by nature are so feeble and so helpless as men are, to add by their adhesion
and their praises even to the majesty and splendour which is his by right. This is so
in a measure even now ; how far more fully shall Christ's ransomed clients glorify him
when they are delivered from the infirmities of the body, and the sordid surroundings
of time I— T.
Ver, 17. — The purifying power of truth. This may be regarded aa the central
petition of this prayer of the great High Priest. Our Lord, having prayed on behalf ol
his disciples that they should he." kept from the evil," as those " not of the world," passes
from the negative to the positive side of the Christian life. His heart's desire is that
his people may be hallowed, consecrated, sanctified, made holy, as becomes those wh<
are his owa.
384 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [ch. xvn. 1—28.
L Thb pdbpoet op the Lobd'b petition on behalf of ma people. 1. The naiun
of this blessing sought : consecration, or sanctification. It is a real and not a formal
holiness, altogether distinct from and superior to the merely ceremonial purity which
is so often regarded by the professedly religious as of supreme importance. It is con-
secration of the spirit, the centre of the nature, the spring of the «uter life. It ii
devotion to the service and glory of God himself. It consists in a distinction from the
sinful world. 2, The desirableness of this blessing. Its absence is the cause of the
wretchedness and degradation which curse human society, where sin rages unchecked.
Holiness is the ultimate end for which revelation has been bestowed, and especially the
end for which all the provisions of the Christian economy have been introduced. The
pardon of sin is but a means to an end, and that end is the assimilation of the human
character to the moral likeness of the all-holy God. Let it be cousidored that the
holiness of his people was an object so precious and desirable in the esteem of our
Divine High Priest, that for the sake of it he submitted to assume the form of a
servant, and to die the death of the malefactor.
II. The means by which the Lobd sought the answer to his petition. 1.
Eemark the identity of God's Word with truth. We must not confine the application
of the word to Holy Scripture, nor must we take it as equivalent to the personal
Christ. Every manifestation of the Divine thought and will is the Word of God,
Yet revelation, as usually understood, is emphatically this. God's Word is truth ; for
his knowledge admits of no limitation or imperfection ; his righteousness forbids the
possibility of deception ; his benevolence delights in the instruction of his intelligent
creatures. 2. The truth which is God's Word is the chosen instrument for producing
human sanctity. This it does by revealing to man his evil life and ill deserts, by
awakening the conscience of sin ; by informing us of the holiness of the supreme
Ru'icr ; by presenting in Christ a flawless Example of moral excellence ; by securing to
the faithful forgiveness of sins through the redemption by Jesus Christ j by oflFering
the influences of the Spirit of holiness as the only Agent in producing a result so dilB-
cult and yet so glorious ; by bringing to bear upon the human heart the highest,
purest, and most effectual motives — motives sufficient to enkindle aspirations towards
holiness, and sufficient to induce to the employment of all those means by which alone
the greatest of all blessings may, with Divine help, be secured and enjoyed. — ^T.
Vers. 20, 21. — Comprehensive intercession. Human selfishness, narrowness, and hope-
lessness may well be rebuked by the breadth and brightness of this prajer. The High
Priest pleads for his people, and in so doing sweeps the horizon of time, sounds the
depths of human need, and grasps the invisible aim of the universe, the yet unrealized
purpose of God himself.
I. The extensive banqe of Cheist'b inteecbssion. At the very time when those
nearest to him were about to be exposed to great danger, the Lord Jesus, without for-
getting these, directed the gaze of his mind over a wide field of vision, and included
in his comprehensive intercession all who in coming ages should believe on him through
bis apostles' witness. This marvellous sweep of high-priestly regard and interest is
testimony to : 1. Christ's Divine foresight. He beheld in prophetic vision the martyrs
and confessors, the missionaries and bishops, the scholars and preachers, the pure and
lowly in private life, who should attach themselves to his doctrine and to his Church.
As in an int^tant and at a glance, Christ summoned before his eyes and his heart the
vast multitude who should constitute the Church militant through long millenniums to
come ; and he prayed for all. 2. Christ's Divine claim. In realizing the objects of his
intercession, the High Priest regarded all as personally related to himself. Those for
whom he pleaded werethose who should believe on him. This fact is implicit witness
to his high claims. Who but ho could so rank mankind? 3. Christ's wide sympathy
and benevolence. That such a Leader and Master should plead for his adherents,
bis friends, and the promulgators of his faith seems natural ; common affection seems
to account for this. But how vast was the love apparent in this prayer, which included
within its scope the myriads who were yet to come, into existence 1 But his whole
Church was dear to his Divine and tender heart.
II. The ooncknteated pnEPOET of Cheist'b inteeobssion. DoubtleRs the «ame
prayer which was offered for the twelve was o£fered for all subsequent disciples, that all
OH. xvn. 1—26.] THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN. 36S
might be kept in the Name of the Father, and that all might be sanctified by the
truth. But the expressed request here presented on their behalf should receive atten-
tion. It was for their unity. Not for their uniformity, in outward organization, in rite
and ceremony, in uttered creed and liturgy ; but for their spiritual unity, as is appa-
rent from the petition that it might resemble that of the Father and the Son. A unity
of life is here intended, like that of the branches in a vine rather than that of a bundle
of staves. The Master desired for his disciples that they might have the same faith in
himself, the same brotherly love one towards another, the same benevolent disposition
towards the world. The value which Christ thus set upon true unity is a standard to
which we are called to conform. That which Jesus made the object of his desire
and prayer must be beautiful in God's view, and is worthy of our appreciation, our
best endeavours for its promotion.
III. The olobious and ultimate aiu of Christ's intkbcebsioh. How magnificent
the end which our Lord sought, not only by his prayer, but also by his toils, his sacri-
fice, his death ! Nothing short of the woild's belief in his mission, and adhesion to
himself! We cannot understand by our Lord's words merely that he looked forward
to the world's assent to a great fact, or to the world's forced acknowledgment upon the
judgment-day. He desired that'the world should come to believe both in the sending
and in the sent One. However appearances may be against such an expectation being
realized, faith apprehends the prevalence of the Redeemer's kingdom in the world.
The influence and ministry of the Church, under the guidance of the Divine Spirit, is
intended to promote the world's salvation. When it appears to us difficult to cherish
hopes such as those which are justified by the declarations of Scripture, it will be well
for us to check our despondency by remembering the prayer of the High Priest. That
for which the beloved Son of God has pleaded, and ever pleads, will surely come to
pass. And thus faith shall be rewarded, and Divine love shall have fuU and eternal
gratification. — T.
Ver. 24. — Blessed with Christ. The future has for man a mysterions interest, and
it exercises over him a mysterious power. Keligiou appeals to this, as to all natural
tendencies and susceptibilities of man's being. The revelations and the promises of
Christianity have regard to the vast hereafter. When our Lord prayed for his disciples,
it could not be that he should omit from his prayer their future — their condition and
associations in the immortal state. Without such reference the high-piiestly prayer
would have been incomplete ; for it was the prayer of him who brought life and immor-
tality to light.
I. The home of the blessed. Little as we know of that eternal home, that which
we do know is of intense inteiest. What the Lord Jesus here tells us of heaven is
welcome and precious revelation. His desire and purpose concerning his people is that
they may be : 1. With him. He could no longer be with them en earth ; but, as a com-
pensation, they were to look forward to being with him in heaven. 'These cherished
friends had been with him long enough to know and to prize such association. To
them it was sufficient to know that they should be reunited to their Friend and
Master. 2. Where he is. The locality of heaven is unknown, and all speculation upon
such a matter is idle. How all Christ's innumerable friends and followers can all be
where he is, we cannot understand. But it rejoices the heart of the disciple to know
that he shall be where his Lord is. A bold mariner does not care to what sea his
ship is bound, if he is only serving under the captain or admiral whom he trusts, and
who has before shown him the way to discovery or to victory.
II. The vision of the blessed. The people of Christ shall, in accordance with his.
prayer, behold the glory of the Redeemer. The promise sank into the heart of John
who recorded it; for he indulged the anticipation, "We shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is." Sight is here, as elsewhere, put for knowledge. The disciples had
seen the humiliation of their Lord ; they were to see his glory. In what this conrista
it is for us only to conjecture, with such help as Christ's words afibrd. There is the
closest connection between the glory of Christ and the Father's eternal love. Our Lord
himself has so taught us that we cannct place glory chiefly in what is visible and
material. We think chiefly of that moral glory which is connected with Divine favour
and with spiritnal emydre—
866 THE GOSPEL ACOOBDING TO ST. JOHN, [oh.xvii.1— 2S
" Glory shines abont his head,
And a bright crown without a thom."
Such • tIsIsd as that which our Lord here implores for his own must enlarge the per
ceptions which the blessed in heaven form of their great Bedeemer, must excite theif
wonder and adoration, and must even fan the flame of their holy and grateful love. It
should be observed that, although the aspect of the heavenly life here presented is com-
templative, this is by no means to the exclusion of quite another aspect. The servant*,
who shall see the face of their Lord, shall serve him day and night. What they behold
shall be the inspiration of their immortal songs of praise, and of their ceaseless acts ol
obedience and devotion. — T.
Yer. 25. — Ood unknown and known. These, the last words uttered by our Lord
before he proceeded to his betrayal and passion, are words worthy of the occasion and
of the Speaker. They are a prayer, or rather an address, to the Father. Yet they con-
stitute a review of the past, a declaration of the present, a prediction of the future.
They explain the reason and the purpose of his mediation and of his ministry to man.
L The world's ignorance or God was the occasion op Christ's ministet. This
ignorance is implicitly brought before us in the very language which the High Priest
here employs : " 0 righteous Father, the world knew thee not." 1. The world had no
conviction of God's righteousness. No one who is acquainted with heathen religions can
question this. Not that there were no upright natures that traced their own love of
justice and equity to the eternal Power that rules the universe ; but that the gods
many and lords many who were honoured, feared, or propitiated among the heathen
were, for the most part, lacking in the highest moral qualities. A gleam of righteous-
ness or of generosity did now and again break through, to reveal, as it were, the dark-
ness of the firmament. Still, broadly speaking, gross darkness covered the people.
The unenlightened heathen attributed to their deities partiality, factiousness, hatred,
cruelty — any quality but justice. Li all this the lack of righteousness in men them-
selves was reflected upon their gods. The world by wisdom knew not God. 2. The
world had no conviction of God's Fatherhood. If there were those who worshipped a
supposed deity whom they called " the father of gods and men," we must not be misled
by such language into supposing that the scriijtural idea of fatherhood was involved in
their religion. This idea is distinctively that of revelation, of Christianity. The moral
attributes which we attach to the conception of the Divine Fatherhood have not come
to our apprehension through the ministrations of pagan priests or pagan philosophers.
Apart from Christ, the race of mankind is conscious only of fatherlessness and fear.
II. Christ's knowledge op the Father, God, was intimate and perfect. The
expression Jesus here employs, " I knew thee," evidently suggests the natural and
immediate knowledge which he had of the Father. He did not come to know God by
a process of inquiry or reflection, or by the reception of lessons and revelations. His
knowledge was direct. This we gather from his own assertions, and also from many
intimations to be discerned in his words and in his conduct. There is no sign of uncer-
tainty in any of Christ's declarations with respect to the Supreme. On the contrary,
he speaks simply, directly, and decisively in all he says. He claims the closest inti-
macy, as when he says that he is " in the bosom " of the Father, i.e. in possession of
the counsels and secrets of the eternal mind. He even goes further than this, claim-
ing unity with the Father, as when he says, "I and my Father are one." Our
Saviour's knowledge of God was not inferential, but intuitive ; not acquired, but
natural ; not imperfect, but complete.
III. Christ reveals God, and thus enlightens men's ignorance. 1. The first
step in this revelation vs the conviction, which Christ awakens in his disciples' minds,
that his mission is from God himself. The character of Christ, his discourses and conver-
sations, his mighty works, all witnessed to his special authority and commission. They
were constrained to ask, " Who is this ? " " What manner of Man is this ? " " Whence
IS he ? " and when these questions were suggested, they could lead to only one answer
which could satisfy the inquirers' minds. The conviction was produced, in some cases
by a gradual process, in other cases as by a sudden flash of revelation, that this Being
was from above, that he was the Son of God. 2. The second step in this revelation is
the declaration of the Divine " Name," by which we are to understand the charactei
OH. xvn. 1—26.] THE GOSPEL AOCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. 867
and the purposes of the Father. When the Lord Jesos had communicated to his dis-
ciples the fact that God is a Spirit, and the fact that he is the Father in heaven, he
had in great measure made known the Divine Name ; but it was a further and richer
revelation that he made when he told of the Father's purposes of compassion and mercy
towards his children — when he, in the Name of the Almighty and All-merciful, assured
his faithful people of spiritual salvation and of eternal life. 3. But the glory of this
assertion is not yet exhausted. Christ says that he wUl yet make known the Name of
God. The reference may be to the approaching manifestation of the Divipe heart in
the sacrifice and the subsequent exaltation and victory of the Son. But it may, and
probably does, include the whole future revelation of God through the Holy Spirit, and
throughout the spiritual economy. There are those who consider revelation to have
been continuous and progressive throughout this dispensation; there are others who
consider that the objective revelation is* complete in itself, but that the quickening
influences of the Holy Spirit enable successive generations to discern ever new beauty,
power, and preciousness in him who is " the Light of the world," and " the Life of
men."
IV. Divine love and fellowship abb the great end of the Divine revelation
AND OF HUMAN KNOWLBDOE. Our acquaintance with God is a mysterious and glorious
privilege, yet we may with reverence hold that it is the means to an end. We love
only those whom in some measure we know ; yet by loving we may learn to know
them more. As Christ is formed in his people, and as his character and life are revealed
by them, the Father cherishes and displays towards them the very affection with which
he regards his well-beloved Son. It is thus that the incarnation and sacrifice of the
lledeemer produce their precious and immortal results. Ignorance, sin, estrangement,
ai;id hatred are, by this Divine provision, expelled ; and in their place the new humanity,
the spiritual kingdom, the Church of the living God, is penetrated by the Spirit of
Christ, filled with the light of holy knowledge, and blessed with the enjoyment of
imperishable love. — T.
Ver. 15. — Fighting, notfaMing. Notice —
L The negative part of this pbateb. " I pray not," etc L It was not Ma wish
that they should be taken out of the material world. Although he was about to leave
it, by an ignominious death, yet his death did not make theirs necessary. Their death
would neither decrease nor increase his agonies. Some think that because they die
that all should follow. But Christ was so far from being selfish, that he was willing
to die that his disciples might live and remain. (1) Christianity does not in itse^
shorten life, but rather lengthens it. It has been the occasion of death, but never its
direct cause. It has a direct tendency to increase life in length, and invariably in
breadth and depth ; sometimes in sum, always in value ; sometimes in days and years,
18 in the case of Hezekiah ; always in usefulness and influence, as in the case of Jesus.
Heaven is not jealous of her children's physical and material enjoyment on earth. The
tenant shall remain as long as the house stands, and when it crumbles, Heaven will
receive him into her mansions. (2) Christianity does not incapacitate man to enjoy
the material world. On the contrary, it tunes the harp of physical life, sweetens the
music of nature, paints its landscape in diviner hues, beautifies its sceneries and renders
them all sublime and enchanting. The material world to man is what his inward and
spiritual nature makes it, Christianity fills the world with joy; embroiders its clouds
with love, tinges even its winters with goodness; makes the thunder rattle kindness as
well as power, and the storm to speak of mercy as well as majesty. It fills the world
with sunshine, and makes it, not a dreadful prison, haunts of demons, but the thorough^
fare of angels, the nursery of happiness, the temple of God and the gate of heaven. 2.
It was not his wish that they should be taken out of the social world, but that they should
remain in it. Sociality was one of his own characteristics. Christianity opens and
not shuts the door of society, and brings man into closer imion with his fellow.
Bigotry, priestcraft, and religious prejudice have banished many from society, knd
imprisoned many a Bunyan ; but pure Christianity, never. Its direct tendency is to
Kanctify and bless all the relationships of life, and refine and inspire our social interests.
Christ said, " Let your light shine," not on the mountain-top, in the lonely wilderness,
not in the secluded cloister or nunnery, but "before men — ia the fair and in Uw
368 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvii. 1— 2&
market, in the busy exchange and behind the counter, among the throngs of men. 8. /(
was not his wish that they should be taken out of the troublesome and vncked world.
This world was then, and is now, " a world of great tribulation." Still it was not his
wish to take his disciples from even this. Not that he took any pleasure in their pain — far
from it; he bore as much of it as he possibly could — but because he had greater regard for
their eternal good even than for their temporal comforts. Tribulation is the only way
to life. This he had himself; and the servant is not greater than his Lord, but must
enter life in the same way. 4. Christ recognizes the Father's right to take them hence
when he pleased. They were his, and their lives absolutely at his disposal. The world
cannot drive the Christian hence when it pleases, but when.the Father pleases. When
it appears to do so, it is only a servant, and acts by permission. The believer's life is
not at the mercy of the world, but at the mercy of the Father. 5. While recognizing
his right to take them hence, still it was not his wish that they should be taken then.
And why ? (1) Because Christ had mviih to do on and in them in the world. They
were not yet ready to depart. They had not yet completed their earthly education.
They had not yet been in the school of the "Comforter." They had made some
progress, but very far from perfection. Much had to be done with regard to their
spiritual life which could not be so well done in any other state. This world was a
furnace to purify them, and the great Befiner and Purifier saw that they were not fit
to be taken out. (2) Because &ey had much to do for Christ and the world. The
Father had given them to Jesus for a special work — ^to be witnesses of his life, death,
resurrection, and ascension, and to publish the story of his love and the facts of his
earthly history to the ends of the earth. This must be done before they could be
honourably taken home. They could serve the Master and their generation better
here than elsewhere. (3) The new earth wnd its King could not afford to lose them yet.
The wicked world wished to drive them hence ; but it knew not what was best for its
gooJ, and it was under the control of infinite benevolence. The farmer, in disposing of
his corn, must take care of some for seed. Heaven must not take the disciples away,
else what will the world do for seed, Jesus for labourers, the gospel for tongues to
publish it, and the Gentiles for salvation ? They were more needed now on earth than
in heaven. Heaven could do for some time without them. The golden harps could
afford to wait ; but the world could not afford to wait long for the water of life. The
earth could not afford more than to give Jesus back at once, and he could do more good
there through his Spirit than here; could send supplies down from above to his friends,
and open fire from the heavenly batteries on the toe. The disciples could better attack
him from this side, so as to place him between two fires, etc. ; cause him to surrender
his captives by the thousands. Not one of them could now be missed. Each one had
a special duty, and was specially trained for it, and the departure of even one would be
B loss to the world and to Jesus.
IL Thb affiemativb pabt of the pbater. "That thou shouldest keep," etc.
1. The evil which is in the world is recognized. " Keep them from the evil " — the evil
one. There are in this world many wicked men and wicked spirits, but there is one
standing alone in wickedness, and in opposition to goodness, to God and man. He has
succeeded to attract a large following of the same character as himself; but he keeps
ahead of them all in wickeduess, and the eye of Christ could single him out among the
black throng, and point to him as the evil one, or the evU thing. As there is an evil
one, there is an evil thing, an evil principle, power, and influence. The evil assumes
many forms. The form in which it was most dangerous to the disciples now was apostasy
from Christ, and this is the only form in which it can really conquer. It is fully
recognized and revealed by Christ in all its forms, magnitude, and danger. 2. A
distinction is made hiiveen the world and the evil. It is not the world as such, is evil,
but evil is in the world. The world does not make men evil, but men make the world.
There is in the world an evil one and an evil thing, which prostitute its holy and
good laws and forces to answer their ends. No one had the fever of sin by contact
with the objects of nature. No one was morally contaminated by fellowship with the
sun and stars. No one was corrupted by listening to the blackbhd's song or the
nightingale's warble. The world as such is in sympathy with good and against evil.
" For the whole creation groaneth," etc. 3. To keep the disciples in the world from
the evil is preferable to toking them at unce out of it. (1) ITiis plan reaogniziea tht
OH. XYU. 1—26.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN, 8f!9
idvantage of this world a» a tphere of moral government and di»cipline. The highest
training for a soldier is on the battle-field. The best training for a mariner ii on the
ocean, and in an occasional Btorm ; he cannot attain this on dry land. The best sphere
of moral discipline is in a world where there is good and evil. In hell there ii only
evil without any good. In heaven there is only good without any evil. In this world
there are both, and it ia specially advantageous to choose the one and reject the other.
Christianity keeps a man from sin, and not sin from him; eradicates from his heart the
love of it, and implants in its stead the love of purity. A change of world would not
in itself change character. The elements of sin in the soul would break out in heaven
itself. (2) This plan is more in Jutrmony with the ordinary arrangements of Provi-
dence. It is an original arrangement of Providence that this world should be popu-
lated, and that each man should live a certain number of years— the allotted period
of time. Christ does not wish to interfere with this arrangement with regard to his
followers, but let them live the lease of life out, to do battle with sin, as the salt of the
earth and the light of the world. The wheels of providence and grace fit into each
other and revolve in perfect harmony. There, is no special warrant wanted to take
them hence, no special train required to take them home. (3) This plan demonstrates
more clearly the courage of Jesus. Although he knew that earth and hell were getting
madder and madder against them, and would be madder still, yet he had no wish that
they should be taken hence. He remained in the world to the last till he finished his
work, and he had sufficient confidence that his followers would do the same. He is
willing that they should undergo the same test. This is Divine heroism worthy of the
Captain of our salvation. To keep them from the evil by their removal from the world
would appear somewhat like beating a retreat ; but the word " retreat " was not in his
vocabulary. (4) This plan more fvdly demonstrates the wisdom and moral power of
Christianity. To make them victorious in the fight, and reach the desired haven in
spite of the severest stoims. Great power would be manifested in keeping the Babylonian
youths from the fire, but a far greater power was manifested in keeping them in the
fire from being injured by the flames. To take the disciples out of the world
miraculously would manifest Divine power, but to keep them in the world from the
evil manifested a miracle of grace and of the moral power of Christianity. The one
would be the skill of a clever retreat, but the other the glory of a moral victory.
(5) This plan involves a completer and more glorious personal victory over evil and the
evil one. Jesus was very desirous that his disciples should be personally victorious,
and conquer as he conquered. This must be done in the world in personal combat
with the evil. There is no real and ultimate advantage in a mechanical or artificial
diminution of evil, and strategic victory over the evil one. He will only gather his
forces and rush out with greater vehemence and success. The policy of our great
General was to let him have fair play — ^let him appear in full size, in his own field, and
have full swing, as in the case of Job ; then let him be conquered under these circum-
stances. The victory is final, complete, and most glorious. 4. To keep the disciples
from the evil was now Jesus' chief concern. This was the struggle of his life and
death, and the burden of his parting prayer. " That thou shouldest keep," etc. As if
hti were to say, " Let them be poor and persecuted, tempest-tossed and homeless ; let them
be allied to want and wedded to death ; but let them be kept from the eviL Not from
hell, but from the evil ; there is no hell but in the evil." How many there are who are
more anxious to be kept from every evil than from the evil — ^from complete apostasy
from the truth, and backsliding from Christ! This was his chief concern for his
followers, and should be the chief concern of his followers for themselves and for those
ander their care. 6. In order to le kept from the evil, the disciples mitst be within the
mediatory prayer of Christ and the tn^e custody of the Father. In order to be saved
from a contagious disease, we must keep from it or have a powerful disinfectant. The
world is full of the fever of sin, and we have to do continually with the patients ; we
live in the same house. And there is but one disinfectant which can save us, t.e. the
mediation of Jesus and the Father's loving care. Jesus knew the danger in which his
disciples were — how weak and helpless they were in themselves, how prone and exposed
to the evil. The evil one, " the roaring lion," watched for the departure of their
Master in order to rush on them ; but as • tender mother, in going finm home, leaves
her children in the care of some trustworthy one, charging nieh to keep them ihna
JOBM,— IL % B
370 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [ch. xvii. 1— 2H
danger, especially from the fire; 80 our blessed Lord, before he left the world, left his
disciples in good custody and safe hands, those of the Father, praying him to take care
of them, especially to keep them from the evil. Before the great departure at
Jerusalem, he insured all his most valuable property in the office of his Father's eternal
love, of which he was the chief Agent ; and insured it so not only as to have compen-
sation in case of loss, but against any loss at all. "Holy Father, keep," etc. Th4
house was insured before, and was safe, and there was no need of a rush out of it ; but
now he insures the tenants. The premium he had paid on the cross. This is the only
■afe insurance from evil. We wonder often how we have escaped from the evil in many
a dark hour ; but the insurance was the secret. — B. T.
Vers. 20 — 23. — Christian unity. Notice it —
I. In its import and scope. 1. Believers are to be in unity. Many and yet one,
«neand yet many. Many members, but one body; many bodies, but one Spirit; many
believers, but one spiritual community. They are to be one with each other, with
Christ, and with the Father. 2. Their union is to be universal. " Tliat they all may
be one." There is to be no exception. It is not optional, but the universal rule of the
society and law of its great -Head. They are to be one : (1) In spite of time.
Believers are separated by time. Some are of the present, some are of the past, and
some of the future ; but all are included in this great union. " Those who believe on
me through," etc. Not merely the fathers of the faith are to be in it, but their
children to the last generation, and to the last one of that generation. (2) In spite of
space. Believers are separated by place and distance. They inhabit different countries
and climes. There are large multitudes on earth, larger multitudes still in heaven, but
they are all in this union; its laws are binding and operative in spite of space and
distance. (3) In spite of differences. Believers are separated by physical, mental,
social, spiritual, ana circumstantial differences;, but these are not to prevent their
union, but they are to be one in spite of them. 3. The union is to be perfect. They
are to be perfected into one. It is not a sham union, but a real one ; and perfection is
its goal, although gradually attained. Something like this is the import, scope, and
ideal of this grand union, of which Christ is the Author, President, and Inspiration,
II. In its high model and basis. 1. Its model is Divine. " As thou. Father, art,"
etc. Its model is the union of the Father and the Son. What union was this?
(1) Union of nature, essence, and life. Believers are partakers of the Divine nature,
and the new nature and life are the same in all. (2) Unity of mind. Believers are to
strive for unity of faith, and to mind the same things. (3) Unity of heart. Believers
are to be one in heart, sympathies, and love — the bond of perfeotness. (4) Unity of
will and purpose. (5) Unity of cha/racter. The Divine union is the model of the
Christian, and it is high and perfect. And is not the past history of the Church a record
of a great intellectual and spiritual struggle fur this, and is she not pressing on still
towards it ? 2. Its basis is Divine. " That they may be in us, and one in us."
(1) Christian unity is based upon the Divine. The idea is Divine. It would be
impossible for an inharmonious being, however powerful, to conceive the idea of an
harmonious society, much less to produce it. The Divine unity is the foundation and
origin of the human. (2) Christian unity is the creation of the Divine, and is svp-
ported by it. . In connection with the Divine it is alone possible, and in this connection
it is a glorious fact. " One in us." Apart from this there would be no unity at all — no
unity of atoms, of worlds, of systems, in the material universe ; and no unity of mind,
spirit, and heart among intelligent beings. In the Divine unity all the material worlds
are united, and all the moral world is being and to be united. It is not only the model,
but th« basis and support of Christian union. Christian union is the outgrowth of the
Divin*. '' One in us." (3) Christian unity is the expression of the Divine. Christ is the
Expression of the Father, and believers are the expression of Christ, hence in a degree
the expression and incarnation of the Divine unity.
IIL Iv ITS PRACTICAL AND EFFicusNT MEANS. How does the Divine go forth and
effect the unity of the human? What are the means used ? 1. The union of believert
with Christ by faith, and hit union vnth th*m. Faith brings Christ to the soul, and
Christ brings that soul to the Father and to all im him. " I in them, and thou in ma,
tlukt thaf Tuuf" tte. Tkeie are the efficient means nsed ftnd the order of their oper»-
m. xvn. 1—26.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDLNG TO ST. JOHN. Stl
tion. Thus faith unites believers to him, to the Father, and to each other. As the iun
is the centre of union in the solar system, so Christ is in the Christian system. 2. The
endotument of the Divine glory. " The glory which," etc. What glory was given to
Christ which he also gave to his disciples ? (1) The glory of the Divine unity. This
he gave in word and deed. (2) The glory of the Divine recognition. He knew the
Father, and introduced him to them. (3) The glory of tAe Divine character. It was
reflected on him even in human nature, and he reflected it upon them. (4) The glory
of self-sacrifieing love. This he gave them, not merely in its vicarious and Divine
results, but as an example, inspiration, and the master principle of the new life.
(5) Hiis glory is arte. The glory of the Son is that of the Father, and the glory of
believers is that of the Son. He imparted to his disciples the same glory, and, as far as
he was concerned, in eqnal degree; and the participation of believers of the same Divine
glory through Christ unites them with one another and with the Divine nature, the
ultimate result of which must he perfect oneness. 3. The prayer of Jesus on their
behalf. (1) 2%e prayer of Jesus is effective and successful. It contained all he did.
His life was a prayer, and his death was a prayer, and his life in heaven is a continuous
and all-effective prayer, (2) The burden of his prayer was the perfect and universal
union of believers. And his prayers are all ultimately answered.
IV. In its special and ultimate pukposbb. 1. The perfection of each individual
believer. Perfect unity of all can only efifect the perfection of each one. Not one
believer can be perfected till all believers are. No member of the body can be
absolutely free from pain until every member is. Believers must be perfected into one
ere one can be absolutely perfect. 2. The conversion of the world. (1) Its realization
of Christ's Divine mission. "That the world may believe and know," etc. (2) Its
realization of the Divine love to believers as well as to Christ. " And lovedst them, as
thou," etc. (3) The world's realization of Divine love is most effective in the produc-
tion of saving faith and knowledge. The world must be convinced of Divine love
through love. It must be convinced of the intensity of the Father's love; and its
impartiality to all, on the same and the fairest conditions — to each iudividual believer
in Christ whom he sent, as well as to Christ himself. Let the world realize this, then it
will believe and know. (4) The perfect unity of believers will produce this realization.
A large degree of it will produce faith. Perfection will produce knowledge. Union is
strength, disunion is weakness. The first disciples, whatever may be their failings,
were strong in loving unity, reflected the glory of their Christianity and of the Divine
nature, and, few as they were, effected almost unparalleled success in the conversion
of the world, and eliciting the admiration of infidels : " See how they love one another ! "
And let the Church become proportionately united, and it will bring such evidence of
Divine love and truth to bear upon the world as will be simply irresistible, like the rays
of the sun or the united drops of the ocean.
Lessons. 1. Christian union is of supreme importance. It is the goal of Christiau
life and the perfection of Christian character, and essential to individual and social
sanctification. It is the central idea of Jesus and the burden of his prayer, and with
regard to Christian character. With tliis bis great prayer ends. 2. The Christian Church
lacks in nothing so much as in this. It is essentially imperfect in the present state,
especially taken as a whole ; but no virtue to-day is so absent from it as real spiritual
union. 3. This should be diliyently and prayerfully cultivated. All hindrances to it
should be excluded — which, in a few words, are selfishness, self-seeking, and pride, with
their injurious progeny. Let these be driven out, and let the Church make the same
efforts for inward and spiritual union as it makes for outward reforms ; then it will
shine with the true glory of the Lord, with the true light of its mission, and with con-
vincing effects upon the world. 4. To attain this let Christ occupy his proper position
in each believer, and in the Church as a whole. Let him be the sole Prophet, Priest, and
King. Let his self-sacrificing life and love be the centre, example, and inspiration of
every believing heart ; then we shall soon have a true Church of Christ on earth. — ^B. T.
Ver. 24. — Heaven. Notice —
I. Hkaven as a flaoe. 1. Itisct place, (1) This is suggested hy our fundamental
notions of thingt. We must look at our future existence to some extent in the light
of the present There is a real analogy between all the stages of existence of the same
Wa THE GOSPEL AOCOKDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvn. 1—26
being. We find ourselves here inseparably connected with a place. We make mental
and ipiritual excursions eren to the infinite and illimitable, but still we find our
consciousness connected with a place. Locality eaters into all our notions of all finite
existences. They are, and they are somewhere. (2) This is suggested hy the facta of
many being now in heaven in their hodies, and of the general resurrection of the body at
the last day. Enoch, Blias, oxa blessed Lord, and doubtless many more, are now there
in their bodies. And we are taught that there will be a general resurrection of the
body at the last day. It may be said that the resurrection-budy will be spiritual.
Yes, but spiritual not as distinguished from material, but from carnal and corrupt. In
the light of the great facts of existence with which we are familiar, there is nothing
unreasonable nor impossible in the doctrine of the resurrection. But, on the supposi-
tion that the body is to lose entirely its materialness, it seems indeed unreasonable and
altogether unnecessary, and we ask what is the use of it at all ? And we cannot see
how a being who has lived, thought, felt, and acted in a material orgaoization, could
keep his identity in any state of existence entirely apart from such an organization.
And if the resurrection-body will be in any way material, then it must have a material
locality, and heaven must be a place. (3) This is plajnli/ taught in the Word of Ood.
It is taught in these words. And heaven is generally spoken of in Scripture as a special
place. As a city, the new and heavenly Jerusalem. Christ speaks of it as his Father's
house, where there are many mansions. " I go and prepare a place for you." So that
the conclusions of reason and the teachings of revelation point to the same fact. 2. It
is a place where Jesus is and the redeemed will be. " Where I am," etc. If so, we
conclude : (1) That it is a most glorious place. It is the habitation of the only
begotten Son of God, the express Image of his Person, whose glory on the mv.!:nt trans-
fguied his hnman nature, and transformed the mount into a scene of Divine majesty.
The place where he dwells must be unspeakably grand. The house must be worthy of
the tenant, and the palace of the great King. (2) That it must be a very extensive
place. To contain the hosts of angels which ever attend upon his Person, and the
innumerable multitude of the redeemed — those given him by the Father, who shall be
with him — such a vast throng requires* vast place. Although spiritual bodies doubtlesi
will not require as much room as when in their crude and gross form, yet the place
must be vast. (3) That it is a place where the Redeemer and the redeemed enjoy the
closest fellowship. " That where I am," etc. With regard to believers on earth, the
Saviour is physically invisible and absent ; this is a hindrance to complete fellowship.
But in heaven the Saviour and the saved will be locally and physically together,
occupying the same abode, which will make the fellowship between them perfect. 3.
It is a place the chief glory of which is Jesus. In itself, its occupations and surround-
ings, it must be specially glorious ; but its chief glory is Christ. As the place where he
is, it is most attractive even to those who know most about it. Few, if any, knew as
much of its local glories as Paul ; but he had a desire to depart, not to be in heaven
as such, but to be with Christ. The chief inhabitants of a place form its chief
attractions. Wicked people would soon turn heaven into hell, whilst good people
would soon turn hell into heaven. People make a place, and not a place the people.
The characters of heaven are all attractive, but Jesus is the chief one. 4. It is a plac^
where Ghrisfs glory wilt be fully seen. (1) His mediatorial glory. " The glory which
thou hast given me." The glory of his Divine-human Person ; the glory of his sur-
roundings ; the homage paid him at home ; the glory of his complete victories and
self-sacrifice ; his glory in the redeemed, in their individual perfection, and in their
perfect unity. (2) This glory can alone be fully seen in heaven. The glory of his
Divinity, separately considered, can be seen everywhere in the works of his power ; but
his mediatorial glory can alone be fully seen where he is, and not where he is not. To
see this he must be personally seen and be locally near. (3) This glory toiH he filly
seen in heaven by the redeemed. "That they may see my glory." ' This is the
purpose of his present will, that they may be in a positio , to see it fully, see it
directly. The vision will be perfect, although gradual. Eterp ^y will be fully occupied
in its manifestation, and will not be a moment too long. It '<irill be the reward of their
lervice and the perfection of their knowledge and felicity.
II. The will of Jesus with beoard to bei.ievebs in belation to heaven. 1. In
ttftgjfreuion. " Father, I will," etc. He no longer prays, but wills. He had prayedi
CH. xvn. 1—26.] THE GOSPEL ACOOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. 873
and hii prayers were really answered. He now expresses his will as one of the Divine
counsels. 2. In its contents. " That they also -whcim," etc. This implies : (1) That
Juui would not be happy without them. (2) That th^y would not be happy without
him. (3) That together they would attain the consummation of happiness and glory.
3. In its reasons. (1) The fact that believers are the Father's gifts. " Those
whom," etc. Such tenants are more costly gifts than the place of their habitation. A
suitable place for them naturally follows. (2) The manifestation of his glory. " That
they may see," etc. What wouLi be the Divine glory without appreciative eyes to see it,
and what would be these appreciative eyes without the Divine glory in Christ ? But both
together are suitable. (3) Tiie Father's love to the Son. " For thou lovedst me," etc.
(o) This love is very old. The eternal Son could not remember its beginning. He
knew that it was before the foundation of the world, and that it was the chief stone in
that foundation ; but it was much older in its origin. It was eternal ; but the foundation
of the world was a special era in its history. (6) Tliis love is unchangeable. Jesus was
fully conscious that he had done nothing to decrease, but rather to increase, it. (c)
This love is very effective. There is no place in the universe too good for the Father to
give to the friends of his Son for the sake of this love — not even the most glorious place
of his own presence.
Lessons. 1. The first thing in human happiness is a suitable character— faith in
and union with Christ. 2. The next thing is a suitahle place. That place is where
Jesus is, wherever that may be. It is enough with regard to the locality of lieaven. 3.
A suitable character and place will be perfection of bliss. 4. Let the character be pre-
pared— heaven is certain. Christ prays lor the former; he wills the latter, and respectfully
demands it. 6. The present is a scene of struggle and preparation ; the future will be a
scene (f enjoyment. The enjoyment of Christ's presence and service, and the visions of
Ms transcendent glory. What visions await the believer iu heaven I All our pro-
foundest aspirations will be more than realized. — B. T.
Ver. 1. — The Father glorified through the Son. Here are words of Jesus in this
prayer which we are, as it were, doubly bouud to consider. For this prayer went up
in the midst of the disciples. We can hardly even say that it was overheard by them ;
that would imply that they were not intended to hear it. The Father heard the prayer,
and the disciples heard it too. And in the hearing there came upon them great responsi-
bilities, great opportunities, great inspirations. The .same things also come upon us.
L The invocation. This invoking word, " Father," niust not be forgotten in one
single sentence of the whole prayer. The prayer is but one revealed breathing of an
unbroken communion. " Father " was no new or occasional word on the lips of Jesns.
The thought of it directed and circumscribed every petition. The prayer is the prayer
of One who was in the closest intercourse with him to whom he prayed. The harmony
was the harmony of a union which, the more we think of it, deepens into mysterious
unity. What were the Son without the Father — what were the Father without the
Son?
II, The occasion. The hour has come. What Jesus meant by that hour we soon
discern when the prayer is closed. Streams that had long been flowing towards each
other were about to meet at last. The time and the events of the time were going to
correspond. With God there is no " too soon" or " too late." The time came for Jesus
to be delivered up into the hands of men, and he made no resistance, achieved no mira-
culous escape. The hour was come to reveal the essential weakness of human power ;
and Jesus was ready to give the opportunity of i lustrating it. All that men did and
all that Jesus suffered could not have happened otherwise. All that was done by all
who were concerned in the death of Jesus was done according to their natural inclin-
ings. We ought not to be astonished at a single dreadful feature in the whole trans-
action. Men did what they might be expected to do; and now the heavenly Father
is looked to for what he may be expected to do.
m. The supplication. That the Father would glorify the Son. The Father had,
indeed, been doing nothing else from the beginning, but this paternal glorification had
now to be made peculiarly manifest. The disciples had got into the way of not looking
beyond or above Jesus. It seemed as if he did the things rather than the Father
through him. He said that he could only do what the Father gave him to do ; but
874 THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINO "TO ST. JOHN. [oa. xth. 1— 2«
this could only be clearly seen when through a set of entirely different experiences. The
workings of that Being whom Jesus calls father should appear. Jesus, who heretofore
had been strenuously active, was now to be almost entirely passiye. The Father was
now going to glorify him through the manifestation of the meekest, lowliest, most
patient Spirit. Then beyond the death there lay the resurrection. He who believes
that Jesus really rose from the dead can see in that, above all things, the glorifying
stamp of the heavenly Father.
IV. The motivb. A glorified Son means a glorified Father. The praise of him who
was sent is inseparable from the praise of him who sent him. The risen Jesus becomes
the instrument of proclaiming far and wide that God who is a Father. A Father with
none of the limitations of human fathers ; a Father who, to those who contemplate his
doings, opens up new possibilities and joys in human fatherhood. Further, there is an
example. We, in our measure, should pray that our heavenly Father may glorify us,
for so we shall "lorify him. We who have come short of the glory of God shall yet
fully illustrate that glory in every particular.— T.
Ver. 3. — What eternal life is given for. By the facnltles Inherent in natural life
there comes the knowledge of every natural object. If there i« to be the knowledge of
more, there must be something more whereby to know. Hence it seems not enough
here to take " eternal life " as but another way of expressing the knowledge of the
only true God and of his Son. Bather is it true of him who has the life of eternity in
him that he thereby gets that glorious knowledge which God and Jesus want him
to have. As Jesus himself put it to Nicodemus, a man must be born again to see the
kingdom of God, A beast sees what a man sees so far as the image on the retina is
concerned ; but a man will do very different things as the result of lus seeing. And so
a natural man sees what a spiritual man sees so far as the image on the retina is con-
cerned ; but the spiritual man will do very different thii^s as the result of his seeing.
I. Thb knowledob or God. Thus early does the theological element come in to
this prayer. Jesus had to work for men through all the institutions of worship and
religious faith which he found in the world. What he hete says is quite in accord with
the introduction to the Epistle to the Romans. There can be no peace or blessedness
for mankind till the delusions and vices connected with the worship of false gods have
passed away. And not only must there be deliverance from the dominion of false gods
— so much has been achieved by gradual perception of the absurdity of Idolatry — there
must be deliverance from the dominion of false aud defective ideas of Deity altogether.
How humiliating are the narrow and superstitious thoughts of God entertained by
many who have always been under the influences of Christianity. The best of us cannot
easily be kept from tending towards exaggeration and one-sidedness in this matter.
Notice how worshippers of the one true God and worshippers of the false gods of Boma
were joined together in the acts of wickedness which brought Jesus to death. Sympa-
thetic and adoring knowledge of the one true God is the thing that is wanted, and it
comes as those who are babes in Christ Jesus grow up to the stature of perfect men
in him. Not by the wisdom of this world can God ever be known.
II. The knowledob of the sent Jesus. How this addition sweeps away the
arrogant, self-confident claims of mere general theism I Man can only get true, com-
forting knowledge of the one true God through him whom God sent to reveal. Know-
ledge of God is by revelation, not by discovery. The necessity that man should know
God explains the mission and the nature of his Son Jesus, Jesus brings the knowledge
of God out of the darkness wherein it was hid ; and then, God being known, Jesus him-
self becomes more intelligible to men. The more we know Jesus, the more we know
God ; and the more we know God, the more we know Jesus. What barren, tantalizing
teachers are those, expatiate they ever so much, who leave Jesus out of the necessary
elements in explaining Deity I And similarly, those who separate Jesus the moralist
from Jesus the theologian, and try to satisfy men with a scheme of glorified ethics, are
soon found out. How needful, then, that we should nourish all beginnings of eternal
life ! — all that unrest of the heart which, if only we do not kill it by mere opiates, will
grow into the peace and blessedness of them who really know God. — Y.
Yers. 9 — 11. — Jtstu praying /or his ovm. L Thi ■xa.uuox. W« 1ut« hen a
m. xm. 1—26.] THK GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BT. JOHW. «?«
striking illustration of the definiteness of the prayers of JesuB. He knows exactly for
whom he is praying, and what he wants for them. He defines them positively, and he
defines them negatively. It is not enough for him to call them his own. It must
also he said why they are his own. If they belonged to the world, and had in them,
unchecked and unmixed, the spirit of the world, they would not be his. This is a very
decided exclusion for the purpose which Jesus has in view ; but no one who under-
stands the whole drift of the work of Jesus will say that it is a harsh exclusion. When
Jesus prays for his own, he is really doing the best he can for the world. What can
the Father of Jesus do for the world, so long as it remains the world? He has nothing
to give that the world cares for. What God bestows on the world is given irrespective
of prayer — given to all ; given, a great deal of it, to the lower creation as well. If more
is to be given, it is because of the appearing of a spirit of recipiency which is in itself a
sign of passing from the world to the Church. When Jesus prays for his own, he is
really praying that they may so let their light shine as to attract and persuade the
world. The very best things that Jesus can do for the world are to be done through
the character of his own people.
II. The gbounds of the bequest. Jesus prays to the Father for those whom the
Father had given to him. What a view of the claims of the heavenly Father is here I
When we give anything it implies that we have a right to give it. We have made it
our own by purchase or manufacture. We could not take any human life and make a
present of it to somebody else that he might use it for his own purposes. There would
be a protest at once. But God makes this claim, and gives over human souls to the
control of Jesus. To that control and to no other. The same truth is expressed when
Jesus says that all authority is given to him in heaven and on earth. What an inspira-
tion there should be in the thought that the Father reckons us worthy to be bestowed
on the Son for him to use! What a fully and misuse of ourselves if we, who are
intended for gifts to Jesus, should refuse to Jesus the necessary control! What au
explanation of the frequent misery and waste of life ! If Jesus cannot get a proper use
of his own, how can we turn it to anything but misuse? But Jesus goes on to say how
that in receiving he only receives to give back. " All mine are thine, and thine arc
mine." No wonder that, in the first fulness of Pentecostal blessing, the disciples had
all things in common. The Father and the Son have all things in common. The
Father gives humanity to the Son that Jesus may send out consecrated men and
women to glorify him. And then these consecrated men and women, used as they only
can be used by Jesus, are rendered up to the Father who bestowed them on the Son.
The heavenly Father is the great Fountain of the highest good, and all that he gives
comes back to him at last, having ministered strength and gladness to human hearts
innumerable. All that is in God and all that is in Jesus are for us ; and we are, not for
ourselves — that is only a small part of the truth — but for the Son in the Father, and
the Father in the Son. There is no serving the Son without serving the Father, nor
glorifying the Son without glorifying the' Father. And we need that the Father should
strengthen and equip us through invisible means for all this serving and glorifying,
because the Son no longer remains visibly in the world. The invisible ministry is far
to excel in depth and extent the visible one. — ^Y.
Ver. 15. — Not removal, Imt safety, L Not bbmoval from the wobld. 1. To many
this will seem a superfluous statement. There must be many to whom it will seem
a marvellous thing that any one should want to go out of the world at all. If praying
to God would make it so, the young, the strong, the prosperous, the ambitious, would
pray a dozen times a day that they might stay in the world. Every day thousands are
going out of the world who, if they could get their own way, would stay in it.
Pobably the disciples themselves rather wondered at Jesus suggesting departure from
the world as desirable. They were mostly young men, or men in their early prime.
And, indeed, what so many wish is just what Jesus wishes himself. Every human
being was manifestly Intended to live out his days and do hii work before he departs.
That the old only should die is in the very order of nature, just like the falling of the
leaves in the autumn and the setting of the sun at eventide. 2. The thought expressed
was a very natural one to come into th» heart of Jesus at this partieuUw wt»mmtt. He
forcMW the paa and strain and trial his friends would have to pue through. He fore-
376 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST, JOHN. [oh. xvn. 1— 2ft
saw the imprisonments, the scourgings, the stonings. The disciples would understand
the reference better afterwards than at the moment it was made. Jesus himself wag
on the point of Iwing taken out of the world. The significance of the particular expres-
sion ought to he carefully noted. It is not merely a periphrasis for death. It indicates
the glorious and liberating experience through which Jesus himself was about to pass.
And if there had been nothing to consider but their personal comfort, then the friends
and followers of Jesus might hare been taken out of the world along with him. But
they had their work still to do. The followers of Jesus had to stay just because he was
taken. The Mends of Jesus had to suffer all the more just because his sufferings were
at an end. And so the utterance of Jesus seems to say, " I should like to take you with
me, but it is impossible. I should like to spare you all you will have to go through ;
but when you are going through it, remember how I thought about you in my prayer."
II. Safety in the world. Jesus desires that his Father would keep his followers
from the evil. He teaches us to pray the same prayer ourselves. Indeed, if we do not
pray the prayer ourselves, what can the prayer of Jesus be expected to avail ? The
carefulness of Jesus will only save us if we are careful too. Of course it is spiritual
safety, integrity, and purity of heart Jesus is mostly thinking of. As to physical pain,
Jesus himself lutd to pass through the severest of it ; and the disciple must be as his
Master, the servant as his Lord. — Y.
Ver, 17. — The element of true holiness. I. The means op SArETT. Jesus has been
praying that hia friends may be safe ; and here is the way to safety. The truly holy
are the truly safe. When some infectious disease is raging far and wide, it is the
drunkard and glutton who are most exposed to danger. And thus in seasons of spiri-
tual temptation it is those who live far from G-od, and have allowed the world to run
riot in their hearts, who are likeliest to fall.
IL The means of unity. Jesus goes on to pray for unity ; and holiness will lead to
unity as well as safety.
m. The element of this savino and unitino holiness. We are to be in
li ving, constant contact with God's truth as it is in Jesus, That truth is to be continu-
Mlly around us, even as the air we breathe. It is to be underneath us, even as the solid
earth on which we stand. Truth is ever important, but the truth as it is in Jesus is of
supreme importance, as the truth that concerns us all in our greatest interests. If with
all our knowledge we have failed to lay hold of God's truth in Jesus, then we are still
miserably ignorant. We must not be dunces in the school of Jesus. The time will
come when one truth of his will give us more satisfaction and peace than all we have
learned amid this world's greatest opportunities. And since Jesus prays that we may
be sanctified in this truth, it .is plain that the truth hes near us, only needing our reason-
able attention and effort to make it our own,
rV. The NBAmNBSs of this tbuth as conteasted with oxtb, neoliqenob of it.
We can talk much about the truth, and yet feel it very little. We can call it of
supreme importance, and yet not make it so. The guilt, the danger, and the misery of
sin are often on our lips ; but only on our lips. We do not speak of the presence of sin
in our souls as if we had made tlie terrible discovery for ourselves, and appreciated all
that the discovery implied. The thing of real concern with tis is not truth for the
heart, but food and raiment. Hence this frightful want of correspondence between
what we are and what we profess to be. There is a sanctification as far as the pro-
viding of the elements is concerned; and yet no sanctification, because the elements
are unused. Our lives are very mean, worldly, and empty, compared with the oppor-
tunities we enjoy. God has brought us into a land of the choicest blessings. We are
invited to sit down at a table loaded with the bread of eternal life. The fountain
opened for sin and uncleanness springs up before our eyes. If we are none the better,
and make not the slightest progress, it is because of a neglected Holy Spirit. It is
truth that sanctifies; and the Holy Spirit is to lead us into all the truth. Without
him, we have eyes and yet see not, ears and yet hear not. We must not bring our
own little line to measure him who is the eternal Son of God. Not many vfise are
called to the Inheritance of the sanctified. We must be humble and submissive ; then
shall we know things not otherwise to be known. The work of Jesus is to give us
tomething to know and make our own. The work of the Spirit is actually to iaak«
OH. xvn. 1—26.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 877
that aomething our own. The more hold that Divine tnith hu npon us, the plainer it
is that we are growing in holiness, in separation firom the world, and union with the
Father through the Son. — Y.
Ver. 18. — Ihe two apostlesMps. The sense of apostlesUp must enter into all true
Christian work. The Lord Jesus takes but the ranlc of an apostle — speaks to his Father
as having made him an apostle into the world. He grows up to manhood, not as other
lads in Nazareth, to choose an occupation and walk in life for himself, but to take a
path divinely chosen. He both is sent and knows well who sent him. The highest
good is only to be got out of the Lord Jesus by treating him according to his apustle-
ship. Treating Jesus otherwise than as sent, we insult and slander him. He comes
not with his own claim, but with the claim of the invisible Father.
I, The apostleship of Jesus. " Thou didst send me into the world." That is the
feeling of Jesus, and we must not dispute it. Not a discourse of Jesus, not a deed of
Jesus, but has stamped across it, "Sent of the Father." Sent into the world: 1.
For the worWs need. None the less so because multitudes live and die, practically
denying the need of Jesus. Everything depends on what is aimed at. A man may say
reading and writing are not necessary because he has been able to carry bricks and
mortar all his life without knowing how to read and write. But it is plain that Jesus
Christ has become a necessity to many, for they have died rather than deny him. To
say that we need him not only proves our own blindness and self-ignorance. God
sends no causeless messengers. If human prophets, entirely of the lineage of humanity
had been enough, Jesus would never have come. 2. For the gkry of the Sender. He
expressly says, " I have glorified thee on the earth." We are to judge of the Sender by
the Messenger. Jesus was qualified to speak and act freely and largely, out of a heart
that was in full harmony with the heart of God. He could adapt himself without the
slightest hesitation or failure to the ever- varying wants of men. Many had come
belore him and walked and talked with men in the name of God, avowing that they
were the mouthpieces of Jehovah, and beginning their addresses with, " Thus saith the
Lord." But then the consciousness of an evil heart and an imperfect life was upon
them all. Isaiah says, " Woe is me ... I am a man of unclean lips I " But no one eve:
heard Jesus speak in this fashion. Those who have not yet beheld in Jesus the glorj
of the eternal God have yet to receive him in spirit and in truth.
II. The consequent apostleship of the servants of Jesub. Jesus was going
from the world, and had to send others into the world to continue his work. Tliey
must be such as the world can take knowledge of. And Jesus sent them into the
world as he himself was sent, for the world's great need and the increase of the glory of
God. Then in due season, their apostleship being over, they were gathered into the
invisible. But Jesus went on sending, and has gone on sendmg ever since. " Mission-
ary " is only a more modest word for " apostle." All of us must have some apostk-
■lup in us, or we can do little for Jesus. And all manifest and special apostles we
should ever observe and encourage, holding up their hands, and considering their
appeals with understanding minds and sympathizing hearts. He who receives the
apostle receives Jesus, and he who receives Jesus receives the Father who sent
him.— Y.
Ver. 20. — Prayer for persuaders and persuaded. I. Fbateb fob the febbuadebs
Jesus says, " Neither pray I for these alone ; " that means by implication his prayer for
these. Jesus prays for those who will believe on him through the word of his servants ;
that means his prayer for those who will speak the word which produces the faith.
Jesus had spoken to his servants in language of tenderness, energy, and strength, alto-
gether unequalled. They had to go out on a great errand ; they had a glorious message
to take ; they were being made r^y to taste the sweetness of a great privilege ; and
nothing was left undone that would stamp on their minds an indelible impression of
all this. And in this verse the prayer of Jesus for these special servants of his comes
to a transition stage. The service they had to render is indicated. They had to go out
to speak to men in such a way as that listeners would be won to give themselves up
entirely to the disposition of Jesus. Their word, coming from the depths of believing
hearts, filled with spiritual energy, would produce like precious faith in others. They
8T8 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. lau. xvn. 1— 2ft,
beliered, therefore they spoke. They believed, therefore they could not help speaking.
They belieyed, because they had found out their own need as sianing, sorrowing human
beings ; and therefore they felt sure that other linning, sorrowing human being! would
also believe when saving and comforting truth was placed in its beautiful fulness before
their eyes. Jesus is quite sure about what will happen. All through the prayer one
unbroken spirit of confidence prevails. Jesus prays for those whom he is quite sure
will persuade men to believe on him.
II. PsAYEB FOB TEE FEBSUADED. Jesus sends his desircB into the future that he
knows is coming. The beginning of that future was close at hand. Believers came
by thousands. No doubt there was a something that made them so ready to hear. He
who sent down the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, knew well that it would not be
a barren day so far as the eliciting of human faith was concerned. The glory of Pen-
tecost was not in the mighty rushing wind or the tongues of fire; it was rather in the
multitude who believed, accepting the testimony of the apostles as to the resurrection
of Jesus from the dead. And the apostles would then nave to expound things more
fully to these believers, attentive in the freshness of their new faith, and grateful for
such a wondrous outlook into eternity. Then would they tell them how Jesus had
already prayed for them, being sure of what would happen. He knew the believers
were coming, and saw their coming from afar. Thus the prayer for Jesus needed its
answer soon ; and it has always needed an answer. There have always been believers to
pray for, and always believers needing to be prayed for, and brought into all the giving
and receiving that belongs to true unity. True unity is the mark of a loving, growing,
joy-bringing Christianity. The discordant elements of the world make the curse of
worldliness. Rivalries and antipathies fill the world. Over against this Jesus wants to
see true unity — ^that which comes through the free play of the individual conscience and
affections. The more we live as we ought to live, the more we stretch out, as it were,
hooks and eyes by which we get connected with the world at large. The individual
Christian feels the sufferings and losses of others as if they were his own. The whole
world of men and women is a corporate unity. As long as there is suffering anywhere,
there must be suffering everywhere. — Y.
Ver. 21. — A prayer for wnity. I. Look at this fbateb in the uqht of Pkm-
TBC08T. Within two months from the utterance of the prayer, the apostles, through
their spokesman Peter, uttered lorth their first great word concemltg their glorified and
ascended Master, and in that same day there was added to the apostles about three
thousand souls. Thus within this short time the first company of them believing in
Jesus through the word of his apostles made its appearance. Jesus was not turning
a bare possibility into a certainty when he referred so confidently to those who would
believe in him through the word of his servants. What faith he had in humanity !
Some who liave watched and, as they would say, studied mankind, speak of them as
a physician might speak of some one very ill, when he says the sick person cannot
possibly get better. Jesus, on the other hand, is the Physician, who, while he allows
that things are indeed very bad, magnifying our natural misery and helplessness to the
utmost, yet at the same time proclaims in trumpet-tones a real cure, though the only
one. Three thousand were added to the apostles. They all became one company, not
only in spirit, not only in ultimate aim and hope, but in the most literal meaning of
the word. Thus at Pentecost there came an outward unity such as the world had never
seen before.
II. Look at the discobds and bheaoheb that boon hade their appearance
The unity of Pentecost did not and could not last ; it was but the outcome of a fervid
first love, and as time rolled on those who had been thus united lapsed into their old
separation and contrariety. The old man, full grown and vigorous, is not to be dispos-
sessed by the new creature in Christ Jesus without a serious struggle. Even in the
first days a great deal happened that might almost make one think the disciples of
Jesus set no store at all by their Master's prayers, and never troubled to recollect the
desires on which he had set his lieait. No proper means was taken to nourish and
cherish the power of the Holy Ghost in the hearts of all the believers. Thus it is
little wonder the widows had to complain that they were neglected in the daily minis-
tratioBs. Little wonder, too, that Peter, the very leader on the Day of Pentecost, proved
OH. XVIII. 1—40.] THE GOSPEL ACCOBDING TO ST. JOHN.
879
unfaithful to the principle of Christian unity. He either forgot or had never properly
comprehended that in Jesus there is neither Jew nor Gentile ; and so he wanted GentUei
to become Jews before he would allow them to be Christians.
III. What wb individijallv httst do foe unitt. Jesus wants the world to
believe that the Father has sent him— sent him out of another world where all is har-
mony, into a world where, apart from him, all is discord. And the world will only
believe when it sees beautiful, lovable things done under its very eyes. We must
each of us be a real unity, entirely in accord with Jesus our Master, even as he was in
entire accord with his Father. As the Father was seen in Jesus, so the Christ should
be seen in us. The spirit of the loving, labouring, life-giving Jesus should be worked
into the very foundation of our nature ; then that small part of the world which has to
ilo with us may indeed believe that One has been sent from heaven to make men into
a happy and united family. — Y.
EXPOSITION.
OHAPTEB XVin.
B. The Eoub has oomb.
Ver. 1 — ch. xix. 42. — 1. The outer glori-
fication of Chriit in his PoMion.
Vers. 1 — 11. — (1) The betrayal, the majesty
of his bearing, aacumpanied by hints of the
bitter cup.
Ver. 1. — When Jesus had spoken these
words — t.e. had offered the prayer, and com-
muned with his Father touching himself,
his disciples, and his whole Church — ^he went
forth with hia disciples ; «'.«. from the resting-
place chosen by him on his way from the
" guest-chamber " to the Valley of Kedron ;
it may have been from some comer of the
vast temple area, or some sheltered spot
under the shadow of its walls, where he
uttered his wondrous discourse and inter-
cession. He went over the ravine — or,
strictly speaking, winter-torrent — of Ke-
dron.' The stream rises north of Jerusalem,
• Tisohendorf (8th edit.), on the authority
of a*, D, reads toD KeSpov, with two ancient
versions, "of the cedar;" A, S, A, Vulgate,
and other versions, toS KtSp^iv, corresponding
with N so far as toS is concerned. The rwv
KfSpwv of the T.E. and E.T., and the great
, bulk of uncials ami cursives, looks like a mis-
taken modification of roC into tbc, on the
supposition that KeSpay was genitive plural.
Whereas Josephus uses the word as nomina-
tive singular, and uses it in the genitive,
KeSp&vos. If KeSpov be the true text, it is
equivalent to " of the cedar ; " if tov KtSpuii,
then we must translate "of the Kedron."
Westcott and Hort, Tregelles, Alford, and
margin of Revised Version give preference to
the plural form, " the cedars ; " Meyer, Laoh-
mann, Lange, and Godet to the singular,
which is the more probable, as the word would
then be a transliteration of the Hebrew word
jinip, the black stream, so frequently
mentioned in the Old Testament (2 Sam.
XV. 23; 1 Kings xv. 13; 2 Kings xxiii. 4—
and separates the oitv on its eastern side from
Bcopas and the Mount of Olives. It reaches
its deepest depression at the point where it
joins the Valley of Hinnom near the well of
Rogel, contributing to the peculiar physical
conformation of the city. The stream is in
summer dry to its bed, and Eobinson, Grove,
and Warren conjecture, in agreement with an
old tradition, that there is, below the present
surface of its bed, a subterraneous water-
course, whose waters may be heard flow-
ing. The stream takes a sudden bend to
the south-east at En-Bogel, and makes its
way, by the convent of Saba, to the Dead
Sea. It is not without interest that this
note of place given by St. John alone— for
the three other evangelists simply speak of
"the Mount of Olives" — brings the iian-ative
into relation with the story of David's flight
from Absalom by the same route, and also
the Jewish expectation (Joel iii. 2), and
Mohammedan prediction, that here will take
place the final judgment (Smith's ' Diction-
ary,' art. " Kedrou," by Grove ; ' Pictorial
Palestine,' vol. i. ; Eobinson, 'Bib. Ees.,' i.
269: Winer's 'B. Eealworterbuch,' art.
"Kedron;" Dean Stanley's 'Sinai and
Palestine ; ' ' The Eecovery of Jerusalem,'
by Capt. Warren and Capt. Wilson, ch. i.
and v.). Where was a garden. This refer-
ence is in agreement (Matt. xxvi. 36 ; Mark
xiv. 32) with the synoptic description of
the xaplon, " parcel of ground," small farm,
or oliveyard, enclosed from the rest of
the hillside, and called "Gethsemane"
6 ; Neh. ii. 15). Westcott suggests, in
favour of toii' KiSpav, that the two names of
" the cedars" and "the Kedron" may have
been originally interchanged, and as some
cedars were known at one time to have been
in the valley, the dark colour of the foliage
of cedars may have led to the adoption of
the Hebrew name. Lange thinks that th«
blood of the sacrifices found its way into i^
and darkened it
880
THE GOSPEL ACOOBDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xviii. 1— 4a
(gath-fhammi, press for oil). The traditioiul
(ite of the garden dates back to the time of
Constantine, and may be the true scene of the
agony described by the synoptists. There
are still remaining " the eight aged olive
trees," which carry back the associations to
the hour of the great travail. It is certain
that the general features of the scene still
olosuly correspond with what was visible on
the awful night (' Pictorial Palestine,' i. 86,
98). Patristic and mediasviil writers, with
I] eugstenberg and Wordsworth, see parallels
between the garden of Eden lost by man's
sill, and the garden of Gethsemane wljere
the second Adam met the prince of this
world, and bore the weight of human trans-
gression and sljame, and regained for man the
paradise which Adam lost. . It is still more
interesting to notice a further touch recorded
by John : Into which — into the quiet retreat
and partial ooncealmentof which — he (Jesus)
entered himself, and his disciples. We know
from the otlier Gospels that they were sepa-
rated— eight remained on watch near the
entrance, and Peter and James and John
went further into the recesses of the garden,
and again, "about a stone's cast," in the
depth of the olive-shade, ova blessed Lord
retired to " pray."
Yer. 2. — Now Jndas also, who was betray-
ing him (notice present tense in contrast
with S irapiSovs of Matt. x. 4), knew the
place: because oftentimes Jesus resorted
(literally, teas assembled there) thither with
his disciples. Luke tolls us that durin<> this
very week (Luke ixi. 37) they had passed
their nights (TjiAffero) on the "Mount of
Olives," and it is most likely that Judas
conjectured that they had gone thither again
to pass the night. The fact here mentioned
by John, that Judaa knew the place, dis-
poses of the ignorant and vulgar taunt of
Celsus, that our Lord sought to escape from
his enemies alter having challenged them
(see Orig., ' Contra Cel.,' ii. 9. 10). Keim, with
pirversity, declares that John only repre-
sented the place as known to Judas, in order
to enhance the voluntary nature of the sacri-
fice. Some explanation may thus be given
of the fact that the eleven disciples, liaving
reached an accustomed place of repose, all
slumbered and slept, and were not able to
watch one hour. The choice of tliis parti-
lular garden for the purpose cannot be un-
ravelled. Dean Plumptre suggests that it
was the property of Lazarus, who was no
other than the rich young man, who sold
his all and gave to the poor, ell but one
solitary garment, and that he himself was
keeping this one possession for the uses
of his Lord on that very night, and that
when in danger of arrest he it wag that
fled away nt^ed, Thia ia pure oonjeo-
ion.
Yer. 3. — Judas therefore, because he
knew the place, was able treacherously to
use his knowledge. Having received the
cohort. 'H (Tireipo is used for the legion or por-
tion of the legion of soldiers, who, under the
direction of the Bomui prcjcurator, garrisoned
the Tower of Antouia, which dominated the
north-east temple courts. The article (t^jv)
is probably used because the x'^^'^PX<"i
military tribune, chief captain, or commander
of the thousand men, had (ver. 12) accom-
panied the detachment. " The word o-irfipa,
is used by Polybius for the Latin manipulus
not cohors (Polyb., xi. 23), consisting of about
two hundred men, the third part of a cohort "
(Westcott). It should, however, be observed
that the word is used of the Eoman garrison
of the tower (Acts x. 1 ; xxi. 31 ; xxvii. 1 ;
Josephus, ' Ant.,' xx. 4. 3 ; ' Bell. Jud.,' v. 5.
8). TitKiapxos was the proper name for the
commander of a cohort, equivalent to one-
sixth of a legion, i.e. a thousand men
and a hundred and twenty horsemen. 'I'ho
strength of the cohort differed according to
circumstances and need. Josephus (' BelL
Jud.,' iii. 4. 2) says that some trirelpat con-
sisted of a thousand, some of six hundred,
men. It is not rational to suppose that the
whole cohort were visibly present, but they
were present in close proximity. Though
John alone mentions the Koman soldiers, yet
of. Matt. xxvi. 53, 54, where our Lord says,
" Thinkest thou not that I could pray (irape-
Ka\f<rai) my Father, and he would henceforth
famish me with more than twelve legions of
angels i" — a legion of angels for each one of
the little group. The presence of this band
of Roman soldiers with the Jewish police
gives veiy -great force and impressiveness to
tliis scene of Israel's degradation and of the
world's assault upon theDivine Saviour. The
other hints given by the synoptists of the pre-
seuce of weapons in the " band," is Peter's
use of the sword. Judas brought with him,not
only the drilled and armed Eoman soldiers,
but the officers from the ohief priests and
of the ' Pharisees ; t.e. b detachment of the
Jewish guard of the temple, under direction
of the Sanhedrin. The chief priests would
have small difSculty in securing the aid of
a detachment of the Roman garrison to
prevent popular outbreak at the time of the
feast. These imipcTai, under the direction
of the ohief priests and Pharisees, have been
mentioned in ch. vii. 32 and 45, and the same
uame is given to the iwriperat in Acts v. 22,
2(i, where the high priests and Sadducees
are spoken of as thei>' masters. In Luke
xxii. 4, 52 the commandants of the temple
• TSi' is omitted by T.R., with «"■•», A, 0 ;
but Tischendorf (8th edit.) and Westcott and
Hort read xal ^k tu;', with H*, D, L; Laoh-
Buum and B.T., xai riiir, with B.
oa xvm. 1—40.] THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN.
881
are spoktiU of in the plural, mTparriyois roS
Upov. The Jewish guard was nnder the
custody of one officer, i arpaTiryis, and lie
wasanianofhighranl!;anddignity(Josephus,
' Ant.,' II. 6. 2 ; ' Bell. Jud.,' ii. 17. 2)— not
two, but one ; the reference to more than one
must therefore point to the Boinan military
official as well, thus unconscious! y sustaining
the more definite information given by John.
Judas with his band cometh thither with lan-
terns and torches and weapons ; for, though it
was the Paschal full moon, they were intent
on finding an individual, whom Judas would
identify for them, amid the depths of the
olive shades. (Aa/iW s is in its primary sense
a torch, or even meteoric light, but it is used
for a lamp or lantern; and <l>ay6i also is
used for " torch " primarily, with secondary
meaning of " lantern.") Mattliew and Mark
mention " swords " and " staves," but say
nothing of the flaring torches which so
arrested the eye of John. Thoma sees a
reference to the frequent declaration of
Chdst, that he was the " Light of the
world," and to the contrast between that
light and the power of darkness.
Ver. 4. — Jesus then — the oiy implies that
our Lord discerned the approach of the
hostile band — ^knowing all the things that
were coming upon him — in full conscious-
ness of his position, and in voluntary sacri-
fice of himself to the will of God and the
purpose of his mission — went forth;' t.e.
from the garden enclosure — see ver. 1 — (say
Meyer and Godet) ; &om the recesses of the
garden or the garden-house (say others);
partly in consequence of the language of the
kinsman of Malchus, " Did I not see thee in
the garden ? " But this is perfectly compa-
tible with the obvious fact that the eight
disciples and the favoured three should have
shrunk behind our Lord when he calmly
emerged from the entrance to the garden,
and that their position would be thus suf-
ficiently indicated. It is remarkable that
Jnlni, who has been accused of personal
malice to Judas (i.e. by those who, like
Kenan, admit, to a certain extent, the Johan-
uine authorship), does not refer to the traitor's
kiss. This weU-attested and traditionally
sustained incident is not excluded by the nar-
rative before us — indeed, the second reference
to Jurlas seems to imply something special in
his conduct, which is needed to account for
it. We can hardly suppose that it could
have taken place before the Lord Jesus had
uttered liis solemn word, but it may easily
• T.B. reads i^ekiiiv eTirec, with K, A, 0»,
and numerous uncials ; but Lachmann,
Tregelles, Tischendorf (Sth edit.), Wtstcott
and Hort, and E.T., l(v\Sev xal \4yfi,
with B, 0*, D, and the Latin versions and
Fathen.
have oocnned a« the flrst anawer to hia
ntmmonf. And laith onto them. Whom
seek ye 1
Vers. 5, 6. — ^They answered him, Jesua
the Nazarene. Jesus saith unto them,
I am he. Then, in all probability, the
miscreant, the son of perdition, said, " Hail,
Master I " and kissed mm ; and there followed
before and after his act the sublime replies
given, " Ciompaniun, wherefore art then
come ? " and " Judas, betrayest thou the Son
of man with a kiss ? " John, however, over-
whelmed with the majesty and spontaneous
self-devotion of the Lord, calls attention to
the language he addressed to the " band "
which surrounded him. In some royal
emphasis of tone he said, " I am (he)," and
the same kind of effect followed as on
various occasions had proved how powerless,
without his permission, the machinations of
his foes really were. In the temple courts,
and on the precipice of Nazareth, the mur-
derous Jews and Qalilaians were foUed
(compare the murderers of Marius and of
Coligny) by the moral grandeur of his bear-
ing ; and when he said, I am he, they went
backward, and fell to the ground (xa^a^ for
Xa/x(£fO- Whether this was a supernatural
event, or allied to the sublime force of moral
greatness flashing in his eye or echoing in the
tone of his voice, we cannot say, but associat-
ing it with other events in his history, the
supernatural in his onie becomes perfectly
natural. It was so that ho whose "I am
he " had hushed the waves and cast out the
devil, and before whose glance and Avord
John and Paul fell to the earth, as if struck
with lightning, did perhaps allow his very
captors (prepared by Judas for some display
of his might) to feel how powerless they
were against him. It is remarkable that
our narrative should place between the " /
am he " and its effect, the tautolognus remark
if there be nothing to explain it. Now Judas
also, who was betraying him, was standing
with them. This implies that Judas had
taken some step equivalent to that described
in the synoptic narrative. There is some
momentary consolatLou in the thought that
tlie traitor fell to the ground with his gang,
and for an instant saw the transcendent crime
he had committed in betraying the innocent
blood with the kiss of treachery and sliame.
Thoma sees in the approximation of Judas
the approach of the proplielic Beast to the
true King, and endeavours out of the letters
of his name to read the number 666 ! It is
true that ch. xiii. 27 represents Satan as
having entered into Judas. He stood there,
he fell there, with the powers of darkness.
What a moment 1 The devil may have
tempted Ohriit to blast his emissaries with
the breath of his nostrils ; but, true to hii
sublime mission, he is ooonpied only with
382
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvra. 1—40.
the Bftfety and futnre work of those who
knew that he had come out from God.
Vers. 7, 8. — Again then (oZc, regarding all
the oonditions, the cup, the crosB, the hlood-
baptiim, the supreme will, all are at stake) he
askad them, Whom seek ye 1 Then, restored
from their fright and spaam of consoience,
produced by the preBence of One whom
no fetters, not even those of death itself,
could bind, and reassured now by the same
voice (of. Dan. x. 10 ; Rev. i. 17), they reply,
JesQS the DTazarene. He thus compels them
to limit their design, and to single himself
out for the malice and devilish plot of their
masters. I told yon that I am he : if there-
fore ye leek me, suffer these to depart. There
is much in this that lies beneath the snrface.
(1) There is an explanation of the miracu-
lous blast which had a few moments before
rolled them at his feet. They will not dare
to disobey him. What may he not do, if
they piooeed to arrest the disciples? (2)
The disciples are discharged from the im-
mediate function of suffering and death.
They were in imminent danger, as is con-
spicuous from the fleeing youth, and from
the language of the bystanders subsequently
to Peter; but their hour was not yet oome.
(3) He would tread the winepress alone.
They were none who could go with him into
this terrible conflict (of. " Ye shall leave me
alone; yet not alone").
Ver. 9. — But John found (4) • deeper
reason still. He said this in order that the
word which he ipake an hour or two before
might be fulfilled, not finally exhausted in
its unfathomable depth, but gloriously illus-
trated, Conoeming those whom thou hast
giyen me, not one of them I lost. This is
a proof, as recognized by De Wette and
others, that the evangelist was quoting exact
words of the Master, not words which he
had theologically attributed to him. The
temporal safety of the disciples was a means
on that dread night of saving their souls
from death, as well as their bodies from tor-
ture or destruction. " Christ," says Oalvin,
" continually bears with our weakness when
be puts himself forward to rei)el so many
attacks of Satan and wicked men, because
he gees that we are not yet able or prepared
for them. In short, he never brings his
people into the field of battle till they haVe
been fully trained, so that in perishing they
do not perish, because there is gain provided
for them both in death and in life." The
reference of the apostle to oh. xvii. 12 is,
moreover, also one of the nnmerons proofs
which the Gospel itself supplies, that great,
Hearen-taught as the apostle was, he stands,
with ell bis inspiration, far below, at least
on a different plane, from that occupied by
the Lord. His occasional inteijections and
explanations of his Master's words cannot
be put on the same level with the words
themselves. Even Reust finds here a reason
for holding the authenticity of many at least
of the sayings themselves, whUe refusing to
accept the genuineness of the Gospel as a
whole (' Theologie Johannique,' in loeo).
Ver. 10.— Then Simon Peter. The other
evangelists simply tell us that one of the
number of the disciples performed the fol-
lowing act. The oSv here is introjueed
between Simon and Peter, as if to imply that
it was not merely Simon son of Jonas, hut
Simon the Rock, the man of mighty impul-
sive passion, ready, as he said a few hours
since, to go with his Master to prison and
to death. The name and identification of
Peter with the brave man who struck at
least one blow for his Master, is a proof, not
of John's animosity against Peter, or any
desire to humble him, but rather to exalt
him. The extraordinary concomitance of
this act with all the other delineations of
Peter's character is another undesigned hint
of the authenticity of the narrative. Simon
Peter, then, having a sword. Here we see
the unintentional agreement with the sy-
noptic narrative (Luke xxii. 38). Nothing
would be less likely than that Peter should
have a sword at his disposal; <.«, judging
&om the Johannine narrative. Tlie Gospel
of Luke explains it. Having a sword, he
drew it, and smote the slave (not one of the
wnip^Toi, but the Sov\os, body-servant) of
the high priest, and ont off his right ear.'
The slave, in receiving such a wound, must
have been in fearful danger of his life. The
reference to the right ear, mentioned also by
Luke (xxii. 50), is noteworthy, STowthenam*
of the slave was Ualohns. Here the eye-wit-
ness, not the theologian, nor the dramatist,
reveals his hand. Thoma sees, however, the
fulfilment of prophetic outline, and a refer-
ence to the kings and chief captains, the
Malchuses and chiliarchs, that are ultimately
to flee before him. The subsequently men-
tioned circumstance (ver. 15) that the evan-
gelist was ** known to the high priest,"
explains this recovery of an otherwise value-
less name. The instant when Peter cried,
" Shall we smite with the sword ? " was most
opportune. For the moment Peter felt that
the whole band could be discomfited by a
bold stroke. Christ with his word, the
brave-hearted apostle with his weapon, could
scatter all the foes of the Lord. As on m
many other occasions, Peter gives advice to
the Master, only to find himself in grievous
mistake.
' 'AT(ayiareadbyLaohmannandT.R.and
nnmerons uncials ; Snapiov is read in K, B,
0*, L, X, Vulgate, by Westcott and Hort,
R.T., and Tisohendorf (8th edit). Both
words are diminutives for sis.
OH. ZTm. 1— 40.] THB GOSPEL ACGORDIXa TO ST.JOHV.
883
Yer. 11.— In Christ's reply there b bo
mention made of the miracle which followed,
and yet the narrative is incomplete without
it. »amething must have restrained the band
and the high priest's own temple-watch from
at once arresting Peter, if not the entire
group. The characteristic touch, descriptive
of our Lord's most Divine compassion, is in
itself valuable, but it also accounts for the
immunity of Peter. The solemn rebuke of
Peter is full of Divine meaning, and is
another link with the synoptic narrative of
the agony. "Put up,'' or more literally,
Cast the > sword into its sheath (koXciJ; ii the
classical word ; B^kti more generally used of
repository, receptacle, sepulchre, etc.); or
into its hiding-place ; bury it away (t^itoi
is used in Matthew). Matthew adds a memor-
able Baying, but is silent as to the deep
Divine reason of the submission of our Lord
to his fate. The cup which the Father hath
given me, shall I not drink it 1 This imagery
recalls the Passion, through which we learn
from the synoptists that our Lord had passed
into a Divine patience and submission to
the will of God (Matt. ii. 22 ; iivi. 39).
The use of this most remarkable phraseology
recalls that which John too had heard from
his lips in the sweat of his agony, and of
which he and Peter were the principal wit-
nesses. The supplementary character of
the Gospel, though by no means sufScient
to account for all the omissions and additions
of this narrative, yet does explain very much.
" Jesus is now of his own accord at the dis-
posal of his enemies ; his words have put a
stop to all further steps taken for his de-
fence" (Moulton). (See Introduction, pp.
ovi., cvii.)
Vers. 12 — 27. — (2) The preliminary exa-
mination before Annas, interwoven with, the
weahneii and treachery of Peter. This pas-
sage describes the first steps taken by the
enemies of our Lord to conduct the exami-
nation which was to issue in a judicial
murder, and therefore to provide the basis
on which the charge might be laid before
Pilate and that Roman court, which alone
oould carry into execution the malicious con-
clusion on which they had already resolved.
Moreover, this passage is interwoven with
the melancholy record of the fall of Peter.
There are grave difficulties in the passage,
which have led to harsh judgment on the
• The <rou is not found in X,_ A, B, O, D,
L and numerous other authorities, and is
not read by Tregelles, Tischendorf (8tb
edit.), Westcott and Hort, and B.T., though
T.K., Griesbaoh, and Scholx retained it, with
1, 69, Mid fever»l vemou.
narrative itself and on itt general truthful-
ness. Eeim almost angrily dismisses it, and
Strauss endeavours to show that it ia in-
compatible with the synoptie narrative;
while Benan, on the other hand, sees in it
numerous lifelike touches and great ciieum-
stantial value. The primA faoie objection is
that John describes a preliminary exami-
nation before Annas, whom he confounds
with the high priest, and says nothing of the
judicial trial before the Sanhedrin under the
presidency of Oaiaphas. Baur and Strauss
supposed that the author did this in order to
exaggerate the guilt of the Jews by doubling
their unbelief, and aggravating their ofienca
by maMug two high priests rather than one
condemn their Messiah. In reply to this
we have simply to say that John, though
he shows the animus of both these notorious
men, does not mention the judicial condem-
nation pronounced by either (see Weiss, iii.
334, Eng. trans.). The omission of the
sublime answer of our Lord to the clial-
lenge of Oaiaphas and others (Matt xxvi.
62, etc. ; Luke xxii. 67, etc. ; Mark xiv, 68,
70) is surely profoundly contradictory to
the supposed theological purpose of the
writer; and we can only account for its
omission on the ground that the synoptic
tradition had made it widely known, and
that thai tradition still needed correc-
tion by the record of important supple-
mentary matter. Some harmonists have
endeavoured to transpose ver. 21 into close
proximity with ver. 13, or to give, as the
Authorized Version does, a pluperfect mean-
ing to aireiTTciAc of ver. 24, the effect of
which is to make the two examinations vir-
tually one, but one from which John leaves
out the most striking features. This is sup-
posed to be necessitated by the vers. 19 — 23,
where the " high priest " is said to have in-
terrogated Jesus. Moreover, the supposition
of there being a considerable space in the city
between the house of Annas and the palace of
the high priest Caiaphas renders the harmony
of the narratives touching the denials of
Peter inextricably confused, seeing that, ac-
cording to the synoptic narrative, they
occurred in the court of Caiaphas, while in
John they apparently were made in the
court of Annas. This difficulty is entirely
met by the natural suppositions arising out
Qf the relations of these two men. Anii^
384
THE GOSPEL ACCOEDINa TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvin. 1— 4Q
(Hanan, Ananias, Ananni) was s man of
great capacity and exclunveness, charged
with fiery passions and bitter hatred of the
Pharisaic party. He was appointed liigh
priest in a.d. 7, by Quirinus, Governor of
Syria ; in a.d. 14 be was compelled to retire
in favour of his son Ishraael. After him
followed Eleazar, and in a.d. 25 Joseph
Caiaphas, his son-in-law, was appointed, and
this man held the office till a.d. 37. Three
other sons of Annas held the like position, and
itvas duringthe high priesthood of one bear-
ing his father's name (Ananus) that James
the Just was cruelly murdered (Josephus,
• Ant.,' XX. 8. 1). The influence* of the old
priest tluoughoat the entire period covered
by New Testament narrative was very great.
Luke (iiL 2) speaks of Annas and Caiaphas
as high priests, and Annas is again in Acta
iv. 0 spoken of as high priest. John never
speaks of him as " high priest," unless he
must be held to do so in this passage. Our
most thoughtful commentators differ on the
point whether John does not so designate
him (ver. 19), adopting the well-known
usage of Luke, which gave him the title of
liigh priest. The evangelic narrative re-
veals, liowever, quite enough to explain that
he may have been at the heart of the an-
tagonism to Jesus, have aided Caiaphas wi th
his suggestions, and consented to conduct a
preliminary midnight investigatibn which
would give at least a semblance of legal
sanction to the condemnation, which, between
them, they would be able to secure as soon
as the day dawned. In tract ' Sanhedrin,'
Mishna, ch. iv. 1 and v. 5, we learn tliat,
though an acquittal of a prisoner or accused
person might be pronounced on the day of
trial, yet a capital sentence must be delayed
till the following day. As this trial must
be brought at once to a termination, such an
investigation as that which John describes
would furnish the necessary validity. More-
over, some hours must have elapsed before the
Sanhedrin, under the legal superintendence
of Caiaphas, could have assembled. Now,
the domestic relation of Annas and Caiaphas
would make it highly probable that the hall
of the Sanhedrin and the house of Annas
were on different tides of the same great
eourt of the palace, and that one court, av\ii,
(uffioed for both. With these preUminaries,
let us proceed with the narrative as given by
John. The frivolous supposition of Thoma,
that the author of this Gospel was playing
upon the idea of the beast (Judas) and the
false prophet, and on the five brothers of the
rich man of Luke's parable, is allowed to
disfigure this writer's treatment of the intro-
duction of tlie part taken by Uanan, or Annas,
in the Passion-tragedy.
Vera. 12 — 14. — OSc, Therefore — i.e. since
no further rebistanoe was made by Jesus — the
band (or cohort), which here takes the lead,
and the captain of it, and the officers of the
Jews in association with each other, took Jesus,
and bound him, as sign that he was their
prisoner,and to prevent escape until he should
be in safe keeping. It is probable that tho
binding process was repeated by Annas and
again by Caiaphas (ver. 2J and Matt, xxvii.
2), implying that during judicial examination
the cordage was taken off, and reimpo^ed
when the accused was sent from one court to
another ; or else that additional bonds were
placed upon him, for the sake either of
greater security or of inflicting indignity.
Christ, by accepting the indignity publicly,
yielded his holy will, confessing the supreme
ordinance of the Father as to the method in
which he would now glorify hira. And they
led (him) * to Annas first. The mention of
the word " first " shows that John discrimi-
nated between the two legal processes, th»
first being a preliminary examination of the
accused, with the view of extracting from
him some matter which should furnish the
priests with definite charges, and to make
a show of partial conformity with the customs
of their own jurisprudence. He was father-
in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that
same year. John's reiteration of this state-
ment (see ch. xi. 49 and note) shows that
he was in no ignorance of the custom and
principle of high-priestly succession, which
the Eomana had treated so arbitrarily.
" That same \ ear " waa the awful year in
which the Christ was sacrificed to the wilful
ignorance, malice, and unbelief of the Jews.
Now Caiaphas was he who counselled the
Jews that it was expedient that one man
should die ' for the people (see ch. xi. 50, 51)-
and while John leaves no doubt who is the
virtual high priest, he calls attention to the
fact that Jesus had no justice or mercy to
expect from the decision of his judge, and
• Westoott and Hort, R.T., Tischendorf
(8th edit.), with N, B, D, read iiyayov instead
of air^yayoi/ avrdv of T.E. Lachmann and
Alford bracket the latter reading.
• Lachmann, Tregelles, Tischendorf (8th
edit.), Alford, R.T., with K, B, 0, L. and
thirteen cursives and versions, read diroSwtJw
instead of i-noKiaSai of T.B.
OH. XTin. 1—40.] THE. GOSPEL AOCORDINQ TO ST. JOHN.
885
also reminds hii readers once more of the
significance of every step in this tragedy.
Ver. 15. — Now. After the first dispersion
of all the disciples, two of them gathered up
their courage. Simon Peter was following
Jesus "afar off" (say all the synoptists),
•'even up to" e&s, the court of the high priest "
(say Matthew and Mark). The account of
Matthew implies that, having come up to the
door, he went citid, and sat down to see the
end ; he does not say how he was admitted,
though, by the use of the two prepositions,
he implies there was a cause. And also
another ' disciple ; but that disciple was
known to the high priest, and therefore to
the officials, and went in with Jesus into
(€ir tJjj-, right within) the court of the high
priest ; for he was well known to be, and from
the first did not pretend to be anything else
than, one of the disciples of Jesus. From
the known habit of the evangelist in other
places, the vast majority of commentators at
once conclude (see Introduction, p. liv.) that
the writer designates himself by this refer-
ence. Godet and Watkins are disposed to
question it, and imagine that it may have
been the author's brother James. With the
absence of the article before &\Kos, the matter
is left in doubt. But by this supposition much
of the justification is lost, which the writer of
the Gospel quietly supplies, touching his own
ability to describe what otherwise would
never have entered into the evangelic narra-
tive. The supposition we have made above,
that Annas and Caiaphas occupied the same
palace, ordififerent portions of the same edifice,
solves the chief dilficulty. Annas held his
preliminary unofficial inquiry in his depart-
ment of the building. The difficult question
arises whether Annas was assisted or not by
the reigning '.'high priest" in conducting
this examination (see ver. 19).
Vers. 1 6, 17. — But Peter was standing at the
door without. Up to this moment Peter had
only pressed as far as to the outer door; the
other disciple had gone bravely in. The hum
of voices was now deadened by the closed door
dividing Peter from his Lord. The night,
the cold, the strange blighting of all his
expectations, the necessary conviction forced
upon him tlmt he had implicated himself by
the assault he had delivered on the servant
of the high priest, combined to induce a
new and desponding mood. All hope had
fled. Then John bethought him of the con-
dition of his friend, and so we read that the
other disciple, who was known to the high
priest, therefore went out to the entrance-
> 'O, which is found in N", 0, L, and other
•ncials, is, on the authority of S*, A, B, D,
and many others, omitted by Tisohendorf
(8th edit) »nd modern editon. Alford
bndnta it, luad wt dooi Tngelles.
JOHH.— a.
door, and finding Peter thei«, spake to her
who kept the door (of. Acts lii. 13). His
appeal may easily be supplied — and he
brought in Peter. The other evangelists
imply that before Peter was challenged the
file of coals had been lighted, and that the
apostle, with the servants and with the rest
of the group who had apprehended Jesug
gathered round it. He placed himself as
if he were an unconcerned spectator, iden-
tified himself, as it were, rather with the
captors than with the Lord; nor is the
narrative of John inconsistent with the sy-
noptic statement. In ver. 18 the incident
is certainly introduced by the writer after
he mentioned the challenge. Still, he states
it as a condition of the denial rather than as
a subsequent event. Matthew describes his
position as " without, in the court," not in
the audience-chamber, but in a court opening
I' upon" it or "above" it, as Mark (xiv. 66)
implies. Luke tells us he was " sitting in
the midst of the court," with the glow of the
burning charcoal on his face, " he was vphs
rh (p&s," where the maiden might see him
more attentively than when she hurriedly
admitted him. " The other disciple " had
moved swiftly on to some corner where he
could see and hear all that was happening
to the Master. But Peter's first step down-
wards had been already inwardly taken.
Before he had verbally denied his Lord, he
had acted as though he were indifiTerent to
the result (see Hanna's 'Last Day of our
Lord's Passion,' ch. ii.). Matthew'i and
Mark's accounts represent Peter's first and
other denials as taking place after the
mockery of Jesus that followed upon his
great confession of Messiahship. Luke places
them all three together before the formal ex-
amination or confession, and before the judicial
condemnation. John's account throws much
needed light upon the synoptic narrative,
which is more inconsistent with itself than
with that of the Fourth Gospel. Matthew's
method of putting together into connected
concurrent groups miracles, events, sayings,
or parables which are allied to each other,
will explain the substantially identical
report contained in his and Mark's Gospels.
There are with all differences some remark-
able coincidences. (1) All four accounts
describe our Lord's prediction of Peter's
denial. (2) All four evangelists agree to repre-
sent the first temptation as proceeding from
" a certain maiden," " one of the maids of
the high priest," or "a damsel." John's
Gospel explains the point by saying, the maid
who kept the door (^ Bvpapds') said therefore,
seeing she had admitted him,not in the rushof
the other servants, but at the request of " the
other disciple " — considerable meaning is
thus put into her words, which is lost ia
ttM synoptists bjr lade of the hint almd/
8S6
THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvni. 1— ttt
given by Jobn — Art thoa, as well as my ac-
quaintance yonder, also one of tMs Man's
disciples f He saith, I am not. The other
evangelists amplify this negative in various
ways. Mark, the reporter of Peter's own
preaching, aggravates throughout the heinous-
nees of Peter's fall, adding, "He denied,
saying, I know not, neither understand I
what thou sayest." His position was sufB-
ciently taken, and he thought to have estab-
lished for himself a perfect incognito.
Ver. 18. — The eio-T^Kcio-ai' Se implies the
conditions under which the first fearful fall
of Peter was accomplished. Now the servants
and the officers were standing' (imperfect
tense), having made (ir«7ro(»jK(iTer, perfect
participle) a fire of coals (^avBpaKiiv), congeriei
prunarum ardentium (of. oh. zxi. 9 ; Ecclus.
xi. 32, "a glowing fire;" Aquila, Ps. cxi.
4), because it was cold (in the dead of the
night, even in April, at the present day, the
temperature falls considerably, and the cold
is felt far more keenly in these climates in
contrast with the heat of tl le sun by day) : and
Peter * was standing with them, standing and
warming himself. The whole construction
of the sentence implies that this was how
matters stood while tlie examination was
going on to wliioli John then reverts. The
synoptists know or say nothing of this first
examination, which bears upon it strong
marks of authenticity.
Ver. 19. — The odv connects the following
incident with the thirteenth and fourteentii
verses. The high priest. Hengstenborg,
Godet, and Westcott here say that the high
priest is Caiaphas, present i.e. at the exami-
nation over which Annas presides as the
older man ; but Henan, Meyer, Lange, Stein-
meyer (' Passion and Eesurrection History '),
and Moulton, with many others, say Annas
was here the high priest in question. Tho-
luck dismisses the idea of Annas altogether,
and, by inverting the place of ver. 24 or
treating the iiria-TflKe as pluperfect, suppose
that Annas had sent the Lord to Caiaphas
(so Calvin, De Wette, Hase, and others), who
thus commenced his interrogatory. But
the text of ver. 24, now recovered, will
not admit of this rendering. We find it
far more satisfactory to accept this less
formal examination, under the presidency
of Annas, at which an attempt is made to
put the Lord, if possible, to a test which will
incriminate him. Keim says, " If Caiaphas
were the acting high priest, and at the same
time the soul of the movement against Jesus,
it was for him and not for his father-in-law
' Westcott and Hort here read 'urr^Kturav,
with K, A, B*, A; but not Tisohendorf (8th
edit.) or B.T.
* The position of t xUrpet, it after miiriy,
» T.B. tad LaebmuiB.
to take knowledge of the matter and report
to the Sanhedrin." We must choose between
two difScnlties : (1) Caiaphas is first spoken
of as "high priest," who, as we know from
the synoptists, conducted the examination-
iu-ohief, and then that Annas, as conducting
a preliminary examination, is also styled
" high priest " without any explanation ; (2)
or we must admit the supposition that after
Caiaphas had asked these incriminating
questions, Annas (who was not dpxiepeis),
sent Jesus bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
The former hypothesis is the easier. The
high priest then asked Jesus concerning hii
disciples, the extent of his following, the
number of his accomplices, the ramifications
of the society or kingdom he professed to
have founded, and concerning his doctrine,
the secret teachings that held his followers
together. He evidently knows the claims
of Jesus well enough ; his spies and officers
have continually been dogging the steps of
Jesus, and hitherto he has failed to gain
evidence positively incriminating him. And
as his representatives a few days ago were
utterly foiled, notwithstanding their clever
design, he hopes by his own ingenuity to
entrap the Lord in his talk. Our Lord,
anxious not to endanger bis disciples, points
to the publicity of his ministry, and ap-
peals to all and sundry who have heard
him.
Ver. 20. — Jesus answered him, I have
frankly (so Meyer, Lange; not "openly,"
but boldly, with freedom of speech) spoken •
to the world. Without reserving any of the
essentials of my teaching, always I taught
in ' synagogue, and in the temple, whi&er
all the Jews resort and come together ; and
in secret spake I nothing, which they were
not bidden to proclaim upon the housetops.
Christ here repudiates esoteric teaching
distinct from his abundant public ministry.
It is true he explained his parables to tua
disciples, and he had within the last few
hours poured forth the depth of his feelings
upon them; still, he had said the fame
things virtually in the synagogues, on the
hillside, in the temple, in the hearing of
Greek as well as Jew. Much of that which
he had just said in the upper chamber,
hundreds and thousands had already heard.
This great utterance accounts for the fact
that St. Paul had received, long before the
' AeAcUrjKo, with N, A, B, 0*, L, X, etc.,
against ^A<£Xj)o-a, 0', D, r. A, and T.E., is
prefeiTed by Tregelles, Alford, Tischendorl
(8th edit.), Westcott and Hort, and B.T.
' The omission of rf before <rwiayayS !•
defended by the same authorities. Th*
phrase, " in synagogue," is equivalent to ou»
"in church." The Bevised Version traM>
Utei " in synagogaes."
CH. xTm. 1—40.] TfiB QOSHBL ACOORDIWG TO ST. JOHH.
387
Fourth OoBpel was 'written, truth allied to
the teaching of the upper chamber.
Yer. 21.— Wh7 aakest tbou me 1 If tlioa
wanteat evidence touching my design, my
disciples, or my teaching, ask, interrogate,^
those who have heard me, what I have said
to them. Lo, these (pointing to numbers in
the angry crowd around him) know what
I spake unto them (the iyd at the end of this
sentence is very emphatic). Christ thus
rebukes the craftiness and hypocritical
endeavour of his enemies to induce him to
inculpate his disciples, or to give his pro-
secutors matter against him. To false
witnesses he preserved an invincible silence,
and before Caiaphas and Pilate he answered
to many of their queries not a single word,
insomuch that these governors marvelled
greatly. However, the case was altered
when Caiaphas, in full Sandedrin, of&cially
challenged him to say whether he was the
Christ, and adjured him to declare whether
he was the Son of God. Then, on the most
public scale, knowing well the issues of his
declaration, and of his oath-bound word, he
did not hesitate to confess that he was the
Son of Qod, and would come in the glory of
his Father, and that he was no less than the
Christ of God. On the present occasion,
when Annas was seeking to justify his own
craft, and to utilize the £sgraceful betrayal
which he had diplomatically and cruelly
contrived, Jesus refused to incriminate
either himself or his disciples. Benan has
the temerity to say that this great announce-
ment was quite superfluous, and probably was
never made. Any conclusion whatever may
be derived &om historical documents, u
such liberties may be taken with Impunity.
Ver. 22. — And when he had said these
things, one* of the officers standing by,
anxious to win with his officious zeal the
approval of his master, gave Jesus a pimana.
(Meyer says it cannot be settled whether this
word means a stroke with a rod (as Godet,
Bengel) or a blow on the cheek or ear, which
was the current punishment for a wurd sup-
posed to be insolent ; but S4pns of ver. 23,
which means "to flay," implies a more
severe punishment than a blow on the face
with the hand.) This is the beginning of
the coarse and terrible mockery which was
the lot of the sublime Sufferer through the
remaining hours of the awful day which is
* The compound verb is used in both
elauses in the T.B. ; the simple form is pre-
ferred, N, B, 0, etc., by E.T., Westoott and
Hort, etc.
* T.B. and B.T. place irapcrri)Kc^i after
irniptrSy, with A, 0*, D ; tTs irafttmiKin tup
imipcTiir is the reading of K*, B, followed
by Westoott and Hort ; rSy waptrTAray is
li (h* MHgte «f Ladunaaa aad Tzagtltos.
now dawning on him. Sayinf, AuwarMt
thou the high priest so %
Yer. 23.— -Jesus answered hiit, If I hav*
spoken evil, come forward as a witness of
the evil which thou hast heard. Thus he
took no notice of the charge brought against
him. Bat if I have spoken well, why smitest
thon me 1 A quiet appeal to the oonsoience
of the wretchM upstart who dared to insult
the Lord of glory. It is thus that the Lord
explained the spirit of his own injunction,
"Whosoever shall smite thee on the one
cheek, turn to him the other also " (Matt. v.
39). Nothing was gained by this private
interrogatory except an appeal to the outside
woi'ld of his hearers, and a call for testimony;
and no decision could be legally taken against
him without incriminating evidence. Dr.
Farrar (' Life of Christ ') has pointed out
with great force that the ohief priests and
Pharisees, from their intestine animosities,
had great difficulty in formulating any
speoiflo charge. The Pharisaic party, if they
made a point of his doctrine and practice con-
cerning the sabbath, would have been foiled
by the Sadducean latitudiuarians ; and the
priests did not dare to call in question his
imperial cleansing of the temple, knowing
that the Pharisees would immediately have
justified the act. Consequently, Annas
limited his inquiries to the supposed esoteric
character of some private teachings to his
initiated disciples — a charge that was refuted
by the continual publicity and openness of
all his teaching.
Yer. 24. — The o3y ' is quite in John's style,
and the verse should read, Annas therefort
sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest ;
i.e. to the full court of the Sandedrin, under
the presidency of Caiaphas, now got together
for the judicial sifting and verdict. If John
had intended a pluperfect sense to be given
to the verb, why not use that tense? The
relative clauses, where the aorist is used for
the pluperfect, -are not relevant here (Meyer),
In other cases the context clearly reveals
the occasion of such a sense (see Matt. xvi.
5 ; xxvi. 48). John is not unaware of the
momentous consequences of this act of
Annas, seeing that he refers to them, nor of
the fact of the accusation made by the false
witnesses, nor of the judicial condemnation
which followed Christ's own claim to be the
Son of Qod. The subsequent narrative im-
■ The text as read by Tischendorf (8th
edit.), Meyer, Alford, Westoott and Hort,
and E.T., on the authority of B, C*, Ij, X, A, n,
1, 33, retains oSy in this sentence, though K
here joins the oursives 13, 69, with T.R.
Tregelles puts it in the margin. Some of
the versions suppose ti in its plaae. Gries-
bach and Sdkois, with A, O*, D*. and many
, eortiTes, have ne putMa.
8M
THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINQ TO ST. JOHN. [cth. xvm. 1—40.
pliei neh oondenonation (yen. 29, 80, 35;
eh.xiz.ll). The author of thiB narrative doeg
■et ig>or« the fact of the appearance before
Oaiaphas, nor the issue ; but in consequence
of the wide diffuiion of the ■jnoptio Gospels,
ha merely called attention to the facta which
they h«d omitted bo far as they bore directly
on the human character of the Lord. The
theological bias with which the evangelist
is credited by some would be strangely
subserved both by the omission of the scene
before CaiapUas, and by the faithful record of
this purely human and beautiful trait in the
personal character of Jesus. The fact that
the fourth evangelist should have recorded
facts of which he was eye-witness, and
omitted others which would have forcibly
sustained his main thesis, is an invincible
evidence of historicity.
Ver. 25. — 'Hf S4. In startling contrast to
tliis scene, and while Annas had completed
his bad-hearted but foiled inquisition, possibly
even while our Lord was being transferred
fiom the one court to the other — anj event
which provided an opportunity for the
searching, loving, compassionate glance
which broke Peter's heart — the second and
third denials of Peter were also being
enacted. Kow Simon Feter, who had been
challenged by the doorkeeper, was standing
and warming himself (a form of verbal con-
struction of auxiliary verb with participle
to which John is addicted, and especially in
those portions of his Gospel which represent
his personal composition ; oh. i. 6, i), 24, 27 ;
iii. 24, 27) — "standing," not "sitting," as
Luke describes his position at the first
denial, having, we might suppose, impetu-
ously changed his position. They said tiiere-
fore unto him. Art thou also one of his
disciples 1 This sentence of John really
gathers up another moment of Peter's
terrible fall, variously and even diserepantly
put by the synoptic narrative, and is
virtually accordant with them all three.
According to Matthew "another maid,"
according to Mark " the maid " who had
first challenged bim, returned to the assault.
Nothing more likely than that what was
said by one woman should be eagerly taken
up by another, and therefore that both
statements are true. Luke, however, de-
scribes the event thus : irtpot, "another
man " (perhaps " a different person ") saw
him and said, "Thou art one of them."
John's statement embraces the substance of
all three statements, " They said unto him."
The general resemblance of the second
charge brought against the apostle, as stated
by all foar evangelists, is remarkable. The
different personages by whose lips the
charge was urged can tiest be explained by
the occorronce of timnltaneoos and widely
ipieading oonvietimi, instead of aa uuMoa*.
■ary mnltiplication of the denials them-
selves. Matthew and Mark represent Peter
as overhearing the conversation of the maids
with those who were there (,4Ket), showing the
obvious occasion for some eager erepos to
take up their statement as an accusation.
The difficulty of place is not so easily re-
solved, for Matthew and Mark speak of the
" gate," TTvKiv, or Trpoaixiov, " porch," outer
hall of the court, and John of the fire where
Peter first sat in apparent unconcern. We
do not know how near the fire was to the
■n-u\<iii, whether it was not indeed between
the Bipa and the irvKdv, in the Trpoai\tov.'
According to Matthew he was moving
towards the irvxAv, probably in the stir of
the procession from the house of Annas to
the court of Oaiaphas. The four evangelists
agree in the declaration made by Peter.
He denied, and said, I am not ; i.e. I am not
one of tiie disciples concerning whom Annas
asks. " I do not know the Man."
Vers. 26, 27. — Between the second and
third denials some time elapsed. Thus ac-
cording to Matthew and Mark "after a
little while," according to Luke "about the
space of one hour after," an effort was made
to identify Peter by some sign of his asso-
ciation with Jesus. All the synoptists re-
present it as turning on his provincial, Gali-
Isean, speech, but John gives a closer point
of identification. There were thousands of
Galilseans in Jerusalem, and this was a
feeble ground of proof, though it may have
corroborated the suspicion of the maidens
and others, that Peter was an accomplice of
the hated Nazarene; but the charge came
home in terrible earnest and verisimilitude
as recorded by John. His account is far more
lifelike, forcible, and cu'cumstantial. The
fourth evangelist says. One of the servants
(^SovK&v) of the high priest, being a kinsman
of him whose ear Feter out off^ says, Did I not
• The diagram may explain how Jesus
was hurried from one court to another, and
the place and probable occasion of Peter's
denials.
9ipa
Annu
vpoavXiov
*
flra
wlumv
(
Sank*-
drlB
OH. xvin. 1—40.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
889
see thee in the garden with him 1 The his-
torically attested fact gave the lie to Peter'g
previous assertions. Clearly he was seen and
recognized and iu imminent peril, and he is
now more vehement than ever.' Matthew
and Mark tell, " He began to curse and swear,
saying, I do not know the Man." John, with
less feeling of reproach, says, Feter there-
fore denied again. The intercessory prayer,
the solemn warning, the agony in the garden,
above all, the following of the sublime en-
couragements by this fearful failure, the igno-
minious binding And rude indignity offered
to the Man who had claimed to be the Vice-
gerent and Image and Glory of the Father,
combined to shatter Peter's courage, though
it did not annihilate his faith (see Stein-
meyer and Weiss). The Lord had prayed
that his faith should not fail. He was sifted
as wheat, but the apostle knew, even in the
depths of his shame, that he uicu a poltroon
and coward, and that the Lord was everything
- he said he was. But meanwhile lie denied
again. He kept up with his violence of lan-
guage, his hypocritical denial of his own
faith— and straightway the oock crew. Mark,
who had made the prediction of our Lord
cover a twofold cookcrowing, records the
twofold fulfilment; John, who in ch. xiii. 38
had given the prediction "before the cock
crow," here shows how Peter must haveb«en
reminded of his Lord's preternatural know-
ledge and forecast. So that, though John
does not mention the repentance, he refers
to the well-known occasion of it, and, more-
over, shows more forcibly than either of the
Bynopti^ts the extraordinary tenderness of
the risen and reconciled Lord to his erring
and cowardly disciple. Some extreme har-
monists have spread out the fault of Peter
into nine distinct acts of treachery ; others
have reduced tliem to seven or eight.
M'Clellan, in a powerful note (p. 447), urges
that there were " twice three," or six distinct
denials. Matthew and Mark report three
denials while the trial before Caiaphas wag
going on; these are, according to M'Clellan,
entirely distinct from John's " first denial,"
which preceded even the lighting of the fire.
Nor does he allow that Luke's first denial,
"sitting at the fire," can coincide with
John's "second denial," which must also
have preceded that which Luke gives as
the first, and that John's " third denial " is
distinct again from Matthew's third, Mark's
third, and Luke's third. Thus he makes
John's account entirely supplementary to the
*ynoptists. Peter may have used a variety
of expressions on each occasion, and each
challenge may have been accompanied by
some features not especially noted as to pos-
ture or place, but the arrangement adopted
in the text represents a threefold assault
mpon the aporae, whidt had three crises
of intensity and terrible result. Taking
Matthew and Jlark as virtually identical^
Luke's account as a separate tradition with
reference to the second denial, and agreeing
with Matthew and Mark in the third, and
in his first with John's second, we have
three denials once more following the pre-
diction. John's account, whether distinct
or not from the other two records, bears
the same relation to our Lord's previous
announcement that the synoplists' do to
theirs, and shows that in no quarter was
there a general belief in more than three vir-
tual acts of apostasy. Mark alone mentions
a twofold warning from the cock, one after
the first denial, and on Peter's going out to
the irpoaiMoii, or the enclosure, i.e. between
the iruAciy and the Bipa, and again after the
third denial. M'Clellan and others find a
threefold denial before each crowing of the
cock.
Certainly John has omitted the entire
scene detailed by the synoptists in the hall
of Caiaphas, viz. the calling of the witnesses ;
the lack of harmony in the false witnesses ;
the adjuration of Caiaplias; the wondrous
confession of the persecuted and bound Suf-
ferer; the verdict pronounced against him,
on the part of all assembled, that he was
guilty of death ; the first cruel mockery ; and
the very early assembly of the entire San-
hedrin — all the chief priests (Ttavres oi apxt-
epels') and elders of the people (Matt, xxvii.
I, 2; Mark xv. 1, the chief priests, with
the elders and scribes and all the Sanhe-
drin). The synoptists assure us that the
object of this council — which was probably
held in the celebrated chamber of the temple
appropriated for the purpose — was to adopt
the most suitable measures for immediately
carrying their unanimous judgment into
effect. As we shall see shortly, John is per-
fectly aware of such a mesisuro having been
taken (see not only ver. 31, but ch. xi. 47,
etc.). Nevertheless, he passes on at once to
the legal and civil trial before the Boman
propraetor.
This is not the place to discuss the two-
fold trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin.
Derembourg, Farrar, and Westcott suppose
that the first demands of the high priest, as
to whether he was the Christ, as given by
Matthew and Mark, were different from the
scene described by Luke^ where he claimed
air% T*S rvy to be seated on the right hand
of the power of God, and mppose that this
THE GOSPEL AOCOaDlNG TO ST. JOBS. [<«• x^hl 1—4(1
iMt was the occasion, when the TenUct wai
given by the Sanhedrin in full session not
in the palace of the high priest, but in the
" Oazith," or posBlbly in the " Booths of
Hanan," on the Mount of OUves. Luke
dewly diBoriminates between oTkoi tou &px''
tpims (xxii. 51), and the awiipun) mn&v of
Ter. 66.
Vor. 28— oh. lix. 16.— (3) The Soman
trial, presupposing the decision of the Sanhe-
drin.
Vers. 28— 32. — (o) [Without the Pne-
toriumj Pilate extmis the malign intention
of the Jews, and dares them to disobey Soman
Ver. 28. — Then they lead Jesus from the
house of Caiaphas to the Frsetorinm — ^to the
imperial palace of the Boman governor. The
word is used primarily for the general's tent
in the Roman camps, and for the legal resi-
dence of the chief of a province. Now, the
ordinary residence of the Komau governors
was at Cae area, but at the time of the great
feasts they were in the habit of going up to
Jerusulem, and at a later time than this
(Josephus, 'Bell. Jud.,' ii. 14. 8 ; 15. 5) the
governors utilized for this purpose the for-
mer palace of Herod, a gorgeous residence in
the upp6r city. It is, however, more pro-
bable that Filate occupied the palace of the
Castle of An tonia, overlooking the north-west
corner of the temple area, and having means
of direct communication with it. Edersheim
inclines to the palace of Herod. From the
high-priestly palace to the castle they led
Jesus. And it was early. [In Matt. xiv. 25
and Mark xiii. 35 irpui is equivalent to the
fourth watch of the night, between three
and six o'clock. The breadth of the phrase
would cover the period of the hurried council
(see Matt, xxvii. ; Mark xv.) and the session
of Pilate. The Eoman judgments were often
conducted in early morning (Seneca, ' De
Ira,' ii. 1)— prima 2uce.] The council having
in their indecent haste conveyed Jesus to
the PreDtorium, while (and ') they themselves
went not into the Fraetorium,' lest they
shunld be defiled (jiialvu, the solemn word
for " profane " in Plato, Sophocles, and
the LXX.). This defilement by entrance
iuto the house of a Gentile was not an
■ An instance of the adversative force of
Kol.
* In the translation of this word the Be-
visers have preserved in every place where
it ooours the same English word, * palace,"
except in Phil, i. 13, where they have rightly
rendered it "prjetorian guard." The Eng-
lish Version gave seven or eight different
tranilations (lee ver. 88 ; i k. xix. 9 ; Matt
szvii. 27 ; Mark xt. 6 ; Acts xxiii. 85, etc.).
enactment of the Law, but waa b purely
rabbinio observance (Delitzaeh, 'Talmu-
dische Studien,' xiv. (1874); 'Zeitsohrift far
die gesammte Lath. Theol.'). We find it
operative in Acts x. 28, and thns a hint
given not merely of the author's knowledge
of the inner life of Judaism, but of his qiiiet
recognition of the stupendous spectacle of
malicious ritualism, and of unscrupulous
antagonism to the Holiest One, busying
itself about attention to the letter of that
which was only a rabbinic legislation. But '
might eat the Passover, Here in this pas-
sage we come once more face to face with
the persistent puzzle occasioned by the
divergent intimations of John and Sie ej-
noptists as to the day of our Lord's death. In
Matt. xxvi. 17 and Mark xiv. 12 — 14 this
very phrase is used for the preparation of
that Paschal supper which our Lord cele-
brated with his disciples (see Introduction,
pp. xciii., eto.). So that we have at any
rate a discordant verbal usage, however the
problem be solved. The day is breaking,
which constitutes, according to John (prima
facie), the 14th of Nisan, in the evening of
which and commencement of the 15th the
Passover would be killed. According to the
lynoptists, that Passover meal was already
over, and the first great day of the feast had
commenced — the day of convocation, with
sabbatic functions and duties. The state-
ments are apparently in ho^less variance.
Many emphasize, exaggerate, and declare in-
soluble the contradiction, repudiating either
the authority of John or that of the synop-
tists. Meyer and Liicke give their verdict
with John, the eye-witness, as against the
synoptic tradition. Strauss and Keim, who
also hold the invincible discrepancy, lift the
synoptic account to a comparatively high
state of historic validity, and thereby dis-
credit the authenticity of the Fourth Giospel.
We have two methods of reconciling the
difficulty : (1) An endeavour to show that the
synoptic narrative itself is inconsistent with
the idea that the night of the Passion was
the night of the general Passover, (a) That
the entire proceeding of the trial was incon-
sistent with the feast-day ; (hi) that Simon the
Cyrenian could not bear the cross on that day;
(o) the circumstance that that Friday evening
was the preparation of the Passover ; and (d)
that the reckonings of the weeks till the Pen-
tecost Sunday are all made to show that the
synoptic narrative itself admits that the Cm-
cifixion took place before the Passover meaL
So also does the decision of the priests, that
tliey would put Jesus to death iJi iy rij ioprii
(Matt. xxvi. 5 ; Mark xiv, 2). On this us*
derstanding the passage before us ia inter-
' 'AW' Ira ia the reading of T.B., biita\Ai
limply ii read \y all the modem editon.
OH. xvm. 1—40.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
891
pretdd in its natural Benae ; the Jewi were
unwilling to contract ceremonial defilement,
because they were about to eat the Paasover,
»nd BO with respect to the other references
in John's Gospel, which all, primd fame, sug-
gest the same chronological arrangement.
(2) A very powerful argument has been con-
■tructed, however, which brings John's ac-
count here, as well as elsewhere, into har-
mony with the supposed assertion of a
synoptic narrative, that the Paschal meal
preceded the trial of Jesus. It is said by
Hengstenberg, M'CIellan, Bdersheim, and
others that this unwillingness to defile
themselves was because they were anticipat-
ing; their midday meal, at which sacrificial
offerings and thank offerings, also called
chagigah, were regarded as "eating the Pass-
over" (Deut. xvi. 2, 3; 2 Chron. ixi. 22;
XXXV. 7—9). It is argued that, if the Jews
were thinking of a meal which would not
come off till sundown, their fear of defile-
ment was illusory. But examination of
these passages shows that there is a distinc-
tion drawn between the Paschal lamb and
the catlle which might form part of the
general sacrificial feasting of the following
days, and that the term "Passover" is
strictly limited to the Paschal lanib. More-
over, the duration of the defilement thus
contracted would certainly have prevented
them from any participation in the tlaying
of the Paschal lamb "between the even-
ings " of the 14th and 15th of Nisan. Dr.
Moulton has made the ingenious suggestion
that John's statement here is brought into
harmony with the synoptic narrative, by the
suppoBition that the chief priests had been
disturbed in their Passover preparations,
and were intending to complete their meal
as soon as the decision of the Boman
governor had been given. Tliis very sup-
position reveals the exceeding unlikelihood
that all the hierarchs and chief Bcribes,
Pharisees, and elders of the people had con-
sented to forego the due solemnization of
their national rite on that previous evening.
This supposition involves a much greater
violation of Passover regulation than that
Jesus and the twelve should have antici-
pated the ceremony by a few hours. If the
day is the 14th of Nisan, all, so far as John'i
account is concerned, is obvioua. I am there-
fore disposed to agree with Meyer, Keim,
De Pressens^, Baur, Neander, De Wette,
Ebrard, Ewald, Westcott, Oodet, andLficke,
against Hengstenberg, Wieseler, Tholuck,
Luthardt, M'CIellan, and many others. The
full interpretation of the synoptic narrative
is discussed elsewhere (Introduction, p. xcii.).
Certainly John makes no reference to the
Passover in his account of the Last Supper,
neither does he refer to the institution of
the Lord's Supper. It will not be just to
■ay, with Renan, that John has substituted
the foot-washing for the sacramental feast
(On the principle of his omissionii, see Intro-
duction, pp. c. — cv.)
Ver. 29. — ^Filate therefore, because of
their rooted national prejudice, went ont '
unto them beyond his court, to some open
space convenient for hearing the case.
Pilate is introduced here without any pre-
liminary statement or title, as though the
position of the man were well known to his
readers — another proof that the synoptic
narrative is preBupposed. This scrupulous-
ness contrasts with the summary proceed-
ing of Herod Agrippa (Acts xii. 1, 2), and
with the conduct of the Boman authorities
(Acts xxii. 24). The very question he asks
implies that something had conspired to
provoke a certain sympathy on his part
with JesuB, and to excite additional sus-
picion of the Jews. The statement of
Matt, xxvii. 19 may account for the former.
The fact that he was ready to hear the case
at this early hour shows that he must have
been prepared for the scene, and even
primed for it. Pilate (the manuscripts
vary between PeUatoi and PUaioi) was the
fifth governor of Judssa under the Romans,
and held office from a.d. 26 — 36. He is
represented by Philo (' Legatio ad Caium,'
38) aB a proud, ungovernably man ; and, in
his conflicts with the Jews, he had especial
reason to detest their obstinate ceremonial
and religious prejudices. Philo speaks of
Pilate's " ferocious passions," says that he
was given to fits of furious wrath, and that
he had reason to fear that complaints laid
before Tiberius for "his acts of insolence,
his habit of insulting people, for his cruelty,
and murders of people untried and uncon-
demned, and his never-ending inhumanity,"
might bring upon him the lebnke which
ultimately the emperor gave him, in con-
sequence of his endeavour to force from the
Jews assent to his placing gilt shields in the
palace of Herod. Josephus (' Ant.,' xviii. 2.
4) gives a better account of Pilate, and shows
that a portion of his administration was not
without beneficent purpose, thwarted by
the fanatical opposition of the Jews. On
this occasion he asked first of the mob of
priests, What aocnsation do ye bring against
this STan 1 He may have known, probably
did know, but chose to give formality to
the charge, and not simply to register their
decrees.
Vers. 30, 31. — Thej answered and said, It
' 'EJai is here introduced by Tischenderf
(8th edit.), Tregelles, Alford, Westcott
and Hort, and B.*!., on the authority of K,
B, C, L, eto., 1, 27, 33, Syriao, against T.R.,
which omits it, with A, 0', V, and some
versions.
393
THE GOSPEL ACOOBDINO TO BT. JOHN. [oh. xvm. 1— 4a
he were not a malefactor,' wa should not
have delivered him up to thee. This was
■omewhat audacious. It was as much as to
say, "We have judged, you have only to
register our decisions. Wo are not bound
to go through our evidence before you." If
it had been so, the deprivation of the jiu
gladii, the power of capital execution would
have mattered little to them. Pilate, In
scorn and irony, replies, " If that be so, why
have ye brought him to me? If you are
unwilling to comply with the terms of Soman
jurisprudence, then it must be some case
which you can dispose of according to your
own rules." Take ye him yourselves, and
according to your law juiJge him. Pilate
saw their animus, and that they were
thirsting for the blood of Jesus, and wished
at once to flfiut tliem and make them confess
their impotence and admit bis suzerainty.
For them to judge (/fpfceiv) was not equivalent
to put to death (iiroKTeTi'ai), and Pilate
clearly suggested tliat much. The Jews
[therefore '] said to him. It is not lawful
(oux E{e<rTi) to ns to put any man to death.
This was perfectly true, notwithstanding
the tumultuary and violent acts and threats,
and incip ent stoninga of Jesus, to which
the Gospel refers (ch. viii. 3, 59; vii. 25).
Other interpretations of this exclamation
havL' been supplied, viz. " to execute crimi-
nals of state" (Krebs), "to do so on feast-
days " (Sender) ; but the power had been
formally taken from even the supreme court,
forty yiars before the destruction of Jeru-
salem.^ The instance of the massacre of
James the Just, occurring between the
departuie of one Roman governor and the
arrival of another, is mentionid by Jose-
phus (' Ant.,' XX. 9. 1) as a distinct infringe-
ment and violation of law. The stoning of
Steplion in a jvild tumult, and the proceed-
ings of Herod Agrippa, are rather confirma-
tions than violations of the rule. Thus the
' Tischendorf (8th idit.) and Weymouth
read here xaxhy iroiii', with K""*, B, L ; but
T.R., Lachmann, and R.T., xaitoiToids ; A,
0', D, 7, uncials and cursives, and Atha-
nasius read KaKovp-y6s ; N, xaichy TroiriiTds.
' B and 0 omit oZv, with Tregelles,
Westcott and Hoi t, and R.T. ; but Tischen-
dorf (8tli edit.) preserves it on the authority
of X, L, X, Vulgate, Saliidic, etc.
' See the long note of Lightfoot, 'HorsB
HebraicsB,' in loco, where he discusses the
reason of this withdrawment of power of
life and death ; whether it was due to the
arbitrary act of Home, or was the voluntary
concession of the authorities, who abstained
from capital punishment ('Avodah Zarah,'
fol. 8. 2. See Wunsche, quotation from
'Sanhedrin,' fol. 41 a, 'Berachoth,' fbl. 58 o.
eee Wilson, 'On the New Testament *>
malign disposition and distinct purpose o(
the Jews were revealed. They would not
have brought Jesus at all before the Soman
governor, nor admitted his claim to decide
any case involving religious ideas and
practices, if they had not fully decided that
Jesus must die. But John sees a deeper
reason still.
Ver. 32. — In order that the word of Jesna
might be fulfilled, whioh he spake, signifying
by what manner of death he was about to
die. Thus the very political order of the
world, the whole process by which Judtea
became a Roman province, was part of the
wondrous plan by which Jew and Gentile
should together offer up the awful sacrifice,
and all the world be guilty of the death of
its Lord. The manner of the death had
been foretold by our Lord. In ch. iii. 14 he
spoke of being lifted up (Ji^ae/ivai), in ch.
viii. 28 he charged the Jews vrith the
intention of so lifting him up to die (irav
itfidiriiTt), implying a method of capital
punishment which was contrary to their
ordinary habits; and in oh. xii. 32 he
declared that this lifting up of the Son of
man would create part of his sacred and
Divine attraction to the human race. In
the synoptists he is said to have repeatedly
spoken of bis (rraupis (Luke xiv. 27 ; Mark
viii. 34; Matt.x. 38; xvi. 24); but in Matt.
XX. 19 he had clearly predicted his cruci-
fixion by the Gentiles (cf. Luke ii. 22, 23).
The manner or kind of death was full of
significance ; it provided opportunity for
the royal demission of his own life ; it gave
conditions for much of the sublime sell-
maiiifestation of the closing honrs; it has
proved, notwithstanding all the shame and
curse of the proceeding, eminently symbolic
of the compassion with which he embracid
the human race in all its detilemeut and all
the variety of its need. We are not sur-
prised to find that the evangelist saw, in tlie
complicated relations of Jewish and Roman
authority, a divinely ordered arrangement,
and a clearly foreseen and predicted con-
summation. Luke xxiii. 2 shows that the
charge brought against Jesus was made to
receive a colouring likely to prejudice the
Roman governor against him : " We found
this Man perverting our nation, and for-
bidding to give tribute to Ctesar, saying
that he himself is Christ a King." The
uproar and the false and malicious charge
would be more likely than any other to
move Pilate against him; and thus the
synoptic narrative, being presupposed, gives
an explanation of the first question which
John, as well as the synoptists, represents
Pilate as first of all pressing upon the
Diving Sufferer. Without Luke's state-
ment, Pilate's question is abrupt and in-
•xpUe»U«; but it must be admitted that
OH. xvin. 1-40.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
8»3
there U in John's narTative no direct hint
of Lnka's addition ; and Christ's counter-
question to the inquiry of Pilate (wliich
last is given In the same form hy all four
evangelists) implies that he had not over-
heaid the false charge which the Jews had
brought into the court. The Lord was
within the Prietorium. Pilate and the
Jews were on the open, external space,
where the altercation proceeded. We may
also', with Steinmeyer, observe that nothing
could appear more anomalous to Pilate
than that these bigoted and rebellious
priests, who perpetually resisted the claims
of Knman governors to enforce tribute,
should now hypocritically pretend that a
prophet-leader of their own had been guilty
of such a charge. Instead of resisting, the
Pharisees would have fojlered a demagogue
who had taken such a disloyal part. Pilate
would at onoe have suspected that there
was something ominous in the very charge
itself, when tumultuously pressed by a party
who were accustomed to regard such pro-
ceedings as patriotic ; and he saw with
shrewduesB tliat the Jews had merely
cloaked their real antagonism by present-
ing an incrimination which, under ordinary
circumstances, they would have treated as a
crowning virtue.
Vers. 33— 38.— (6) [Within the Praa-
torium.] Christ's admission that he was a
King, but that hiit kingdom was not of this
world.
Vers. 33, 34. — Filate therefore entered
again ' into the Freetorinm, out of direct
hearing of the vociferous crowd, where
Jesus and John himself had remained
under supervision of the officers of the
court, and called — summoned — Jesus to his
side, and said to him that of which the mob
outside formed an imperfect idea. The
account of John throws much light on the
inference which Pilate drew from the reply
of Jesus, as given in ver. 38 and in Luke
zxiii. 4. To the loud accusations and bitter
charges of " the chief priests and elders "
(Matt, xxvii. 11, 12 ; Mark xv. 3, 4) brought
in the presence of Pilate, Christ answered
nothing. His solemn and accusing silence
caused the governor to marvel greatly (sue
both Matt, xxvii. 14 and Mark xv. 5). He
marvelled not only at the silence of the
Lord, but at that silence after he, Pilate,
had received from him so explicit a state-
ment as to the nature of his own kingdom.
An explanation of the motive of Pilate, and
of his entire manner upon this occasion, ii
to be found in the private interview between
our Lord and the Bomau governor viithin
' T.E. and Tischendnrf (8th edit.) place
TtiXiv after npaaifiov ; R.T., Tregellea, and
Westcott and Hort, before <is.
the Prxtorimn. It if unnecessary (witK
many) to see in Pilate an "almost per-
Buuded " believer in the claims of Jesng,
who yet was warring with his better judg-
ment, and apostatizing from a nascent faith.
He appears rather as the Roman man of the
world, who has never learned to rule his
policy by any notions of righteousness and
truth, and is utterly unable to appreciate the
spiritual claims of this Nazarene ; yet he was
shrewd enough to see that, so far as Roman
authority was concerned, this Prisoner was
utterly harmless. His question was. Art
thou the King of the Jews ! Of course, ha
expected at first a negative reply. Should
this abused and rejected, this bound and
bleeding Sufferer, with no apparent followers
around him, actually betrayed by one of his
intimate friend.^, deserted by the rest, and
hounded to death by the fierce cries of
Pharisee and Sailducee, chief priest and
elder, answer in the affirmative, it might
easily suggest itself to Pilate that lie must
be under some futile hallucination. It has
been said that the question might have
been answered right off in the affirmative
or in the negative, according as the term
"Kingof the Jews" was understood. If what
Pilato meant was a popular titular leader,
imperator of Jewish levies, one prepared for
the career of Judas of Galilee, or Herod the
Idumssan, or for that of Barchochab in after
times, — nothing could seem to be less likeiy
or more patently repudiated by the facts ;
moreover, from our Lord hiniself, who had
always refused a quasi-royal dignity (eh. vi.
16), it would have required an emphatic
negative. Pilate knew no other way of
interpreting the phrase. If the term meant
the true "King of Israel," the Messiah
anticipated by prophecy and psalm, the
King of all kings and Lord of lords, the
Ruler of hearts, wiio would draw all men to
him, and cast out and vanquish the prince
of this world, tlien the " crown " was his,
aad he could not deny it ; but before this
assertion was made in the hearing of the
multitude, our Lord would draw from Pilate
the sense in which he used the words.
He does not say to him, Su Keyeis, " Thou
say est " — a reply given verhatim by all the
synoptists, and referring to a second demand
made in the presence of the multitude — but
he put a counter-question, Sayest thou this
thing, askest thou this question, from thyself 1
— from thy knowledge of the hopes kindled
by the ancient books, or from comparing my
words with my appearance, or from any
judgments thou hast formed a prioril (so
Godet, Neander, Olshausen, and Ewald).
Thus Jesus was not so much informing
Pilate of the distinction between the two
kingships, as claiming qui Prisoner at the
bar the source of the accusation. **H«t«
tM
THE GOSPEL A(X!ORDING TO ST. JOHN. [aa. xrm. 1—iO.
I put forth any claim of this kind, which
thoa as the chief magistrate of this Boman
frovinoe hast any legal cognizance of?"
t WU8 not, aa Uengstenberg and Westcott
■uggest, an appeal to the man rather than
to the governor, to the conscience of Pilate
rather wan to tlie forms of the tribunal ; but
(Meyer), with the intrepid consciousneBs of
perfect innocence of the political crime, our
Lord asks for the formal declaration of the
charge brought against him. Or did others
tell it thee conoeming mel Alford, Lange,
Schaff, etc., all agree with Godet in sup-
posing that Christ was discriminating be-
tween the theocratic and the political use
of the great phrnse. It is obvious that he
did rise &om the latter to the former in the
following verses, but it is difficult to find
the distinction in this alternative question.
" Did others (not thine own police or ob-
servation)—did the Jews, in fact, bring thee
this charge against me? Nay, did they
not 7 Is it not entirely due to this outbreak
of hostility to my teaching that they have
chosen thus to impeach me before thee — to
deliver me to thee?" Therefore, first of
all, Christ repudiated the charge, in the
only sense in which it could have conveyed
any colourable idea to the mind of Pilate.
Ver. 35. — Pilate answered, with the proud
and haughty tone of a Itoman military judge
or procurator, Am I a Jewl The 4y<i is
very emphatic, and the force of the question
requires a negative. You know that it
would be insult to me to make such a sup-
position. The nation that is thine, not mine,
and the chief priests, delivered thee to me.
An unequivocal statement that lie had no
reason of his own to assume that Jesus was
a political aspirant. Whatever inner reasons
these Jews had to malign Jesus and confuse
Pilate's mind with the ambiguity of the
title, the governor is innocent as yet of any
such theocratic or religious meaning in the
charge. More than this, the homiliation of
the Divine Lord of men, the King of Israel,
is grievously aggravated by the very use of
the word. " Thy own nation has delivered
theo up, has betrayed thee to me." The
crime of Jiidas has been adopted by the
religious authorities and the patriotic leaders
of the people. " He came unto his own, and
his own people received him not." Christ
frequently anticipated this result of hii
ministry ; and he regarded it as the climax
of his indignity (see especially Luke ix, 44 ;
and of. the language of St, Peter, Acts iii,
18), that the anointed King should by his
own people be "delivered" up to lawless
Gentile hands to be ciucifled and slain.
Pilate assures him that, if he is now in his
hands, tlie cause of it is simply tiiat his own
people had utterly repudiated his claims,
whaterer they may have been. What didst
thou da to transform into thy bitter
enemies those who would naturally condone
or favour any such claim as that of being •
seditious rival to the Boman Csesar?
Ver. 36. — In reply to this challenge, Jesu
answered — obviously assuming the fact that
he was a king in a sense entirely different
from that which had been maliciously sug-
gested to Pilate — My kingdom — the king-
dom that is mine — is not of this world.
Neither now nor at any future period will
it derive its origin from this world. So far
as Christ is King, his royal power and state
are not furnished by earthly force, or fleshly
ordinances, or physical energies, or material
wealth, or imperial armies. The dominion
that he will wield will be one over hearts
and lives ; the authority of the Lord Jesus
cannot be arrested or overpowered by physi-
cal force. Most commentators justly regard
this as a spiritual manifesto of the sources
and quality of the kingdom of Christ, and a
foreshadowing of the separation between the
spiritual and secular power — a declaration
that all effort to embody Christian laws and
government in compulsory forms, and to
defend them by penal sanctions and temporal
force, is disloyalty to the royal rank and crown
rights of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hengsten-
berg regards the assertion as precisely the
reverse ; sees in the passage, " rightly under-
stood, the very opposite purpose. The king-
dom that sprang directly from heaven must
have absolute authority over all the earth,
and it will not submit to be put into ob-
scurity. The kingdoms of this world must
become the kingdom of the Lord and his
Anointed, and he shall reign for ever and
ever." This is true, but not along the lines
or with the machinery of earthly rule and
authority. The influence and authority of
Heaven works upon the spirit by truth and
righteousness and peace, and thus transforms
institutions, permeates society from the
ground of the heart, modifies the relations
between the members of a household, and
transfigures those between a ruler and his
subjects, between the master and his slaves,
between labour and capital, and between
man and man. Whenever it is triumphant,
whenever the lives of kings and their peoples
are sanctified by supreme obedience to
Christ the King, then war will be impos-
sible, all tyrannies and slaveries will be
abolish ed, all malice and violence of monarchs
or mobs will be at an end ; then the wolfish
and the lamblike nature will be at peace.
Then all the means for enforcing the will
of one against another will be done away.
He will have put down all rule, authority,
and power ; for he must reign, and he alone.
This kingdom is not (,4k) " from," " out of,"
this world's methods or resources; does not
begin from without and eetabliah itself, oi
OH. XTHL 1— 4a] THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO BT. JOHN.
S9i>
propagate or pteierye itself, from the world,
which ia a rival, and la not tobeooerced but
drawn to itself. Like the individnal disciple,
the kingdom may be in the world, but not of
it. Christ proceeded, If the kingdom that is
mine were from this world, which it is not
(mark the for^l of the condition), then,on that
supposition, would the servants (^m-qp^Tai,
generally translated "officers") that are
mine fight, with physical force, in order
that I should not he delivered up (TrapoSoBSi)
to the Jews. The supposition that the
uirrjpeToi of wliom our Lord spoke were "the
angels" (as Benp;el, Lampe, Stier, and at
one time Lnthardt, imagined), is distinctly
repudiated by the 4k toB k6<xii.ov to6tov, " of
this present world." If it were the case, as
it is not, then would my officers be, not a
handful of disciples (whom he generally
calls Stdicoiioi, SodKoi), but the servants who
would be appropriate to my royal mission,
— then would my servants be busily fight-
ing that I should not be delivered up by
the Boman power that is for the moment
tliTOwn over me like a shield, to the Jews,
who are thirsting for my blood. The loud
cry of hatred and vengeance may even at
this moment have pierced the interior of
the Freetorium, tlius giving its force, if not
form, to the sentence. Qodet thinks our
Lord was referring to the crowds who
actually gathered round him on Palm
Sunday, and not to hypothetical irnipirca ;
but the force of the condition goes down
deeper, and, moreover, such language might
have awakened the suspicion that, after all,
Jesus had a political following, if he should
choose to evoke it. Observe that this entire
severance between "the Jews" and the
iriends of Christ, which, though occasionally
adopted by the evangelist, is not the cus-
tomary method of our Lord. The moment
at which the Saviour speaks gives great
significance to the phraseology (observe ch.
iv. 22; xiii. 33; xviii. 20; the only other
occasions on which the Lord used this phrase
to denote his own people). But now (the
vSv, of. ch. ix. 41 and xv. 22, is logical, not
temporal) ; i.e. But seeing that it is so — my
kingdom, he adds, is not from hence. The
€K Tov kSit/xov is equivalent to evr^iiBev, and
suggests that the kingdom derives its re-
sources and its energies "from the upper
world," " from above."
Yer. 37. — ^Pilate therefore said to him.
Art thou a T?iTig then t The precise mean-
ing of this exclamation depends on the ac-
centuation of oiKovv — whether it be ovKovf '
equivalent to igitur, " therefore : " '* There-
fore on your own showing you are a King I '
* Winer, K&hner, Godet, and Luthardt
difier as to the meaning of both oukoCv and
cSKfuy. Weetcott and Hort read the former.
or whether oSkovv be the form ; then it would
have the force of nonne igitur 1 expecting
an affirmative response. It is an iwa^
\ey6ii€i>op in the New Testament, but it
generally implies an inference and a ques-
tion expecting agreement with the questioner.
Here Pilate flashes out with haughty rebuke.
He had satisfied himself that Jesus was no
political rival ; but, in wonderment and scorn,
he would sound a little deeper the mystery
of the kingly claim. It is not a judicial
inquiry, but a burst of ironical surprise : So
then, after all, thou art a King, even thou 1
wavering between positive and negative reply.
Hengstenberg sees neither irony nor scorn
in the ovkovv, but a certain amount of dis-
turbed equanimity. Jesus answered, Thou
say est it, that I am a King This mode of
affirmation is not found in classical Greek
or the LXX., but occurs in the New Testa-
ment, and in the synoptists also it is given
as the great answer of Jesus. Some have
translated the 8ti as " for " or " because,"
and added •' well " and " rightly " to the
\4yeii. Thus : Thou sayest well, for I am a
King. Hengstenberg and Lampe separate
this declaration from what follows, which
they interpret exclusively of the prophetio
office of Jesus : but the €<j touto points back-
wards as well as forwards, and our Lord
accepts that which he proceeds to explain
as his royal functions. Westcott, however,
says that Jesus neither accepts nor rejects
the title of King, but simply reiterates
Pilate's words, " Thou sayest that I am a
King ; I will proceed to explain what I mean
by my royal mission." Seeing, however,
that our Lord had already iinplioitly avowed
his kingly state, it is far better to discern in
the reply an acknowledgment of the infer-
ence which Pilate had soomfully drawn
(see parallel method of answering the ques-
tion, "Art thou the Son of God?" Luke
xxii. 70, " Ye say that 1 am ; " Sti €716 d/u
compared with Mark xiv. 62). This is the
"good confession" to which St. Paul re-
ferred (1 Tim. vi. 13). This is the assump-
tion, before the tribimal of the whole world,
that he was and would for ever remain its
true King. To this end have I been bom,
Vi~/ivvnii.aX is an important admission of his
true humanity, which Keiin and others are
unwilling to find in the Foxurth Gospel. And
to this end have I come into the world.
These words are not tautological. In the
first clause he asserts his birth as a man, in
the second he refers to the state of being
which preceded his incarnation (cf here
ch. xvi. 28, note), out of which he came,
and to which he is now returning. The
being "bom" of woman is one fact, the
" coming into this world " is another which
he makes antithetical to his return to the
father. 'EA'^AuSo, present perftct, being
396
THE OOSPEL AOOOBDINO TO ST. JOHN. [<m. xtiii. 1-ASk
used Instead of 1j\loy, and impliei that hb
" coining is permanent in its effects, and not
simply a past historic fact " (Westoott). In
order that I might hear witness nnto the
trnth. This is his supreme claim. There
is an absolute reality. God's way of thinking
about things is the closest approximation
we can make to the concept of " truth per ee."
In this is comprehended all the reality
of the Divine nature and character ; all that
the eternal God thinks eonccming man and
the laws which have been given him, and
concerning the failure of man to realize
God's idea of what he ought to have been ; all
the absolute fact, just as it really is, of man's
peril and his prospects, the actual relations
between body and spirit, between the in-
dividual and the community ; all man's
positive need of redemption ; all the deep
mystery of Christ's own Person and work.
These constitute the mighty realm of things,
beings, duties, and prospects, which we call
truth. Jesus said he had been bom and
liad come into the world in order to bear
witness to truth. From John the Baptist's
standpoint, that prophet bore witness con-
cerning the light (oh. i. 7, 8), and, according
to the r<inge of his vision, he too (ch. v. 33)
bore " witness to the truth " (i.e. so far as
he knew it) of the Christ. Our Lord now
solemnly declares that he himself came to
bear witness to the truth in all its amplitude.
Hengstenberg sees in these words simply
a reference here to the prophetic ofBce of
Clirist ; but the next clause shows that our
Lord is actually defining by this claim the
extent of the kingdom that is "not from
hence" or from this world as its origin.
Every one that is of the truth heareth my
voice. To "hear the voice " is to obey as a
supreme authority (ch. i. 8, 16, 27), and the
phrase sliuws liow widely the thought ranges.
Every mind open to the influence of truth,
every one who is set against the unrealities
of mere opinion or tradition, who derives
life and joy from the realm of reality, every
one who therefore knows how different be
might be, how much he needs, who is " of
God," as the Source and Beginning and
Ground of all things. Compare here the
remarkable parallel to this sentiment, ch.
viii. 47; and also the words of the high-
priestly prayer, " All thine are mine, and
mine are thine," and " Those whom thou
hast given me are thine; thine they were,
and thou gavest them me." The same large
embrace of human souls is conspicuous here.
Every one that u of the truth heareth the
voice of Christ, and will accept his authority
as final and supreme. The sublime wit-
ness to the truth which he had been bearing,
in this manifestation of the Name of tlw
Father, would make the voice of Jesus th«
ioiperisl and august authority for all who
felt how much they needed troth. The
Sanhedrists said that " truth is the seal of
God," and they played upon the word noM
or " truth," by making it equivalent to the
first and middle and last of all things, seeing
that a, o, n, are the first, middle, and last of
the letters of the alphabet !
Yer. 38. — Filate saith nnto him, VHiat it
truth ) The aphorism of Lord Bacon,
" ' What is truth ?' said jesting Pilate, and
did not wait for an answer," scarcely repre-
sents the reality of the case. PUate was not
scornfully jesting with a metaphysical pro-
blem, nor professing himself hopelessly
bafiSed in search for it. The language was
not the utterance of irrepressible homage to
hismysteriousTrisoner, or heartfelt sympathy
with him. For on this supposition why did
he not wait for some more words of strange
unearthly wisdom ? Nor does he go so far
in his scepticism as Pliny the Elder did
when he said, " that there is only one thing
certain, viz. that there is nothing certain ; "
but as a man of the world having to do with
Boman authority or intrigue and Jewish
fanaticism, Pilate despised earnestness and
zeal, and was utterly unable to believe in
the existence of a world or region where
any higher reality than force prevailed.
But the governor was now, with bos narrow
range of thought, strongly convinced that
Jesus was utterly innocent of the charge
brought against him. The unanswered
question is equivalent to this — What haj
truth to do with kingship? What has the
vague shadowy region over which this poor
king reigns to do with plots against Ctesar ?
He saw enough to induce him to break off
the interview within the Praetorium, and he
proceeded, though vainly, to deliver a verdict
on the case. When he had said this, he
went out to the Jews, and said, I find no
crime in him. Here, however, must be in-
troduced the scenes described by Matthew,
Mark, and especially by Luke — scenes of
loud and angry dispute and renewed and
fierce accusation (Matt, xxvii. 12^11 ; Mark
XV. 3 — 5; Luke xxiii. 4 — 12). In all three
accounts, after the admission that he was
King of the Jews, the loud, fierce accusations
followed in which our Lord, notwithstanding
the repeated summons of Filate, " answered
nothing." At this the governor marvelled
greatly (Matthew and Mark). It is not im-
possible that the first question which Filate
put to him within the Frtetorium was re-
newed and laconically answered with the
2ii Kfyus, aa before ; but all the wild roar of
the chief priests and people could extract
nothing more. This silence in face of the
accusation of the mob astonished Pilate,
and made him more than ever convinced of
the innoeence of Us Pxiioner. B. Weha
shows eonelosiToly bew maoh ligkt this
OH. XTm. 1—40.] THE GOSPEL ACCOfiDING TO ST. JOHN.
M7
iuterriew with Pilate throws on the syuoptio
nariative ; that, in fact, Pilate's whole con-
duot in only explicable on the supposition
that he had receiTed cogent reasons to dis-
arm all political mistrust (see ' Life of Jesiis,'
toI. iii. pp. 318, 319). Westoott says, " It is
of great interest tojsompare this confession
before Pilate with the corresponding con-
fession before the high priest (Matt. xxvi.
61), The one addressed to the Jews is in
the language of prophecy, the other addressed
to a £oman appeals to the verdict of
universal conscieuce. The one speaks «f a
future manifestation of glory, the other of a
present manifestation of truth."
Vers. 39, 40.— (c) [Without the Pr»-
torium.] The Roman trial continued without
the Prietorium, where Filate declared Christ
innocent, and made another effort to save
him. The Barabbaa-proposal. Before the
scene which John here introduces with a
but — as though it followed immediately
upon the utterance of a verdict of acquittal
— Luke tells us that casual reference was
made to the circumstance that Jesus was a
Galileean, and was in Herod's jurisdiction.
Eager to quit himself of a troublesome
presence and business, Pilate caught at the
expedient of sending Jesus at once to the
c«siirt of Herod (Luke xxiii. 6—12). This
issuing in no result except in fresh and
hideous mockery of the King of kings, and
in a renewed protestation of his innocence
and harmlessness, so far as the Boman
Filate or the Herodian tetrarch oould dis-
cover, Pilate offered to scourge the Sou of
God, and release.him. The utter meanneas
and cowardice of his offer to add ignomi-
nious pain and insult to the brutal mockeries
of Herod and bis soldiers, brands Pilate
with eternal shame. As soon as the word
" release " broke upon their ears, there was
a reiiiinder from the people that Pilate
should follow at the feast the custom tor
some time iu vogue, of releasing a prisoner.
Now, there was a notorious criminal, who
had stirred up a bloody insurrection in the
city, one which had resulted in murder.
He may have been popular among the ve-
hement anti-imperial party for some seditious
proceedings against constituted authorities ;
he may, in fact, really have been guilty of
the very charge brought wickedly against
the holy Jesus. This is only conjecture.
But there he stood — Barabbas, and, according
to some manuscripts, " Jesus " also by name,
" Son of the Father," but a violent man, a
\j/iTr'iis, stained vrith crime, whether he were
a Gaulonite or not. The notion of releas-
ing Barabbas, in accordance with a time-
honoured custom, did, aooording to Luke,
originate flnt of all with some of the people ;
aad this apparMit difference between the
■ynoptio narrative ani John's is represented
and referred to in this Gospel by the intro-
duction of a m\iv (ver. 40). For although
John does not mention the first attempt to
secure the safety of Barabbas, he impUeil
that the infernal shout, " Not this Man, but
Barabbas I " had already burst upon his
ears, and was repeated so soon as Pilate
had exclaimed, as John briefly reports, Ye
have a oostom, that I should release unto
you one at the Bassover (or, /card Sh eopr^y,
Mark xv. 6). We know nothing of the
origin of this " custom," nnr is it elsewhere
referred to. The two classes into which
critics are divided about the "day of our
Lord's death," here take opposite views as
to the meaning of the phrase, ev ry ni<rxa.
The one class press the fact that the Paschal
meal must be over, and that this must have
been the first day of unleavened bread, in
order to justify this expression ; the other
critics urge that since the feast had not
commenced, Filate was prepared to grant
release in time for Barabbas to take his
place with his friends in all the national
ceremonies. The phrase, according to Meyer
and others, is so iadeilnite that it may
most certainly belong to both the 14th and
15th days of Nisaii, and no conclusive argu-
ment can, from its use, be drawn in favour of
either day. Will ye therefore that I release
unto you the King of the Jewst Again
therefore they cried all, Not this Han, but
Barabbas ! Now Barabbas was a robber.
Possibly Pilate wished to find out whether
among the 6x\os there were any sympathizers
with Jesus, who might be gratified at the
expense of the hated priests; for he "knew
that by reason of envy they had delivered up
Jesus to him." He wished to set the multi-
tude and the priesthood at variance, and to
save Jesus through their mutual recrimi
nations. He would have made a diversion
in favour of his Prisoner. He adruitly
suspected that some of the surging crowd
might have been the friends or accomplices
of Jesus, and he would have been gratified
to free himself from the responsibility of
slaying an innocent man. The phraseology
of Mark suggests that Pilate would have
been justified in such a conjecture, for a
inomentary pause occurred. There were
some symptoms of wavering in the crowd.
But the suggestions of the chief priests passed
to the people. Matthew (xxvii. 20) says, " Tha
chief priests and elders persuaded (eirncrai')
the multitudes that they should demand
Barabbas, and destroy Jesus." They needed
some persuasion, then 1 but,alas I they yielded
to it. Mark (xv. 11) is still more explicit :
"The chief priests stirred up the people (wf-
o'ciiray), in order that he might release Barab-
bas onto them." The double phrase seta
forth, in vivid touches, the eager circulation
to and fro among tt« «cow£l of tha hot-
198
THE GOSPEL ACCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. loa. xym. 1— 4a
beaded and malignant priests and eldeii,
who thus seoured, not without some diffl-
eolty, a popular confirmation of their ma-
lignant soheme. " Nor this Man, bct
BarabbabI" was the repeated cry of a
etnpeiied crowd. The memory of all the
5rEioioua words and life-giving actions of
eaus did not subdue the raging passion of
their lust ; they could neither see with their
eyes, nor hear with their ears, nor nnder-
Btand with their hearts. The light that
was in them was darkened. They preferred
that a murderer should be granted to them.
*'Not this Man, but BarabbasI" is their
verdict. Human power and popular feeling
and corporate conscience reached the bot-
tomless abyss of degradation. Jerusalem
that killed the prophets would have none
of him. Even human nature itself must
bear the shame which by this cry for ven-
geance against goodness was branded upon
its brow for ever. Through this daemonic
hatred of the noblest and the best, mani-
fested by the world, the world is itself con-
demned. "Who is he," said John after-
wards, " that overcometh the world ? Even
he who believeth that Jesus is the Son of
God." The world has made its Sesostris,
its Tiberius, its Nero, its Antiooiis, into
sons of God ; the world has ever cried, " Not
this Man" — not Jesus of Nazareth — ^but
"Jesus Barabbas is son of God." It will
find out its mistake too late.
The synoptic narrative (Matt, xzvii. 19 —
S3; Mark xv. 12—14; Luke xxiit 20—23)
had already made the Church familiar with
other details more or less connected with
this incident, and which preceded the final
sentence. John, who followed his Master
as closely as possible, was acquainted with
some interesting facts, full of suggestion,
which throw additional light upon the con-
daot of Pilate, and bring forth some sublime
ttsits in the character and bearing of our Lord.
From the synoptists we learn that Pilate
struggled for some considerable time to get
his own way, and he remonstrated repeatedly
with the people concerning their choice of
Barabbas, the murderer and brigand, and
their refusal to recall their malignant de-
liverance of Jesus to him as a malefactor.
The bare idea that this gentle, silent, mag-
nanimous Sufferer, bereft of his friends,
mocked by Herod, deserted by bis disciples,
should have the faintest shadow of a claim to
■overeignty in the only sense in which Pilate
eould understand such an idea, revolted his
eommou sense. The message from liis wife
(H»ti KxviL 19) had furthermore excited his
semi-superstitious fears, and he maundered
in a feeble fashion, " What shall I do with
Jesus that is called Ohrist?" — "with him
whom ye say is (accused of being) King of
the Jews ? " and for the first time the oml
nous and terrible cry is returned, "Obd-
otET um I " They do not ask that he ba
speared or beheaded, or treated like a con-
victed aspirant or usurper; nay, they will
not be pacified until the doom of a common
malefactor, the shameful death of a criminal
slave, is meted out to him. Pilate is
amazed, and even horrified, by the intensity
of their spite and the cruelty of their hatred.
Once and again Pilate said, " Why, what
evil has he done? I found in him no proved
occasion of any kind of death." The tu-
mult was rising every moment, and Pilate
would have been glad to compromise the
matter by sending Barabbas to the cross;
and before he took the course dictated by
the angry mob, he washed his hands in a
basin of water, and proclaimed the fact
that he had, and would take, no responsi-
bility for the judicial murder to which
they would hound him. " I am guiltless of
the blood of this Man : see yon to it " (Matt.
xxvii. 24, 25). Many commentators refer
this proceeding of Pilate to the moment
when he finally uttered the cursed verdict :
Ibis ad erucem. Matthew's accotmt is much
more concise at this point than John's.
Heathen writers had repeatedly scoffed at
the notion of water washing away the guilt
of blood. ' We can hardly suppose that Pilate
meant more than a disdainful repudiation of
any sympathy with the infuriated crowd (see
Steinmeyer). This act, instead of appeasing,
served to madden the fury of the populace,
who shouted in bitter earnest, " His blood
be upon us, and upon our children" — a
sentence of their own, which rankled in
their memories, and came back a few months
afterwards with grim earnestness (Acts t.
28). "Then," says St. Matthew, "Pilate
released Barabbas to them." To do this,
the governor would return to the PrtBtorium,
and Jesus was thus once more face to face
with him. Probably the gorgeous roba
which Herod had thrown over his fettered
limbs had been taken from him ; and then
Pilate, bewildered, weak, with some ulterior
motive of staving off the madness of tha
Jews, and satiating their inhuman thirst
for blood, adopted another expedient.
OH. xviii. 1— 40.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 899
HOMILETICS.
Vera. 1—11,— The apprehen^on of Jesus. The crisis has come at last.
I. The scene of the abbest. " He went forth with his disciples over the brook
Kedron, where was a garden, into which he entered, and his disciples." 1. The garden
was on the slope of Mount Olivet, and there/ore outside Jemsalem. 2. Se did not resort
to it for the purpoie of hiding himself from his enemies ; for Judas, the traitor, knew
the place. It was to be the scene of his prayers and his agonies. Its name was Geth-
semane. 3. It belonged, evidently, to some friend or disciple of Jesus ; for it was a
frequent meeting-place for Jesus and the disciples. 4. ITte thought of the garden, as
the beginning of the Lord's Passion, links itself by natural association with the garden
of Eden, ihe scene of the Fall of man, which made the Passion necessary.
II. The abbival of the band. " Judas then, having received the band, with
officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches
aud arms." 1. Judas is the leading actor in this scene. 2. The combination of the
Roman soldiers with the police of the Sanhedrin marks the share of Jew and Qentile in
the transaction which culminated in the scene of Calvary. 3. The use of lights at a
time when the full moon was in ihe sky suggested the fear that Jesus might try to escape
arrest in the dark corners of the garden.
III. The meeting of Jestts with the band. "Jesus therefore, knowing all that
should happen to hiin, went forth, and said to them, Whom seek ye ? " 1. There was
a Divine necessity recognized in our Lord's action ; for he foresaw all the events of the
Passion as occurring, not through the mere malice of men, but by the foreordination of
God. 2. Se does not allow this foreknowledge to paralyze his action or disturb the
quietude of his soul. 3. His question, " Wliom seek ye f " implies that it was not man's
power, but his ovm permission, wliich brought his sufferings upon him. 4. I'he effect of
his statement, " I am he " (Jesus the Nazarene), is astounding. (I) Whether it was due
to natural or to supernatural causes, his presence had an overwhelming effect upon the
band. " They' went backward, and fell to the ground." (2) His word was not an
Migry word ; but Judas may have led the band to suppose that Jesus might make a
marvellous display of his power. (3) The scene suggests fear, awe, veneration, and not
the display of foice. (4) It suggested to the disciples that the band fulfilled its com-
mission by Christ's own consent. 6. Jesus pleads for his disciples. " I have told you
that 1 am he : if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way." (1) It was necessary
for the purposes of his kingdom that the apostles should be spared. (2) They were not
yet in a condition spiritually to die with their Lord. They all deserted Christ at last.
(3) It was needful that he should suffer alone. He was to " tread the winepress alone."
(4) His care for the disciples was in fulfilment of prophecy. " That the saying might
be fulfilled, which he spake. Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none." Their
temporal preservation was to involve a great and more blessed realization of spiritual
deliverance.
IV. Pbteb'b attempt at defence. " Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it,
and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear." 1. The action of the
apostle, so characteristic of his impulsive nature, was ihe proof of love, zeal, faith, and
sincerity. 2. Our Lord condemns his action. (1) He healed the ear of Malchus, and
thus saved Peter from arrest. (2) He shows that there is no warrant for irregulai
actions or fur rash zeal. (3) Peter's conduct threatened to compromise our Lord, who
was in a few hour.s to assure Pilate, " If my kingdom were of this world, then would my
servants tight." (4) Our Lord recognized in his coming Passion the bitter cup that his
Father designed for him. " The cup which my Father hath given me, shaU I not
drink it ? " He drank it willingly.
Vers. 12 — 24. — Jesus before Annas and Caiaphas. The ecclesiastical trial comei
first. Owing to the relation between Annas and Caiaphas, they probably dwelt in the
same house, and there may have been an informal trial by Annas before the acting
high priest, Caiaphas, investigated the case of Jesus.
I. The inquiry or Caiaphas. "The high priest then asked Jesus of his disciples,
tnd of his doctrine." 1. Ti>e object was to extract from the lips of Jesus tome answer
400 THE GOSFBL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. XTm. 1— 4a
thtU might become the ground of hit condemnation. 2. 2%« high priest wa$ an»ioH»
toMcertain the number of Christ's disciples and the prindplet <fhis teaching,
IL The answeb of Jbsub. " I spake openly to the world ; I ever taught in open
synagogue, and in the temple, whither all the Jews resort ; and in secret have I said
nothing." 1. He does not ansrver the inquiry concerning his disciples, whose safety he
/ears to compromise. 2. Ee protests the entire publicity (f his teaching. 3. There was
nothing secret or esoteric in his doctrine. He taught publicly what he taught secretly.
The disciples were charged to proclaim on the housetops what they heard in the ear
(Matt. X. 27). 4. He demands a formal trial, and the stmtmoning of witnesses.
" Why askest thou me ? ask them which heard me, what I have said unto them."
in. The first act of violbnob and insult offered to the Saviour. "And
when he had thus spoken, one of the officers which stuod by struck Jesus with the
palm of his hand, saying, Answerest thou the high priest so ? " 1. Jesus had done
nothing to justify this rvide assault; for in his answer he was only using the liberty the
Law allowed him. He was, as always, an innocent Sufferer. 2. Our Lord's answer was
a gentle reproof of public injustice. " If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil :
but if well, why smitest thou me?" (1) He does not smite the officer dead by his
power, but remonstrates against injury. (2) Though he does not avenge the insult,
he will vindicate his own conduct. We therefore infer (a) that it is not wrong to
defend our innocence or good name ; (6) that there is no inconsistency between our
Lord's action in this case and his counsel in the sermon on the mount : " If they smite
thee on one cheek, turn the other also." This condemns revenge, but does not silence
us in the presence of wrong. Our Lord's owu practice, therefore, explains his precept
(Matt. V, 39).
Vers. 15 — 18, 26 — 27. — l%e three denials of Peter. After all the disciples had fled,
some, like John and Peter, retomed to the scene of our Lord's last trials. This fact
must be remembered to Peter's credit.
I. The histobioal oiboumstances of Peteb's fall. 1. The first circumstance
was his introduction into the court of the high priest by John. This brought him into
dangerous association with Christ's enemies. 2. The second was his recognition by those
who had seen him in the garden at the time of our Lord's arrest. 3. The third was his
Oalilaean accent. 4. The fourth was the injury he had done with the sword to Malchus.
There was thus a combination of fear and presumption in his presence among Christ's
enemies.
IL Peteb's fall. The denial of Christ was : 1. A serious crime, regarded by itself
and its repetition, and in the light of the warning that preceded it, and the oaths and
the curses that followed it. It was a crime full of ingratitude, cowardice, and lies.
2. Mark the peculiarity of this crime. (1) Consider it in the light of Peter's calling,
(a) He was an apostle, a chosen " fisher of men." (6) He was admitted to the closest
intimacy with our blessed Lord, and honoured with his deepest confidence and affection.
He might well say, " To whom shall we go but unto thee ? Thou hast the words of
eternal life." (2) Consider Peter's crime in the light of his circumstances, and his
transgression is somewhat extenuated, (a) He had passed the previous night in
watching. He was nervous and excited from the want of sleep, as well as from the
prospect of losing the best of Masters, (b) He was deserted by the other apostles, wlio
were scattered everywhere. Peter's courage was of that character that rises when the
danger is to be encountered with surrounding circumstances of sympathy, (c) The
personal help of Jesus was, besides, now suddenly withdrawn, (a) His attack upon
Malchus weakened his courage. When a man does a wrong thing or takes up a wrong
position, he is from that moment a weaker man. (e) He did not yet comprehend the
necessity of Christ's death. " Far be it from ihco." He was not, therefore, himself in
a position to die. (3) Consider Peter's crime in the light of his character, and it is
easily explained. He was (a) confident and zealous, but (b) wanting in firmness and
resolution. His character was a curious mixture of courage and fear.
IIL Peteb boused from the bluubeb of bis oonscienob. T%e crowing of th«
•ock, and our Lord's look, awakened him to his true state. The look had a penetrative
forG« in his soul. 1. It was a look of lasting remembrance, " Did I not tell thee that
thnu wouldst deny me ? " 2. It was a look of inward sorrow. " Is this thy sympathy
•R. xvm. 1— 40.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 401
for ttiy Friend?" 8. It was a hole of Messed consolation. " I have prayed for thee,
that thy faith fail not." 4. It was a look that, perhaps, gave a timely hint to ths
tvpostte to depart at once from the scene of danger.
IV. The effects op Peter's pall. 1. He went out, and wept bitterly. (1) Solitude
was the only resource after such a crisis. (2) The flow of penitential tears, so honour-
ing to Jesus, would be refreshing to the apostle. 2. His fail made him humble and
sympathizing a/nd consolatory in his relations with the Church. His Epistles contain
traces of the effects of his fall and his restoration.
Ver. 28 — ch. xix. 16. — The trial before Pilate, Thi» was the civil investigation
following the ecclesiastical. The Sanhedrin wanted Pilate simply to ratify the sentence
of death they had pronounced upon Christ.
L Thk early bbsort to Pilate. " Then led they Jesus from Gaiaphss unto the
hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment-
hall, lest they should be defiled; that they might eat the Passover." 1. The Sanhedrin
were eager for the destruction of Jesus, and therefore sought Pilate at an unusually
early hour of the morning. Their eagerness led them to disregard the law that did not
allow sentence and execution to occur on the same day. 2. They were obliged to seek
PUate's intervention ; for the Bomans had deprived the Jews of the right of inflicting
capital punishment. They might sentence Jesus to death ; it was for Pilate to execute
the sentence. 3. Mark their hypocrisy. They feared the defilement of approaching a
Gentile tribunal, but they did not shrink from the greater defilement of shedding
innocent blood.
II. The first phase of the otvil pbooedube. The Jews want their sentence on
Jesus confirmed without examination. " If he were not a malefactor, we would not
have delivered him up unto thee." They had judged Jesus ; it was for Pilate to act
the part of the executioner. 1. PUat^s attempt to evade this demand, " Take ye him,
and judge him according to your Law." The Jews still had the right of excom-
munication and scourging, but not of inflicting capital punishment. Pilate imagined
that they would he content with the exercise of such inferior punishment as remained
to them. 2. The Jews parried the thrust by declaring, in effect, that nothing but the
capital sentence would satisfy them. "It is not lawful for us to put any man to
death." This language implied their dependence on Pilate for carrying out the
sentence. 3. This fact led to the fulfilment of our LorcTs own prophecy. " That the
saying of Jesus might he fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he should
die." (1) Crucifixion was not a Jewish, but a Roman punishment. If the Jews had
been their own masters in Palestine, Jesus would have been stoned, and not " lifted
up from the earth " (ch. xii. 32). (2) The Gentile as well as the Jew must have
a share in the greatest crime in all history. This was to fulfil Christ's own words that
" he should be delivered to the Gentiles, and be crucified " (Matt. xx. 19).
III. The second phase op the civil pbocedube. The Jews frame a political accu-
Ration. "Art thou the King of the Jews?" He had made himself a King I 1. The
question of Pilate implies a charge on the part of the abusers as having given, rise to it.
The Jews said, " We found him perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute
unto Csesar, saying that he is Christ the King" (Luke xxiii. 2). 2. It was a question
which admitted of two very different answers. (1) Jesus could have repudiated the
kingship in the Roman sense. (2) He could not have repudiated it in the religious
sense without disclaiming the Messiahship. 3. Ov/r Lord^s method of answering
Pilate's inquiry. "Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of
me?" Everything depended in the answer upon the fact whether it issued fron-
Jewish or from Gentile lips. Jesus acted wisely ; he neither afBrms nor denies an> ■
thing. 4. Pilate's hasty and contemptuous rejoinder, " Am I a Jew ? Thine own
nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me : what hast thou done ? "
What crime have you committed ? 6. Our LorcPs answer is at once an admission and
a denial of kingship, according as the standpoint of interpretation is Gentile or Jewish.
" My kingdom is not of this world : if my kingdom were of this world, then would my
servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews : but now is my kingdom
Dot from hence." (1) His kingdom does not derive its origin from earth, though here
it has its historical development. (2) Jesus makes no soaocssion to the sealots wha
2b
402 THE GOSPEL AOCOEDING TO ST. JOHN. [ch. xviii. 1—40
looked for a temporal kingilom of the Messiah. (3) His kingdom, as essentially
ipiritual, was not to be promoted by violence or force. (4) The weapons of his warfare
were taken from the armoury of truth. " To this end was I born, and for this cause
came 1 into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." (a) The revelation
of God is the true sceptre in Christ's hands ; as unlike as possible to the methods of
Boman rule. Truth is the realm of Christ. (6) The subjects of this realm are all who
hear the truth. "Every one that is of truth heareth my voice." " The spiritual man
judgeth all things." 6. Pilatit contemptuous dismissal of the whole siibjtct. " What
is truth ? " (1) This question was not the expression of a genuine quest after truth ;
(2) nor the despair of a spirit that had failed to discover it among the philosophies of
his time; (3) but the cynical and frivolous suggestion of a sceptical spirit, (4) He
had the opportunity now of learning all about the truth, but he hastily closed the
interview with the Prisoner at his bar. " He went out again unto the Jews, and said
to them, I find in him no fault at all." Nothing certainly to warrant the political
accusation of the Jews. But he acted an illogical and time-serving part. He ought at
once to have dismissed Jesus from his bar. (5) Pilate makes a fresh effort to save
Christ without offending the Jews. " Ye have a custom, that I should release unto
you one at the Passover : will ye therefore that 1 release unto you the King of the
Jews ?" (o) Pilate presumed upon a popular reaction in Christ's favour. (6) But the
chief priests were masters of the situation. Barabbas, a robber, was chosen, and Christ
left for crucifixion. (6) Pilate makes a fresh effort to save Christ. " Then Pilate took
Jesus, and scourged him." (a) He hoped in this way to avert the extreme punishment
by conciliating the less violent of Christ's enemies, and awakening the compassion of
the populace. But he utterly miscalculated the fierceness of Jewish fanaticism. (J)
The parody of Jewish royalty — the crown of thorns, the purple robe, the " Hail, King
of the Jews ! " — was the scornful act of the Eoman soldiers, who wished to pour con-
tempt upon the Messianic hopes of a people they despised. (7) Pilate's further, but
weaker, efforts to save Christ. "Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know
that I find no fault in him." " Behold the Man I " (a) There is a tone of pity and
respect in Pilate's words, which meets no response among the Jews. (6) The chief
priests and officers demand his crucifixion. " They cried out, saying. Crucify him !
crucify him ! " The name of the cross is now mentioned for the first time, and by
Jewish lips. Concessions had only made them bolder. Pilate could not now resist
their extreme demands.
IV. The thied phase of the civil procedure — ^the religious accusation. " The
Jews answered him. We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made
himself the Son of God." 1. 37i« Jews point to the article of their code which punv-hei
blasphemy with death, and demand Pilate's execution of their sentence. 2. The charge
was true. Jesus was, indeed, the Son of God. 3. The charge had a startling effect upon
the half-sceptical, half-superstitious nature of Pilate. " When Pilate therefore heard
that saying, he was the more afraid." He asked Jesus, "Whence art thou?" (1)
This is not a question respecting his earthly origin. Pilate knew perfectly that he was
a Qalilsean. (2) It is a question as to whether he is a Divine Being who had appeared
on earth. 4. Jesus gives no answer to the question. (1) Because it is asked in pure
curiosity. (2) The true answer to the question would not have affected the procedure
of Pilate in his present circumstances. Had he not already several times declared him
to be innocent? (3) The change of accusation, besides, was the self-condemnation of
the Jews. (4) If Jesus had not been the Son of God, he would not have kept silence.
His silence is his assent to the charge. 6. Pilate's offence at the silence of Jesut.
" Speakest thou not unto me ? knowest thou not that 1 have power to crucify thee,
and have power to release thee?" (1) The governor stands upon his power and
authority. (2) Jesus does not repudiate the claim, but shows that it is derived, aud
not inherent, with a corresponding responsibility. " Thou couldest have no power at
all against me, except it were given thee I'rom above." (o) The answer displays at once
piety and meekness. (J) It implies a Divine government of society. Under God
" kings reign and princes decree justice." It therefore implies that Pilate was respon-
sible for the use of his power, (c) It implied that it was in accordance with a Divine
dispensation that he was now subjected to the disposal of human authority. (3) The
greater responsibility and guiltiness of the Sanhedrin. " Therefore he that delivered va»
oa. xvra. 1—40.] THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINQ TO ST. JOHN. 403
unto thee hath the greater gin." (a) The Sanhedrin subjected their King to the
authority of the roreiguer, and thus " committed an act of theocratic felojiy." (b) The
greater tjie light, the more aggravated is the guilt of offenders. The Jews were more
guilty tlum the Gentiles in the whole transaction of our Lord's crucifixion.
v. The FO0KTH phase of the civil proceddeb. The intimidation of Pilate.
"Pilate saith to them. Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We
have no king but C^sar." 1. The Jews appealed to Pilate's fears ; for he was vulnerable
upon many points, and Tiberius the emperor was the most suspicious of despots. " If
thou let this Man go, thou art not Caesar's friend." 2. Pilate, in turn, avenges himselj
upon the Jews by compelling them to forswear all their Messianic hopes. They pro-
nounced with their own lips the abolition of the theocracy. " Such a victory was a
suicide." It marked the extreme desperation of the Jews, and their utter unscrupulous-
ness in the pursuit of their bloodthirsty ends. 3. The success of their last manoeuvre.
" Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified." The death of Jesus was
compassed by a double treason : (1) on the part of the Jews to their true King ; (2) on
the part of Pilate to truth, justice, and law.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vera. 1, 2. — Oethsemane. The mind of man is naturally interested In placet, net
so much for their own sake, as for the sake of associations connected with them.
Religions have their sacred places : the Jew cannot forget Jerusalem ; the Mohammedan
venerates the holy Mecca ; and the Christian regards Gethsemane with a tender and
pathetic interest.
I. The oaboen was to the hinds of the twelve a flaoe of holt intebooubse
WITH THEIB. LoBD. " Jcsus ofttimcs rosortcd thither with his disciples." Doubtless
they learned much from Jesus as he taught in the temple and in the synagogues, in
the highways, and in the dwellings of the people. But there was much he wished to
say to them which could be said better in private. He took them aside into a desert
place, and in seclusion and quiet communicated to them tidings which were not for
the multitude. He gathered them together in an upper room, and discoursed to
them with such profundity and spirituality, that it needed the illumination of events
that were yet to happen to make plain his wonderful sayings. He led them away from
the thronged streets and temple-courts of the city, crossed the Eedron ravine, and
took them into the retired garden, that he might, without interruption, reveal to them
whatever truth they were able to bear. G«thsemane thus became a symbol for the
" quiet resting-places," where the Saviour meets congenial souls, and unfolds to them
the volume of his truth, the mystery of his love. Such intercourse binds the heart of
the scholar to his Master. Such fellowship makes its lasting mark upon the character.
" Did not I see thee in the garden with him ? "
II. The oabden was to the Lobd Jesus the scene of bitterest mentaIi anquisb.
It seems strange that John, who, we know, was one of the chosen three who were near
Jesus in his agony and bloody sweat, says nothing of his Master's conflict in Geth-
semane. This silence cannot be attributed to want of sympathy, for the beloved disciple
felt keenly with and for his Lord. He was content that his fellow-evangelists should
tell the awful sorrows of the Redeemer. The unexampled pains which Christ endured,
when with strong crying and tears he made supplication, constituted a phase of his
mediatorial ministry, not only deeply affecting to the sensitive mind that contemplates
the sa«ae of woe, but doubtless ever memorable to our Divine Representative himselL
*'Onr Fellow-Sufferer yet retains
A fellow-feeling of our pains ;
And still remembers, in the skie^
His tears, his agonies, and cries."
" Perfect througli suffering," the Captain of our salvation looks back to th« hour when
he drank the bitter cup in our stead ; and to him Gethsemane is for ever linked with
kis sacred undertaking of our cause, with the price he paid for our redemption.
404 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xviii. 1—40
in. Thk oabden was to Judab the spot whebe he heartlessly kbtbayed hu
LoKD. To the mind of the traitor the one poiut of interest in Gethsemane was this —
it was a place where Jesus might be apprehended by the officers of the priests and
FhariseeB, with no fear of disturbance or opposition. The garden, though near Jeru-
salem, was secluded and solitary ; no admiring and sympathizing crowd would there
protect or rescue the honoured and beloved Tiacher aud Healer. After the capture,
during the few hours of life remaining to him, Judas could not think of Gethsemane
without distress of mind, which deepened, not into repentance, but into remorse. The
thought of his own sin and of his Master's innocence must have oppressed his guilty
soul, until he was driven to confession and to suicide. Terrible is the state of that
man before whose memory there constantly arises the scene of crime from virhich he sees
no deliverance, for which he sees no expiation, the scene of violence and cruelty, of
debauchery, or of profanity. " Better had it been for that man that he had never been
bom."
IV. Thk oabden is to Christ's Chtjhoh tob bvbb associated with Divine
aAOBiFiOE AND BEDEUFTiON. The Same place, the imagination of which awoke the
guilty conscience of Judas to misery and despair, is associated in all Christians' minds
with the ransom which was paid for the deliverance of many from sin and death.
There the anguish was endured, the cry was uttered, the cup was drunk, the perfect
submission was rendered, the death on Calvary was anticipated. Very dear to the
heart, very present to the memory, of Christeudom is the garden whither Jesus oft
resorted, where Jesus suffered himself to be betrayed, where Jesus took upon his heart
the burden of human sin, where Jesus cried, " Not my will, 0 my Father, but thine,
be done I "—T.
Veri. 8, 9. — The unselfishness of Christ. Jesns was in the garden of Gethsemane.
He had passed through the agony. He was in the presence of the betrayer and his
myrmidons. He was about to endure the indignities of the trials and 'the anguish of
the cross. Yet his thoughts were not of himself, but of his friends. Knowing the
danger to which they were exposed, the weakness which still characterized them, he
was anxious on their behalf that they should not be exposed to a trial which they were
not then ready to bear. Hence the stipulation and the plea to which, in surrendering
himself, he gave utterance, " If .therefore ye seek me, let these go their way."
I. ThGBE WEBB SPECIAL REASONS WHY AT THIS CBISIS JbSUS SHOULD TAKE MEASURES
I'OB THE LIBERTY AND SAFETY OF HIS FBIEND9 AND FOLLOWERS. 1. JeSUS intended
them to be his apostles, and therefore it was not in accordance with his purposes that
they should at that time accompany him to trial and to death, 2. It was part of
Jesus' jdan to die alone. Malefactors, indeed, yielded up their breath by his side. But
as his was a death unique in its import, it was nnt consonant with his wishes that any
of his adherents should partake his Passion, and distract attention from himself. 3. In
all likelihood the faith and devotion even of his ' nearest friends were not such as to
enable them to endure participation in his death. They could not suffer for Christ
until Christ had first suffered for them. 4. Our Lord designed to fulfil his owu decla-
ration uttered in his intercessory prayer — that of those given to him he had lost none.
II. This begabd or Jesus foe others was in harmony with his conduct through-
out HIS ministry. It was his habit to forget himself in his benevolent work and in
his regard for those whom he came to' save. E.g. his disinterested and generous treat-
ment of his forerunner, John ; the complete self-forgetfulness which he displayed in
the season of his temptation, when he," for the sake of his mission to men, lost sight of
hunger, reputation, power ; his benevolent ministry to the multitude, to the sick, the
suffering, the sinful. His own ease, comfort, or renown, never occupied his attention ;
but no pains did he ever spare that he might serve the objects of his Divine pity.
Christ would not have been himself if he had not thought of and secured the liberation
of his threatened friends.
III. Thb unselfishness which Jesus displayed in the houb of his abbest was
PKBricTKD in bis 8AOEIFI0IAL BUFFERINGS AND DEATH. It was his own profession that
the laying down of his life should be for his firiends — his sheep, Paul testified that h«
gave himself a Hansom for all, that he was a Propitiation for the sins of the whole
wwid. When the Saviour — in accordance with the appointment of Divine wisdom.
OH. xvm. 1—40.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 40S
«nd with a view to ends the most purely benevolent that were ever conceived in the
whole history of tho universe— hung upon the cross, it seems to us that he uttered a
cry which was the earnest of the spiritual deliverance and emancipation of mankind,
a cry which was the expression at once of the deepest agony and the kingliest gladness
of his compassionate nature, and that the purport of the cry was this : " Let these
men go I "
IV. Christ's benevolent BKLF-FOBaETruiiNKss is often neglected and abused.
In a family we sometimes observe one person peculiarly kind and unselfish, whose
demeanour, so far from being an example and an advantage to the other members of
the household, is abused. The yielding and self-denial of one sets others at liberty to
carry out their own favourite plans, to strati iy their own selfish tastes. There is some-
thing parallel to this in the way in which some persons in Christian communities take
advantage, for their own temporal comfort and prosperity, of the influences of Chris-
tianity, without at all recognizing their obligation to the Saviour for all the benefits
they have received, social and domestic. So lar as we can see, such persons are little
the better for all that Christ has undergone for them, for the immunity from many ills
which he has secured for them. The self-devotion, magnanimity, and pity of the
Bedeemer should surely be to such, first a rebuke, and then an' exhortation to a nobler
and a better life.
V. The sblf-baorifioing devotion of the Saviour is the everlasting inspira-
tion OF the higher life of mankind. This was the intention of Christ ; and it was
this prospect which sustained him amidst the treachery, the hatred, the desertion, the
malice, the indignities, to which he exposed himself. How sorely the world was in
need of a principle and power which should correct and heal its selfishness, is well
known to every one who is acquainted with his own heart, "ho has studied the moral
ills of human society. The wars and enmities which even now disgrace humanity are
sufficient evidence of this. There were others than Christ who to some extent saw the
evil, and desired to do what in them lay to remedy it. Even the heathen Seneca could
say, " I would so live as if I knew I received my being only for the benefit of others."
But that which philosophical theory, ethical dogma, even serene example, could not
efiect, has been in some measure effected, and will be brought at last perfectly to pass,
by him whose unselfish, self-sacrificing spirit found utterance in the cry, " Let these
mengol"— T.
Ver. H. — The sword and the ou/p. To ordinary human nature work is easier than
patience, and resistance than submission. Our Lord, in this crisis of his history, both
adopted the more difficult course for himself, and commended it to his disciples.
I. Christ's disavowal of the swoed. 1. The sword is the symbol of physical
force, of resistance. Properly a weapon of attack, it may nevertheless be used for
defence. The sword is in the hands of the soldier who withstands his foe ; of the
magistrate who maintains order and vindicates justice, and who bears it not in vain.
It is the emblem of secular authority, of carnal power. 2. There was a sense in which
the use of the sword had been sanctioned by Christ. When he had said, " I came, not
to send peace, but a sword," Jesus had referred to the conflicts which should arise in
society as a result of his mission to earth. But he had, almost immediately before the
occurrence in connection with which the words of the text were spoken, expressly
directed his disciples to arm themselves, telling them of the perils they should
encounter, and bidding them even to sell their garments in order to procure the means of
defence. Evidently there were some kinds of danger against which they were at liberty
to arm. 3. The time of Christ's sacrifice was not the time for resistance. Peter, indig-
nant at his Lord's betrayal, impulsive in his nature, and impetuous in his action, seeing
his Master in danger, drew and used his sword. But Jesus forbade and disclaimed the
use of carnal weapons in his cause. His kingdom was not of this world, and it would
not have been consonant either with his gentle character or with the nature of his
religion — a spiritual religion relying on conviction and affection — to sanction the pro-
mulgation of his doctrine, the extension of his Church, by means of the sword. Christ's
people were not prohibited from taking advantage of their privileges as citizens, from
using lawful means to secure protection and safety, from defending themselves against
Ikwlew Tiolenoe. But to resist civil authority by force, in the name of Christ <>.nd fot
iOi THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvm. 1—40.
the spread of Christianity, was certainly forbidden, both by the kngoage and by the
example of Jesus,
II. Christ's acceptance of the cup. 1. The nature of this cup is apparent from
the context as well as from other parts of Scripture. By "the cup " we are to under-
stand suffering and sorrow. This is its meaning in the question, " Can ye drink of the
cup which I drink of? " and in the praj-er, " If it be possible, let this cup pasi from
me." The bitter ingredients in Christ's cup were the suffering and agony of body
involved in crucifixion ; the mental distress involved in his betrayal, denial, and for-
saking by his disciples, in the apparent success of his enemies' plot, in the fickleness
and ingratitude of his fellow-countrymen ; the anguish of soul consequent upon his
corjsciousness of the world's sin, its estrangement from Q-od, and ill desert, the heavy
burden (to change the figure) of his sacrifice. 2. Christ's shrinking from this cup was
natural ; for his bodily frame was sensitive, and his heart was tender. He would fain
have avoided drinking the bitter draught. He even prayed to be relieved from the dis-
tressing experience, if such avoidance and relief were compatible with the Father's will,
and with his own purpose to redeem mankind. 3. The inducement to accept the sorrow
was the highest and the most constraining possible ; the cup was " given him by his
Father. Apparently it was prepared and handed to him by his foes. But really, in a
wonderful, mysterious sense, it was the appointment of the Father's wisdom. This
was not at the time understood by Peter or by the other disciples; Jesus alone com-
prehended the nature of this crisis in the moral history of mankind. The cup was not
given as a sign of the Father's displeasure, but as a means to a higher spiritual end,
which was dear to the Father's heart. 4. The resolve of the Son of man to drink the
cup, when this was seen and felt to be the Father's will, is very instructive. This was
part of his perfect obedience, of obedience taking the form of submission. Thus was
he made " perfect through suffering." 5. The results of this sacrifice have been most
beneficial and precious to mankind. By drinking the cup of suffering om- Saviour has
released us from drinking the cup of personal guilt and merited punishment.
Practical lessons. 1. Gratitude and faith towards a Saviour so compassionate and
self-sacrificing. 2. Patience and submission beneath the trials and sufferings of life.
When seeking for motive and for strength to drink the bitter cup of pain and giief, let
Christians recur with humility and with sympathy to the incomparable example of
their suffering Lord. — ^T.
Vers. 16 — 17. — Ardent affection and timorous falsehood. The inconsistency of which
human nature is capable is proverbial. In the conduct of Peter we have a rary striking
instance of this characteristic quality of man. In Peter we have extremes meeting.
None of Christ's disciples showed a quicker and clearer appreciation of the Master**
claims ; none showed a more fervent attachment to the Master himself. Yet, strange
to say, Peter was conspicuous above the rest for his faiat-heartedness in the time of
trial and of danger. The two dispositions are equally apparent upon occasion of tha
incident recorded in this passage.
I. Ardent affection. The sincerity and strength of Peter** love for Jesus cannot
be questioned. 1. It was this which had impelled him to draw the sword in his
Master's defence. 2. It was this which impelled bim to follow Jesus when his colleagues
and companions had fled. 3. It was this which urged. him to accompany John without
having the guarantee of safety which John possessed. 4. It was this which led him to
dare the risk attaching to the neiglibourhood of the court and high priest's dwelling.
No motive save the pure motive of affection could have induced Peter to act as he did.
II. TiMOKODS FALSEHOOD. 1. This was apparently upon a slight occasion and
inappreciable danger. The charge brought by a maid who kept the door was enough
to throw off his guard the boldest and chief of the apostles. 2. It was in contrast with
his previous confessions. None of the twelve had been more forward to apprehend and
to acknowledge the claims of Jesus to Messiahship and to Divinity than had Peter. 3.
It was a poor recompense for the distinguishing favour which had been shown to Peter
in common with two other of the twelve. He who had been on the mount and in the
garden with Jesus now denied him. 4. It was the occasion of bitter remorse and true
repentance on the part of the offender against conscience and against Christ. 6. It becama
a recollection, which in his after-ministry stimulated^Peter to watchfulneiB and to piajer.
ou. xvni. 1—40.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 461
Lesson. The nanative is a warning against relying too much upon religious feeling.
Peter felt deeply and warmly towards Christ; yet he fell. Many Christians think that
they are secure because the gospel touches their emotions. The counsel of Jesus him-
self must not be forgotten: " Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation I" — T.
Vers. 19, 20. — The publicity of Chrisfs ministry. Had the high priest questioned
Jesus in this manner from any real desire to be his disciple, or from an ordinary and intel-
ligent curiosity, his inquiries would have been received in a very different manner from
that in which Jesus did actually respond to them. But it was plain that the whole
purpose of the interrogator was to induce Jesus to criminate himself and his disciples.
Thus it was that Jesus, taking no notice of the question concerning his adherents,
referred the high priest, for information regarding his teaching, to those who had heard
him discourse and converse. There could be no difficulty in obtaining evidence upon
this ; for, as Jesus asserted, his teaching had been open and public, and multitudes of
the Jews had beard his doctrine.
L As A MATTER OP FACT, OUR LoRD rlTLriLLBD HIS MINISTRY AS A PUBLIC TEACHBB,
WITH UNDENIABLE PUBLICITY. In the couutry districts he taught in the synagogues,
the places appointed for public religious instruction and worship. In the metropolis
he was wont to frequent the precincts of the temple, not only upon ordinary occasions,
but at the great national festivals. He expressly witnessed that his open instructions
had been intended for the benefit of the Jews and of the world at large.
II. As A RELIGIOUS TbACHER, JbSUS HAO NOTHING TO CONCEAL AND BVBBYTHINa
TO PROCLAIM IN PUBLIC. He had nothing lo be ashamed of in the whole cycle of his
doctrine. And knowing that his communications were adapted to benefit all mankind,
Jesus benevolently desired to bring as many as possible under the sound of his voice,
under the influence of his revelations, counsels, and promises. His lessons were as the
living waters of the brook, which flow in a ceaseless stream, so that all may drink of
them and be refreshed.
III. The PUBLICITY of Christ's teaching secured the establishment of his
INNOCENCE and OP THE INJUSTICE OP HIS FOBS. If he had spoken aught secretly, in
opening might have been left for the slanderous imputations of his Ibes. But all
Judsea and all Galilee were witnesses to his doctrints concerning God, concerning man,
concerning duty, sin, judgment, forgiveness, and life eternal. Of high and holy doctrine
unnumbered witnesses were able to testify. But none could be brought forward with
any credible account of sayings subversive of order, of peace, of morality. Nothing
could be clearer than the inability of Christ's foes to convict him of any teaching which
might justify their charges.
IV. In THIS PUBLICITY ChRIST IS A MODEL FOR ALL HIS FOLLOWERS TO COPY.
Christianity has no esoteric doctrines, no secret societies or guilds, no rites or ceremonies
for private performance. Christianity is no sect, no party. A world-wide religion, it
challenges the attention of all mankind. Those who teach and preach in Christ's
name are bound to follow the example of their Lord — to discharge their ministry in
public places wherever men resort. The language of the true preacher of wisdom and
righteousness is this : " To you, 0 men, I call, and my voice is unto the sons of
men."—!.
Ver. 28. — Defilement, ceremonial and recH. All religions recognize the twofold nature
of man. As we are body and soul, the requirements of religion respect both these parts
of our being. The heart is the spring of conduct, and actions are the manifestation of
the spiritual nature. It is obvious that an opening thus exists for hypocrisy ; it is
possible that there may be the outward form where the inner reality is lacking. Such
was the case with those Jews — chiefly priests and Pharisees — whose conduct is described
in the text. They felt no scruple in defiling their conscience with the crime of
shedding the blood of the innocent ; but they would on no account enter the Prastorium,
where leaven might be present in some of the rooms, lest they should be polluted, and
unfitted for taking part in the solemnities of the approaching Passover.
I. Ceremonial defilement may be avoided whilst bbal defilement of thb
SOUL IS CONTRACTED. The heathen religions of antiquity were in no vital way con-
nected with morality. A man might be a ver; religious, and yet a very bad, man ; and
408 TfiE GOSPfiL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvin. 1—40
that without any inconsistency. But the faith of the Hebrews was based upon
revelation, and combined belief of the truth with practice of righteousness. It was
culpable in a high degree in men who enjoyed revelation so clear and full, to be led
aside from the ways of justice at the very moment when they were carefully observing
the requirements of the ceremonial law. It is an evidence of their depravity, and at
the same time of their blunted sensibilities to what was light and reasonable, that they
should so act. How much more deserving of condemnation are professed Christians,
who, whilst scrupulously obsei'ving the ordinances of religion and the regulations of
their Churches, at the same time are guilty of serious infractions of the moral law!
Yet men are found who keep with outward strictness the day of rest, who partake of
the buly Eucharist, and yet are not ashamed to act unjustly, to speak slanderously,
and to cherish a selfish and worldly spirit.
II. Cbbemonial dbfilembnt may be contracted whilst beal defilement of
THE BOTJL IS AVOIDED. There are many cases in which " to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to hearken than the fat of rams." As David ate the shewbread, as the disciples
of Jesus plucked the cars of corn, and Jesus himself healed the sick on the sabbath, so
men may often be justified in transgressing the letter of a commandment in order to
keep the spirit of the law. The claims of humanity are rightly to be preferred to the
requirements of an external character, which nevertheless have their place and their
use. And good men may even frequent the society of the vicious, the criminal, the
degraded, when, by so doing, they may make an opportunity for bringing the gospel of
Christ's love before the minds of those to whom nothing but the gospel can bring rescue,
salvation, and eternal life. Many methods may upon this principle be justified which
would not on their own account be accepted and practised by the sensitive and
fastidious. Salus populi suprema lex. If it is so in politics, surely in the religious
life we may well be, like the apostle, "all tlings to all men, if by any means we may
win some." — ^T.
Ver. 36. — The unworldly kingdom. It is not always possible to return a direct
answer to a question. When Pilnte asked our Lord Jesus, " Art thou a King? " the
ri'ply could not have been either " Yes " or " No " without misleading the questioner.
In a sense he was not a king, — that is, he made no claim to an earthly, temporal
sovereignty ; in another sense he was a King, — a spiritual Sovereign, although bis
kingdom was not of this world. Thus the question of the Roman governor was the
occasion of the utterance of a great truth, a great principle, distinctive of the religion
and Church of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I. Christ's kingdom is unworldly ih its compatibility with and its tolbkancb
OF OTHER kingdoms. Earthly governments do not admit of the imperium in imperio.
The same subject cannot owe allegiance to two lords. The same land cannot admit
the promulgation of different codes of law. Oppression, confusion, rebellion, anarchy,
would be the result of such an attempt. But the kingdom of the Lord Jesus can exist
and flourish in the most diverse forms of secular government. The subjects of a
despotic monaichy, and the citizens of a democratic republic, ar6 alike capable of
acknowledging the supremacy and obeying the commands of Kiug Jesus. So far from
destroying or imperilling a state, Christianity, when it takes possession of a people,
tends to establish a state in righteousness, freedom, and peace. The ruler and the
■I-' verned may alike confess the away and honour the authority of the Lord and King
•f men.
II. Christ's kingdom is unworldly in the character and thk appearance
OF its Monarch. Earthly kings are always imperfect in character, and sometimes
unjust, malevolent, vain, and selfish ; yet they may maintain the outward semblance
of dignity, wealth, magnificence, and power. 'I'he Lord Christ, on the contrary, had
no earthly rank, or splendour, no gorgeous palace, no imposing retinue. He was in
outward guise lowly and obscure, and he was by men scoffed at and despised. Yet
he was and is the Holy One and Just, the faultless and benevolent Ruler of men, the
Lord of heaven, the Judge of all. How wonderful and sublime a contrast to the kings
of this world is the meek Monarch, the sceptre of whose kingdom is a right sceptre I
III. Christ's kingdom is unworldly in its own origin and in its Sotebeign'i
niLX AX» OLAiif. Th« conception did not spring up in a human mind. " Now,"
OH. xvm. 1— 40.] THK GOSPEL ACOOBDING TO ST. JOHN. 409
said Jesus, " is my kingdom not from hence." Designated " the kingdom of heaven'
and " the kingdom of Qod," it is, in its ground and in its character, what such designations
iavolve. It is to the Divine wisdom and love that this unworldly kingdom must be
traced, Christ is King by Inheritance, as Son of Ood; by conquest, as the redeeming
Lord; by choice and election, being welcomed by the joyful acclamations of his loyal
subjects. In all these respects our Saviour's title to the throne is very different from
the titles put forward by the kings of this earth.
IV. ChBIST'S EINQDOU is UlfWOBLDLY IN THB NATUBp OF ITS DOMINION OVEB ITS
■UBJEOTS. The subjects of an earthly monarch are usually bom beneath the sway of
their liege lord. In any case their obedience and submission, their aid and support,
are required, and the requirement is, if necessary, enforced by penalties. The sway of
the king is over the outward actions, the speech and habits of the subjects. Very
different is the case with the members of that spiritual state of which Jesus is the
sovereign Buler. They are all citizens of the commonwealth and subjects of the King
in virtue of personal faith and voluntary submission. Christ reigns in the heart ; he
lias no care for the mere homage of the lips, the mere prostration of the body. His is
a spiritual empire.
V. Chbist's kingdom is unwobIiDlt in thb aiu it seeks and the means it
EMPLOYS. Whilst earthly sovereignties aim at the outward order and prosperity of
the community, at peace and wealth, at conquest and glory, at power and fame, and
whilst they employ secular means towards these ends — Christ's kingdom contemplates
purely moral ends — the growth and prevalence of righteousness and holiness, patience
and love ; in a word, those spiritual characteristics which are distinctive of every divinely
ordered society, and by means in harmony with such ends. Ko fear or constraint, no
magistrates, ofScers, soldiers, prisons, does Christ employ. He disclaims force ; " else,"
said he, " would my servants fight." His is a kin<;dom in which truth is icvealud and
embodied'^truth which calls for faith, and the support of intelligence and loyalty. The
laws of the spiritual kingdom are not prohibitions ; they take the form of examples,
and are sustaineci by the sanction of Divine love.
VL Christ's kingdom is 0NWobldlt in its extent and perpetuity. Whilst
no earthly conqueror has been suffered by Divine providence to achieve a universal
dominion, Christ shall " reign from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the
earth." Whilst all human governments are liable to decay, and the Soman empire
itself passed into a decline which issued in its fall, Christ's " kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom, and his dominion endureth to all generations." — T.
Ver. 38. — " What it truth t" When the Lord Jesui, in explanation of hii claim to
kingship, declared himself a Witness to " the truth," the turn to the conversation
between him and the Boman governor was to all appearance very abrupt. Govern-
ment, royalty, — these were ideas with which Pilate was familiar, in which his
position bound him to take ini;erest. With regard to truth, he might or he might not
concern himself. In any case it would scarcely occur to him that there was any
special connection between kingship and that witness to the truth wliich the accused
One professed that it was his mission to bear. Whether Pilate asked the question
from mere curiosity, from real interest, in ridicule, or in cynical unbelief, we cannot
confidently say. The possibility that any one of these motives may have influenced
him suggests the various attitudes of mind with which the truth of Ood is regarded
by men.
L Unbelief asks, " What ib tbuth ? " with a oynioal contempt towards those
WHO BELIEVE that THEY HAVE FOUND IT. The disbelief of Christianity as a Divine
and authoritative religion is no new thing. Infidelity has existed from the earliest
ages of Christianity down to the present time. It has taken different forms. Atheism,
agnosticism, deism, rationalism, mysticism, differ in what they affirm, but they largely
agree in what they deny. The chief offence taken with our religion is because of its
supernatural claim, because, by afSrming Jesus to be the Son of God and to have risen
from the dead, it afSrms the being of a God deeply interested in man's true welfare,
and interposing in order to secore it. That there is some solid basis for the Christian
faith and for the Christian Chnrch, only the most ignorant deny. With regard to the
historical facts which aooonnted for Christianity as « hunuui system, there is among
410 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvm. l.-W
unbelievers difference of opinion. But when the Christian teacher or preacher declares)
as he is Vx>und to do, that the Scriptures reveal " the truth " concerning the character
and purposes of God, and concerning the nature and prospects of man, then all the
hostUity of the opponent of religion, of the man who believes in food and clothing, in
science and art, and in nothing beyond, is aroused within him ; and with all the
scorn of incredulity in hia tones he asks, assured that there is no answer to be given,
"What is truth?"
II. Scepticism asks, "What is trttth?" with the baddest doubt as to the possi-
uiLiTY OF attaining IT. The opponent of the believer is the infidel, who disbelieves.
Between the two stands the sceptic, whose attitude is one of doubt, examination,
indecision. This is a stage of thought through which most educated and thoughtful
]iersons pass — some to faith and some to disbelief, whilst there are those who linger in
this state throughout the rest of life. Christianity is no foe to candid inquiry ; ii bids
us " prove all things ; " any other principle would keep heathens heathens, and Moham-
medans Mohammedans, all through life. What is to be avoided and blamed is the
settled, contented acquiescence in doubt, which tends to no conclusion of belief, no
definite action. Now, whilst there are topics upon which we are not bound to have an
opinion — topics beyond our faculties, or remote from our interests — it must be main-
tained that religion is of importance so vital, that if truth with regard to it can possibly
be attained, it must earnestly be sought. Permanent scepticism is either a sign of the
weakest intellect, or it is a confession that the problem of greatest interest to us is a
problem we can never solve.
III. Inquiry puts the question, " What is truth ? " with sincere and pkayebful
iNTEBEST. There is no question which affords to the Christian teacher and preacher
greater pleasure, when propounded with intelligence and candour, than this. It evinces
a mind alive to the great purposes and the great possibilities of life. And further,
there is the assurance that the seeker shall be the finder of truth. In many of their
enterprises the fervent, the inquisitive, the avaricious, the ambitious, are doomed to
fail. But there is a price with which truth may be bought ; and the promise holds
good, " He that seeketh findeth." Truth must indeed be sought in a right method and
in a right spirit ; so sought, it will not be sought in vain.
IV. Faith asks, " What is truth ? " and receives to the question ah anbwe*
definite, assured, and satisfying. Belief in Christian truth is reasonable, based as
it is upon evidence and testimony, upon the highest and most unquestionable authority,
and upon the congruity between Christianity and the innate needs of man's under-
standing, conscience, and heart. Belief, as an intellectual assent, is necessary to true
religion ; but it is in itself insufficient. To believe the gospel is to put faith in him
who is himself the Gospel, and faith in Christ is faith in God. Christ has said, " I
am the Truth ;" they, then, who find him, find revealed in him the mind, the very heart
of God. The truth is to the Christian the favour and the fellowship of the Eternal,
the law of life, the satisfaction of the whole nature. Very different are the Christian's
convictions from many which are held tenaciously by the " men of this world ; " for
they are convictions which shall never be distrusted and abandoned ; they shall out-
last the perishable fabrics reared by human ingenuity and human imagination. — T.
Ver. 38. — No crime in Christ. Pilate's language and conduct furnish us with an
example of the way in which weak and unprincipled men are wont to allow themselves
to be guided by the expected consequences of their actions, instead of referring those
actions to principles and law ^ by which they might decide what is the right course to
follow. Often, as in the case of Pilate, where the results of actions are more regarded
than their standards, men's convictions lead in one direction, whilst their practical
conduct follows another and inferior path.
I. The immediate and historical lessons deduoible from this acknowledg-
ment OF Pilate. 1. With reference to the governor himself who thus spoke, we infer
from this language his judicial impartiality. Accustomed to such examinations as
that he was now conducting, he saw at once through the motives of the accusers, and
recognized the absurdity of their charges and the innocence of the Accused. This
was to the credit of his intelligence ; but his clear perception of the merits cf the case
makes his guilt the greater in yielding to the malice of the priests and the passion of
CE. iTm. 1— 4a] THR GOSPEL ACCORDINO TO ST. JOHN. 411
the populace. 2. Thii language testifies to the sinfiil and malicious conduct of Cbrisf f
enemies. Pilate was ready enough to see matters as they were seen by the influential
class among the Jews. But the case was so flagrant a case of groundless hatred and
false accusation, that it was impossible that Pilate should be blinded to the truth.
What the governor said was literally true — there was no crime in Jesus. 3. We are
justified in accepting this witness to the character of our Lord. As Christians wb
believe, indeed, far more than the Saviour's innocence of the crime of civil insurrection.
But we are at liberty to take this evidence, and to require its acceptance by all students
of Christ's character and claims. If the historical inquirer will go no further, we may
justly expect him to grant that the charge upun which our Lord was put to death was
a charge utterly groundless.
II. The OBNEBAL and EBLIGIOUS lessons DEDUCIBLE FEOM this ACKNOWLEbaMBNT
. OF Pilate. 1. It harmonizes with the declarations of Scripture concerning the blame-
lessness and sinlessness of Jesus. 2. It suggests the inquiry why one so blameless
should endure such undeserved ignominy and suffering. It is plain from the narrative
that Jesus might have avoided what, as a matter of fact, he consented to undergo.
There was a reason for this — a reason to be found in the Divine purposes regarding the
salvation of sinful men. His qualifications are such as fit him for his mighty and
merciful office, as the sinless Saviour of a sinful race. — T.
Vers. 4 — 8. — Ths moral courage of Jesus. We see this if we consider—
L What he might have done undeb the circumstances There is no virtue in
not doing thus if we cannot do otherwise. But what could Jesus do now? 1. Re might
have not visited the garden on this night. He knew all that was coming. He knew
that the devil of pillering and covetousness had entered Judas, and that he was then
in the city betraying him to his thirsty and cruel foes. He entered not the garden in
ignorance of what was coming. It would be the easiest thing for him to go elsewhere.
2. He might have escaped be/ore his foes were upon him. Apart from his absolute know-
ledge of things, the gleaming light and subdued talk of the hostile throng would give
him sufficient warning, and he could have made his escape under the cover of friendly
trees. His little guard slept fast ; but he was awake, and specially sensitive to every
approaching sight and sound. 3. He might have disappeared from his foes in their
very presence. He might have let them come upon him so as to think that he was in
their hands, and then at once vanish away from their very clutches, disappoint their
fonHest hopes, and make fools of them all. 4. He might, with his power, strike them
dead, or into a fit to as to make their hostile attack quite futile. He just showed them
what he could do when he said, "I am he;" they went backwards, and fell to the
ground. What produced this ? Was it a flash of his Divinity from without striking
terror to his assailants, or a flash of memory from within of his mighty deeds ? or was
it the effect of the simple moral courage and majesty of that defenceless but heroic
One ? However, they feU to the ground — a striking illustration of what he might have
done. 5. He might have received almighty help from his Father. If he at this time
had not many earthly friends, and those not very strong nor skilful in human warfare,
he was rich in heavenly allies, and these were all at his command, as he told one of his
followers, " Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father," etc. ? One of these
with the brush of his wing slew the mighty Assyrian army, and one of them would
slay all Christ's enemies if he so wished. But he did not use his power nor influence
in his own defence. He had sufficient courage to stand all alone.
II. What he did. 1. He remained in the garden. He was perfectly self-composed.
He had a special work to do in the garden. There the coming battle was morally
fought and won. There he trained himself for the encounter, edged his sword and put
on his armour, and viewed the battle-field. He was too busily engaged with his Father
and the business of his life to be disturbed by the approaching foe. 2. He went forth
to Tneet his enemies. He had finished his work there, and his language and action were,
" Let us arise, and go hence." He went forth to meet them. His courage was not rash,
but discreet, and under the guidance of perfect wisdom. He never went forth to meet
his enemies before, for his hour was not come ; but now his hour was come, and as soon
as he heard the clock strike it, instead of waiting their arrival, he went forth to meet
them. He had a great work to do in an hour, and there was no time to lose. His
412 THE GOSPEL AC3C0BDIN& TO ST, JOHN. [oh. xvin. 1— 40.
courage completely spoilt their antidpated sport of a chase or a fight. 3. He made
himsdf known to them. He could ask them with firmness, " Whom seek ye?" but
tremblingly they replied, " Jesus of Nazareth." The EomaQ soldiers had unflinchingly
faced many mighty foes, but this defenceless Jesus of Nazareth overpowered them with
his majesty. " I am he " proved too much for them. They fell to the ground. And
the collision would have proved fatal to them were it not for the buffers of his goodness
and mercy. Judas's kiss was unnecessary; Jesus introduced himself. 4. Ee went
forth, although knowing all. " Knowing all things," etc. His knowledge in one sense
was disadvantageous to him. There is a certain amount of ignorance connected with
all human bravery. Hope of escape and victory is an element in the heroism of the
bravest soldier. If we knew all our future, it would go far to unnerve our courage and
paralyze our energies ; but Christ knew all. He had mentally gone through iJl the
tortures of the next few hours. He knew that death with all its pains and shame was
but a drop to the ocean of his agonies. He knew infinitely more than the soldiers and
the disciples. They only knew the outward ; he knew the inward. They only knew
the visible ; he knew the invisible. They only knew a part ; he knew all. The
weight of death was nothing to the weight of sin he had to bear. He knew this in all '
its bearings and bitterness ; but in spite of all, such was his coiu-age that, in this hour of
trial, he did not flag, but went forth.
III. The 80UBCES of his courage. What courage was his? 1. The courage of an
exceptionally great nature. We must have an adequate cause to every effect. The
heroism of Jesus, although human, yet often towered above it and became Divine. He
was the Word made flesh, and God manifested in the flesh. He was a perfect Man, but
ever united with Divinity — ^full of Divine life which made him triumphant over death
and its agonies. 2. The courage of loving obedience to his Father's wiU. He was ever
conscious of this. It was his delight, and the inspiration of his life. "My meat and
my drink," etc. ; " The cup that my Father hath given," etc.? It is bitter, but I shall
drink from his hand whatever may be the consequences. 3. The courage o/consciout
rectitude and innocency. Guilt and imposture make a man a coward, while rectitude
and innocency make him a hero. Conscious of the Divinity of his mission, the p\irity
of his life, the guilelessness of his spirit, and the rectitude of his motives, Jesus went
forth to meet his foes; and this consciousness raised him so far above timidity as
to clothe him with the majesty of Divine heroism, which sent them reeling to the
ground. 4. The courage of perfect knowledge of results. He not only knew his suffer-
ings, but also his joys ; not only the shame, but also the glory ; not only the apparent
defeat, but the subsequent grand victories. He could see life in his death, for myriads,
and glory in the highest. With the agonizing groans of Gethsemane were mingled the
anthems of triumph, and in the gleam of torches and lanterns he could see the world
flooded with light, and heaven with glory and happiness. 5. The courage of self-saori-
ficing and disinterested love. In the greatest bravery of selfishness there is an element
of cowardice ; but in Christ there was not a taint of selfishness, — his life was absolutely
a sacrifice for others. He would not implicate others in his hour of trial, but gave
himself to save them. — and all this was voluntary. The volunteer is ever more
courageous than the pressed soldier. The courage of Jesus was that of a volunteer, and
his heroism that of Divine and si'lf-sacrificing love.
Lbssoks. 1. The foes of t7e»us were the unconscious ministers of Divine justice
demanding his life as a ranson for sin. They were inspired by hatred to Jesus, but
this hatred was overruled to answer the most benevolent purpose. 2. Jesus personally
and willirigly gave his life up for this purpose. He was most >nxious that justice
should be paid in the genuine coin, and not in counterfeit. ".If ye seek me, let," etc.
3. In consequence of his meeting the demand of justice by his life, he demands the releau
of his friends. " If ye seek me," etc. He does not ask this as a favour, but demands
as his right. 4. This demand is most readily granted. In this instance they were not
touched. Justice cannot resist the logic of Christ's death and intercession with regard
to believers. If the accepted surety pay, the debtor is free. 5. The infinite importanct
to he united hy faith with Christ. Then the chastisement of our peace is upon him,
out otherwise it must be upon ourselves. — ^B. T.
Vers. 1, 2.— A haUowed ,j^^^^^ ^^ depth* and iiique thingi in thi« GoepeJ
OH. xvra. 1-40.] THE GOSPEL AOCORDINa TO ST. JOHN. 413
which make it easily to be accounted for that some should reckon, it the ohoioest ol
the Gospels. It has what the others have not ; but when we compare the others with
it, to look for their peculiar excellences, then we find how the others have what this
Gospel lacks. One would have thought beforehand that John would have enlarged on
the mysteries and sorrows of Gethsemane, but, stiangely enough, he passes them over
without a word. Here is one of the illustrations of how real a thing inspiration is,
these Gospels being not written after the fashion of human books, though they came
through human minds. If John had been asked why he omitted to enlarge on the
Passion, he could hardly have told. But though John says nothing of how Jesus
began to be sorrowful and very heavy even unto death, thougii he says nothing of
that sweat which was like great drops of blood falling to the ground, yet we are sure
all these dreadful experiences must have been often in his grateful recollection.
Gethsemane was the last place where Jesus and his disciples had free speech before
his death, and it was well that they should have the recollection of it as a place where
they had often been. Many things at many times Jesus must have told them there,
and the remembrance of the place woidd bring up the remembrance of the words. We
must not make too much of this mere locality, even if we were quite certain of it.
Every Christian must have his own hallowed places. Every Christaiii must have
places, the recollection of which is sweeter far to him than ever the mere sight of
traditional spots in Palestine can be. We must have holy, memorable places in our
own experience, and then perhaps we may get some good from considering the so-called
holy places of the so-called Holy Land. — T.
Ver. 10. — The vanity of violence. Here we have a peculiarly valuable illustration of
the vanity of violence. Over and above the wickedness of violence, there is the useless-
ness of it. Men arm themselves with all sorts of deadly weapons, and go out against
each other ; and what is the good of it all ? Man was not made for anything requiring
violence or extraordinary exertion. He has neither the muscles, the claws, nor the
fangs of the beast of prey. Man gains his proper results by the industrious hand,
directed by the God-glorifying brain. Nothing of the highest has ever been gained by
brute force.
I. Look at those attacking Jesus. They act after their kind and according to
their light. They know no weapons but force and stratagem. The wh'ile appearance
of this muliitude, going out with swords, and sticks, and lamps, and torches, has some-
thing ridiculous and despicable about it. This array of forces would have been all
right if a lion or a bear from the wilderness had been seen skulking about the Mount
of Olives. The weapons would have corresponded against a murderer or a brigand in
hiding there. But it was Jesus against whom they were going out — Jesus, who did
everything in his work by persuasion and spiritual energy. Of course, all this showed
great ignorance, but that is what the enemies of Christ and his Church always do show.
The opposition of the world, being completely ignorant of what has to be conquered,
has no astuteness in it. What can all the combined efforts of the world do against a
man who is ready, if need be, to die for his religion? Jesus in the hands of his enemies
is the grand illustration of how little the enemies of the body of Christ can do, or
rather the particular enemies who make physical pain their weapon. Such are not
the worst enemies. It is not the wolf, confessed in all his natural ferocity, that we
have most to fear, but the wolf in sheep's clothing, the foe who comes with the look
and language of the friend.
II. Look at the methods of defence. 1. The way of Peter. Peter had very
likely made himself possessor of one of the two swords mentioned in Luke xxii. 38.
Of course, this shows an utter misunderstand.ing of the meaning of Jesus in Luke xxii.
36. If we act on some wrong meaning of a word of Jesus, we shall suffer for the
blunder, sooner or later. Peter got a weapon into his hands that, to a man of his rash,
impetuous ways, was just the thing to bring him into trouble. Peter should have
done the rij;ht thing at the right time. Jesus put him and others to watch and pray,
to act as sentinels. The sentinels fell asleep at their posts, and reckless lunging with
a sword could not mend matters afterwards. Notice, too, bow the effects of this rash
act were worst to the man who committed it. Here surely is the secret of the sub-
sequent denials. 2. Z%« way of Jesus. Jesus yields. He defends and conquers by
414 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xvra. 1— «i
yielding. He shows in his own Person how the just man has a fortress impregnable
to violence. He could have vanished mysteriously from the midst of his enemies, as
he had done before ; but what would that have advantaged us ? We cannot vanish
from an opposing world ; we must either meet violence with violence, or yield what is
merely outward, knowing that the inward is sacred and invulnerable. — Y.
Ver. 17. — The folly of fear. Simon Peter, having shown the vanity 'of violence in
his useless blow at the high priest's servant, now proceeds to show the folly of fear in
a vain attempt to conceal his connection with Jesus. Extremes meet. The spirit that
impels to a reckless, random attack is immediately followed by the spirit that seeks
present safety at any cost. The denial by Peter illustrates many truths. We take it
here as illustrating the folly of fear.
I. Pbtbb meant to be prudent. He sought to keep safe what he valued most,
and what he valued most was his own present life. What a man most fears to lose
is his treasure. Peter had not yet gained the true prudence, because he had not yet
found out the most precious thing a man can possess, even an inward union with that
which is inward in Jesus. He had to do the best he could for the best he had, and
that best led him into a lie. Once he admitted his association with Jesus, he did not
know what the admission might lead to.
II. The only path to true couraob. The Christian can be the only truly
courageous person. For he knuws that, whatever may come from the outside, the best
things are safe. A higher courage is often needed than that in which Peter proved to
be lacking, even moral courage. Some would even dare to die, but they would not
dare to fly in the face of the world's customs and demands. Peter had harder things
to do afterwards than preserve his natural life. He had to turn his back on Judaism.
He had to make ready for being laughed at and sneered at, again and again. The
wisest fear is a fear of losing living union with Jesus. If we value that as we ought
to do, then the laughter and the threats of men will be robbed of what makes them so
dreadful to many. — Y.
Ver. 20. — Nothing to conceal. I. A contrast. What religion is there that can
bear the light of day as Christianity can ? The false needs to be arranged and beau-
tified and kept ever in one particular light. Jesus could expose everything if neces-
sary. What a contrast to the life in the temple at Jerusalem! There was not a priest
who could afiford to have all his doings brought out and set before men. This ought to
be part of our power when we are dealing with false religions. The more they are
searched into, the more their abominations are exposed. The more Christianity is
searched into, the more transparent and attractive it becomes. Not that everything
is clear to the intellect, not that there is absence of mysteries ; but these mysteries,
whatever they are, lie open for everybody to contemplate them and be the better for
them. The mysteries of heathendom are only priestcraft when one gets in behind
them. Christianity is symbolized by the contents of the ark. That ark was sacred,
nut to be touched with heedless hands ; but once it was opened, nothing lay there but
the commandments, every one of which uttered forth the condemnation of everything
false.
II. An example. That openness which was in Jesus must be in all his followers.
All true Christian assemblies are perfectly open places, except when, in charity and
kindness to individuals, the door is closed ; and even then the closing of the door is
known to all, and why it is so. Those entrusted with the propagation of Christianity
have nothing to conceal. Their aim is the good of men ; their method is by persuasion
and appeal ; they draw all their topics and their teaching from a book which is as open
to others as to themselves. None of the first apostles needed to conceal anything ;
there was no false step, no dubious word of their Master to gloss over or keep in the
background; and similarly we have nothing to apologize for. We need not to pro-
claim a mere ideal for the acceptance of men. Our real is better than the best ideal
•ur imagination can fancy.
III. A OAUSE FOB OLOBTiKO. Difficulty is taken out of our way. We feel that
since all is open and clear and satisfactory now, it always will be so. We find nothing
to b« ashamed of, nothing contradictory, in our experience of Christ in time. And
BH. xvm. 1— 40.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 415
■imilar Burely 'vrill be our experience in eternity. " Whatever record leap to light,"
Christ will be the same. Whatever testimonies be unearthed, there will be nothing
awkward to get over. — ^Y.
Ver. 21, — The right people to ask. I. Why Jebub could bbfbe to his hkabsbs.
It is not every teacher that could refer confidently to his hearers, not even to his most
attached and trustful ones. If he did, and if an accurate report could be got of all
their impressions, the result might not be very complimentary to the teacher. He
might find out that as yet he himself was only a learner. He might find out that he
himself was only making guesses and dealing with the surface of things. But Jesus
knew whence he came, and all he said was said with the spontaneity, the natural
coherence, belongiag to him who spake as never man spake. We know the impression
the tcachiDg of Jesus makes upon us, and we know that the miscellaneous crowds who
first lititened to it must have been impressed in the same way. It is not meant that
they understood everything, or always understood rightly. But there was this
impression, at all events, that Jesus spoke with authority, and not as the scribes. Jesus
knew that the common people of the country were not against him, and his enemies
also knew that they could not afibrd to inquire too curiously into the opinions of the
multitude. That multitude might not be enthusiastic about Jesus, but a decided
condemnation of him the multitude never would give, if only a sufficient number of
people had "been asked.
II. A HINT FOB va IN ouE JUDGMENTS ABOUT Jbsus. We Ko too much accus-
tomed to fly to books about Jesus which have intellectual merit rather than pereoijal
experience in them. Jesus referred confidently to the great bulk of his auditors, even
the common people. And we should try to find out what the common people think
about him. If Jtsus cannot bless everybody, he cannot bless anybody. The scribes
and Pharisees made difficulties where the common people made none. And so we
should do well in our difficulties to consider whether they are shared by others. There
is great benefit in listening to the opinions of all sorts of people about Jesus Christ.
It is well, on the one hand, to hear what can be said by the learned and academical
mind ; and it is also well, on the other, to listen to those who, behind all that has been
peculiar in Christ's teaching, all that has wanted learning whereby to understand it,
have seen the universal truth that was meant to do them good. Christ's teaching can
lay hold of hearts and consciences when the most elaborate system of mere ethics has
no grasp. Christ is more than anything he has sal d, and those who make no pretence
to intellectual superiority or anything special, can see him through his every word and
deed. We had better not reject Christ before we have listened well to the kind of
people who. have accepted him. — Y,
Ver. 37. — " The King of the Jews." It is the peculiarity of some people that a plain
" Yes" and "No" Ciin hardly ever be got out of them. After all, however, it is only
an irritating peculiarity, not a dangerous one. The real danger is when people say
"Yes" and "No" too easily, too thoughtlessly. Here is the question of Pilate to
Jesus, " Art thou the King of the Jews ? " What at first sight could look simpler and
easier to answer? Yet it wag not simple and ea-iy. Thus we have to consider —
I. Jesus in his theatment of Pilate's question. To Pilate the question was
simple enough. He meant, of course, a king in, the ordinary acceptation of the term.
If Jesus had said "No" to this question, the answer would have been right enough,
but it would only have led on to other questions, without any real result to the
interests of truth. Jesus evidently did not wish to talk much at this season. The
time for teaching was past; the time for submission and suffering had now fully come.
Still, whatever Jesus had to say must be significant, ^d mere "Yes" or "No" to
ignorant human questionings would have told nothing. Hence, without saying he was
a king, Jesus talks about his kingdom and its principles of d^ence, which, of course,
were equally its principles of attach
II. Thus we see Jesus answering the question by showing thb elements of his
powEB AND THE METHOD OF HIS PE0GBBS8. 1. Tlie elements of hit power. He lock*
a lonely Man before the representatives of the greatest power in the then world.
Whatever could be done by force of numbers and discipline, Bome could do. Bu'
4t«
THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xix. 1— 4a
quantity of a lower kind can do nothing against quality of a higher kind. Jcsns ii
not concerned to maintain the integrity of a fleshly body, though even that he could
have done if needfuL- It was the integrity of the inner life Jesus had to maintain
Hgainst temptation. Jesus ha'i his own personal battle to fight and victory to win,
before he could lead men in their greatest battle and most decisive victory. The risen
SMviour is the Man Christ Jesus made fully manifest in his abiding sinlessness. II
Pilate will only wait a little while, and open his mind to the truth, he will see by deeds
that Jesus is a King. Not what a man says, but what he does, proves his claim.
2. The method of his progress. Jesus wants us to get above the ideas of mere conflict
and victory and overcoming of opposition. What he desires is the free, joyous, and
entire submission of the individual, because of the truth which is made clear to him iu
Jesus. Jesus is the only one who can distinguish reality from appearance, truth from
falsehood, and the abiding from the perishing. Jesus, as he says, came into the world.
The world was ever in his thoughts, for the world's good. He no more belonged to
the land he happened to live iu than the sun belongs to that particular part of the
earth where he happens to be shining. The sun belongs to the whole world, and so
does Jesus. The sun belongs to every age, and so does Jesus. He came into the
world to bear witness to the truth, and wherever there is a soul wrapped iu delusion
and falsehood, mistaking realities tor dreams, and dreams for realities, Jesus is there to
tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. — ^Y.
EXPOSITION.
OHAPTEB XIX.
Vers. 1— 3.— (d) [Within the PraBtorinm.]
The unjust scourging, and the crown of thorns.
Yer. 1. — Then Filate therefore took Jesus,
and scourged him. The force of the " there-
fore " may be seen in the foregoing observa-
tions (see especially Luke xxiii. 23 — 25).
He obviously faucied that the sight of their
Victim's utter humiliation, his reduction to
the lowest possible position, would sate their
burning rage. Scourging was the ordinary
preliminary of cruoifixiou, and it might be
regarded as Pilate's verdict, or the conclusion
of the whole matter. Boman and Greek
historians confirm the custom (Josephus,
' Ant.,' v. 11. 1 ; ' Bell. Jud.,' ii. 14. 9 ; comp.
Matt. XX. 19 ; Luke xviii. 33) of scourging
before crucifixion. It may have had a twofold
motive — one to glut the desire of inflicting
physical torment and ignominy, and another
allied to tiie offer of anodyne, to hasten
the final sufferings of the cross. But the
governor clearly thought that he might, by
first humouring the populace, in releasing
Barabbas from his confinement, and then
reducing to a political absurdity the charge
of treason against Csesar, save the suf-
fering Prisoner from further wrong. The
morbid suggestion of a mind accustomed
to gladiatorial shows, and to .the sudden
changes of feeling which ran through tbe
ampUtheatres at the sight of blood, not
only reveals the incapacity of Pilate to
understand the difference between right ami
wrong, but proves that he had not sounded
the depth of Jewish fanaticism, nor under-
stood the people he h»d been ordered to
coerce. John nsei the word iimariyvrtr,
a purely Greek word. Matthew and Mark,
who refer to the scourging which preceded
Christ's being led to Calvary, use another
official and technical word tpparycWiaas
(identifiable with the Latin word flagdlans).
This does not require us to believe in iimo
sconrgings. Matthew and Mark simply
refer to the scourging, which had been
arbitrarily and Informally inflicted, as John
informs us, before the condemnation was
pronounced. The Boman punishment fla,-
geUis inflicted hideous torture. "It was
executed upon slaves with thin elm rods or
straps having leaden balls or sharply pointed
bones attached, and was delivered on the
bent, bare, and tense back." The victim
was fastened to a pillar for thcpurpose, the
like to which has actually been found by
Sir C. Warren in a subteiranean cavern, on
the site of what Mr. Ferguson regards as
the Tower of Antonia (Westcott). The
flagellation usually brought blood with the
first stroke, and reduced the back to a fear-
ful state of raw and quivering flesh. Strong
men often succumbed under it, whilo the
indignity of such a proceeding in this case
must have cut far deeper into the awful
sanctuary of the Suiferor's soul.
Ver. 2. — Filate then allowed the wounded
and bruised man to be yet further and cruelly
insulted by the Boman soldiers, who de-
lighted in cruel play and coarse scorn. And
the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns, and
put it on his head, and arrayed him in a
purple robe. The " gorgeous robe " ' which
' The three epithets used, Xaiatfis (Lnk«
m. M». 1—42.] THE GOStEL ACCOBDma TO ST. JOHN.
417
had been pnt npon Jesua by Herod had
been probably taken from him before he
was brought the second time Into the Frea-
torlum, and necessarily before his scourging.
Now, though it is called a "purple robe"
by John, and was probably a cast-oflf toga of
the Herodian court, in all likelihood it was
the same gairaent which was thrown again
around his fettered limbs, his bowed and
bleeding form. And the soldiers plaited a
crown of thorns ; in imitation of the victor's
wreath at a "triumph," rather than the
coronet or diadem of a king. The material
is believed by Winer, Hug, Luthardt, and
Godet to be the Lycium epinosum, often
found at Jerusalem, not the acanthus, whose
leaves decorate our Corinthian columns. It
Is of flexible stem, and would be soon
woven into a wreath, the spikes of which,
when it was placed around that majestic
head, would be driven into the flesh, and
produce great agony.
Ver. 3.— They kept on ' ooming to Mm, and
saying to Mm, in sportive mockery of his
supposed Kingship, and utter scorn of the
nation whose Messianic hope they derided,
Hail, King of the Jews ! They did a sham
obeisance to liim,' having elected him, as
Koman guards often did, an "imperator"
on the field of battle. The offerings which
they presented to him wore not the kiss of
homage, but pxiriaiiaTo. They kept on offer-
ing Mm blows on the face, strokes with the
hand or with rods (cf. ch. iviii. 22, note).
Hengstenberg, recalling here (Matt, xxvii.
29) that they put a reed in his hand, symbol
of a sceptre, supposes that he refused to
hold it, in consequence of which they took
it from him, and smote him 'with it. The
awful indiu;nity was a wondrous prophecy.
Nay, from that very hour he began to reign.
That crown of thorns has been more lasting
than any roval diadem. Those cruel insults
have been the title-deeds of his imperial
sway, by which he has mastered the nations.
He "was wimnded, bruised, for the iniquities
of us all. The representatives of the outside
world thus share expressly in the shatne
and ban by which the Hebrew theocracy ia
crushed, and the prince of this world is
judged. " They know not what they do ; "
but Jew and Eoman are guilty before God.
xxiii. 11), k/kkIvos (Matt, xxvii. 28), Trop-
(pipoOv (oh. xix. 2), are not inconsistent.
The \aiiTrpis does not mean "white," but
glittering or gorgeous; and "scarlet" and
"pvurple" are continually interchanged or
mixed (Eev. xvii. 4; xviii. 16).
• Kal ijpxovro irphs ahrSv, This addition
to T.B. is made by Tregelles, Tischendorf
(8th edit.), Alford, R.T., and Westcott and
Hort, on the authority of N, B, L, U, X, 33,
69, the Syriao and other yersioDB.
JOHN. — n.
Vers. 4 — 7. — (e) [Without the Prsetorium.]
Further protestations by PiUUe of Christ'*
innocence bring out tlus hitherto-concealed
Jewiih verdict that he had claimed to be the
Son of Qod.
Ver. 4. — And Pilate, with grim insouBiartee,
allows the mockery to take place, and then,
with his poor derided sham-king at his side,
he went forth again' from the Prsetorium
to the public seat, where he kept up tlie
conflict with the accusers and the ever-
gathering crowd, and saith to them, with
more of passion than before, imagining that
this pitiable caricature of a king would
reduce the cry of " Crucify him 1 " into some
more moderate and less preposterous demand.
Behold, I lead him forth to yon, crowned,
but bleeding, robed as a king, but humiliated
to a condition worse than a slave, that ye
may know that I find no orims' in Mm;
literally, no charge ; i.e. no " crime." Pilate
thus renews and varies his testimony to the
character of the Holy One! He makes
another fruitless appeal to the humanity
and justice of the maddened mob. But
what a revelation of Pilate's own weakness
and shame 1 He can find no fault, but has
connived at, nay, ordered, the worst part of
this atrocious punishment. Keim would
have us think that Pilate's anxiety to save
a Jew is a mere invention made by the
second-century fabricator. There is, how-
ever, nothing incompatible with a Eomau
official's anxiety not to commit a judicial
murder, for his own sake, and perhaps foi
the honour of his order. The hypothesis,
is irrational that the entire representation
of Pilate's desire to screen or save Jesus
from the malice of the Jews was a device
of the author, due to his Gentile nationality
and proclivities, anxious to put even the
Boman officials in the best possible lighv
Surely Christians had no temptation to
mitigate their judgments upon Rome at the
time of the persecution under Marcus Anto-
ninus. Thoma, like Strauss, finds the basis
of the representation in the prophetic types
of Isa. liii. and Ps. xxii.
Ver. 5. — Jesus then came forth, at Pilate's
order, into some prominent position, wear-
ing (ipopiai, not <j>epa), as a regular costume,
the thorny crown, and the purple robe, and
he (Pilate, from his judgment-seat) saith to
them, as this hateful and tragic melodrama
was being enacted. Behold the Man ! Ecca
' K, D, and r read llriAflej', with Tischen-
dorf (8th edit.) ; Griosbach and T.B. read,
with E, G, H, etc., ^riKBev od» ; Lachmann,
E.T., and Westcott and Hort, with A, B, K.
etc., read koI €^7]\6ey,
' Tischendorf (8th edit.), Alford, and
Westcott and Hort differ as to the order of
the words.
2l
118
THE GOSPEL ACCX)BDINQ TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xix. 1—42.
Homo ! This was, doubtless, said to miti-
gate or allay their ferocity. " Let his
nmple humanity plead vrith you! After
this surely you can desire no more." •
" The Man," rather than " the King." Ab
Caiaphas did not know the enormous signi-
ficance of his own dictum (ch. xi. 50), so
Pilate, from his purely secular position, did
not appreoiiite the world-wide meauing of
his own words. He did not know that he
had at his side the Man of men, the perfect
veritable Man, the unattainable Ideal of all
humanity realized. He did not anticipate
that that ciown of thorns, that robe of
simulated royalty, that sign of bloody
agony, and these insults borne with sublime
patience and ineffable love, were even then
lifting Jesus to the throne of eternal memory
and universal dominion ; nor how his own
words would be enshrined in art, and con-
tinue to the end of time a crystidlization
of the deepest emotion of the Church of God.
The hymn of Gerhard expresses in thriUiug
tones the universal and perpetual feeling of
all Christians —
» O Haupt voU Blut und Wunden
VoU schwerz und voUer Hohn I
O Haupt zum Spott gebunden
Mit einor Domerkron 1 "
But the appeal to humanity was vain, and
Pilate's momentary sentiment failed of its
end. Xot a voice in his favour broke the
silence; but —
Ver. 6. — When then the chief priests and
the ofSoers saw him, they stifled every move-
ment of possible sympathy by " loud harsh
cries " {inpaiyaaav). They cried out, Crucify,
crucify Wm/' Scourging and mockery do
not meet the case, nor exhaust the curse and
the verdict they have already pronounced.
He must die the doom of the vilest. He
must be done to death as a slave. Pilate
saith unto them, certainly not granting to
them permission to take the law into their
hands, irrespective of the Frsetorian court
and against his will, but in angry sarcasm,
and with an unconcealed threat, Take him,
ye yourselves, and crucify; that is, if you
dare. Go, do your deed of blood by your
own hands, take all the responsibility ; for I
find no orime in him. Pilate thus derides
their powerlessness, and repeats his verdict
' The E.T. here reads XSe, with A, D, r,
Lachmann, etc. ; but Tregelles, Tischendorf
(8th edit.), and Westcott and Hort read
;5oi-, with N, B, L, X, etc., 1, and 33.
' Griesbach, Lachmann, and Tregellei
(margin) introduce avrov, und there is the
authority of K, A, D', X, and several other
uncials, and numerous authorities. Tisohen-
dorf (8th edit.), B.T., Wettoott wd Hort,
with B, L, omit it
of acquittal (see ch. zriii. 81). At this
moment the so-called trial might have
ended, so far as Pilute was concerned, with
a frank and immediate release. It would
seem as though the governor had decided,
and there could be no more discussion.
But—
Ver. 7. — The Jews answered him,' ready
with an expedient which hitherto they had
not ventured to try upon the Boman official
It might have met with the kind of recep-
tion which Gallio gnve to the accusers of
Sosthenes in the Corinthian court. He might
have driven them at point of spear or whip
from the judgment-seat. " The Jews " here
mentioned, rather than "the chief priests
and officers " of the previous verse, for
the multitude — by some other spokesmen
than they — exclaim. We have a law, and
according to that (the) law' he ought to
die; whatever you may have made of the
charge of political treason. In full session
of our Sanhedrin, he made himself repre-
sented himself, as something more than
Caesar, nay, more than man, as Son of God.
" King of Jews " was a usurpation of the
Messianic dignity ; but he had claimed, in
their very hearing, to be more than a
national leader. He raised himself to the
position of being " Jehovah's King upon his
holy hill," to whom Jehovah had sworn,
" Thou art my Son ; this day have I begotten
thee ; " " Son of God " as well as " King of
Israel." Pilate would not and could not
understand this strange " testimony to the
truth ; " and the people were now in a more
angry and excited state than ever, and
appealed to the law of their own code (Lev.
xxiv. 16), which denounced death upon the
blasphemer. This charge was just unless
the claim was true. If Ciirist had not been
to his own inmost consciousness what he
said he was, the Sanhedrin was in the right ;
and, according to law, he was guilty of
death. It is here vastly interesting to see
another indication of relation between the
synoptic narrative and the Foui'th Gospel.
Though John passed over the scenes before
the Sanhedrin, and the circumstance that
Christ had been actually there doomed be-
cause he had made there no secret of his
Divine claims, and declared himself to be a
king in a higher sense than Pilate dreamed ;
' T.R., R.T., Tregelles, and Westoott and
Hort introduce aurij), with A, B, D, L, X,
and cuTsiTes; but Tisohendorf (8th edit.)
and BUe Revisers omit it, with K and 1.
' T.R. here introduces r\ii.S>v, "our." There
is considerable authority both for additioa
and omission. Tischendorf (8th edit.), Tre-
gelles, R.T., and Westoott and Hort omit it,
with K, B, W, L, A, with ItaUa, Viilg»t%
and other ▼•rsiois
06. XIX. 1—42.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO St. JOfiN.
419
yet John hai giren clear proof that he was
well aware of the confession, and records
the still more striking fact that this special
claim of supreme prerogatiye actually came
to the ears and before the judgment^seat of
Rome.
Vers. 8— 11.— (/) [Within the PreBtorium.]
The fear of Pilate, and the apportionment of
the measures of guilt by the majestie Sufferer.
Yer. 8. — When therefore Filate heard
this word he was more afraid, implying
that John had seen all along that some
element of "fear" had moved Pilate, and
that now it was augmented. Superstition
goes hand in hand with scepticism. In-
stead of this being (as Eeim says) con-
trary to psychologic laws, the history of
scepticism is constantly presenting the same
features (of. Herod Antipas the Sadducee,
who would dogmatically have repudiated
the idea of resurrection, crying out concern-
ing Jesus, " It is John the Baptist, whom
I beheaded : he is risen from the dead," etc.).
We need not suppose that Pilate was sud-
denly affected by the truth of Jewish mono-
theism; but he may readily haye belieyed
that the wondrous Being before him was
enshronded in a mystery of supernatural
portent and pretension that he could not
fathom, and before which he trembled. The
idea of Divine energy enshrined in and
wielded by human beings was not altogether
foreign to heathen thought — and one cen-
turion, at least, who was probably present on
this very occasion, exclaimed that Jesus was
a Son of God (Matt, ixvii. 54).
Ver. 9. — And he entered the Frtetorinm
again (Jesus following him), and he saith to
Jesus, Whence art thoni but Jesus gave him
no answer. Almost all commentators reject
the old explanation of the question of Pilate
given by Paulus, that he simply asked Jesus
of his birthplace or his home. The governor
was disturbed, and ready to suspect that he
had on his hands some supernatural Being
whom no cross could destroy— some mysteri-
ous half-human, half-Divine creature, such
as filled the popular literature; and, without
any spiritual insight on his own side, he en-
ticed Jesus to give him his confidence, and
entrust to his keeping some of the secret of his
origin, and the source of the bitter antago-
nism to his claims. There was fear, curiosity,
and great desire for his own sake to save the
suffering Man from the clutches of his ene-
mies. " Whence ortttou? Hast thou indeed
made this claim? Dost thou call thyself
Son of God? that God is thy proper Father;
that thou art coming in the glory of heaven ;
that thou, in thy purple robe and bleeding
form, art already seated on thy throne of
judgment?" Surely all this was really
conveyed by the qnestion, for we cannot
■nppow that "th* Jam" oonflnad them-
selves to the laconic recital of the charge as
here recorded. The silence of Jesus is very
impressive, and we, in our ignorance, can only
vaguely say what it meant. Very numerous
explanations are offered. Luthardt's idea,
that Clirist would not give an answer whioh
would liave the effect of preventing Pilate,
in his agitated state, from giving the order
for his crucifixion, is stagey and unreaL
Moreover, it is bound up with very question-
able ethic, and suggests that Jesus is answer-
able for the awful sin of Pilate, frota which,
by a word, he might have saved him. Ws
admit that at any moment the Lord could,
if he had chosen, have smitten his foes with
blindness, or delivered himself from their
malice by passing through them (cf. ch.
xii. 59). They would all have fallen to
the earth if he had glanced at them as he
had done upon the Roman guard in Geth-
semane — upon that very band of men who
were now so busy in wiping out the stain of
their momentary pania On other occasions,
when his hour of self-deliverance and self.
devotion to the Father's will had not arrived,
he discomfited his enemies ; but now his hour
had come, and he did not shrink. All this is
true, but it does not account for the refusal
to answer a question like this. Doubtless
the silence was as expressive as speech, and
even less likely to be misunderstood. He
could not have denied that he was " Son of
God." He could not have afSrmed it with-
out leading Pilate to put human and heathen
notions into it. But could not he, who is
infinite wisdom incarnate, have given an
answer whioh would have avoided both dan-
gers? That, however, is practically what he
did effect. The prophetic picture had fore-
told of him, that " like a sheep before its
sliearers is dumb, so he opened not his
mouth ; " and the previous silences of Jesus
before Annas, and before the false witnesses,
before Caiaphas, and Pilate himself, and
before Herod, are all governed by the same
rule — a refusal to save himself from malig-
nant falsity, or tricky design, or conspicu-
ously lying charges ; but when challenged
to say whether he was the Christ, whether he
was the Son of God, whether he was a King, he
gave the answers needed. There was some
likeness between the spirit of Herod, Caia-
phas, and the false witnesses, and of Pilate's
" Whence art thou ? " which did not deserve
an affirmative answer. The governor, who
had scourged and insnlted an apparently
defenceless man, at the very moment when
he was proclaimed innocent, and now was
afraid of what he had done, came into the
category of the slayers of the silent Lamb.
But to the next inquiry, which wont down
to the depths of his heart, and revealed th«
utter unspirituality and self-ignorance which
needed response, a womdious reply was given.
420
THE GOSPEL ACOORDDIG TO ST. JOHN. [oh. six. 1—42.
Ver. 10. — ^Therefore ' saith Pilate to him;
nettled bj this nlence, and with the arro-
gance of a Boman procurator, Speakest
thou not to met "I do not wonder at
your silence before that malignant crowd,
but to me your refusal to speak is in-
explicable." He did not appear to desire
genuine information, nor was his con-
science touched by reflecting upon the
hateful mistake hg had made. " The ifiol
bears the emphasis of mortified power, which
attempts even then to terrify and entice "
(Meyer). Archdeacon Watkins says well,
" Pilate is true to the vacillating character
which now, as Inan, trembles before One who
may be a being from the other world, and
now as Boman governor expects that Being
to tremble before him." Knowest thou
not that I have authority CH<"><''ia'') to re-
lease thee;' and that I have authority to
crucify theel Pilate scoffingly assumes
supreme authority of life and death. He
virtually says, " I am the judge ; you are
the accused criminal. I am your master,
and the master of the Jews ; you are abso-
lutely in my power." This, then, was another
moment of critical and intense interest, and
of tremendous temptation from the prince
of this world. The destiny of the Church, of
Christianity, and of the world might seem
to be trembling in the balance. A single
glance, a single word of admission or plead-
ing, a gesture of deference, or merely human
confidence, or gentle flattery, to say nothing
of the exercise of the very power by which
the Lord had erewbile spell-bound his cap-
tors, or paralyzed the arms which meant to
stone him, and the whole history of the
world (judged from human and historical
standpoints) would have been utterly dif-
ferent. But the same Christ who would not
accept the help of dsemnns, nor ascend
from the mountain of Transfiguration to
his native and primeval home, nor at any
time work a miracle for the supply of his
merely personal need, uttered the memorable
words —
• The oiv is found in T.B., Laoh-
mann, Tregelles, B.T., Westcott and Hort,
and Meyer, on the authority of (<, B, 0,
DSup^ and thirteen other uncials, Vulgate
and other versions; but it is omitted by
Tisohendorf (8th edit.), and bracketed by
Alford, with N*, A, and some minuscules.
There seems, a priori, far more likelihood of
an omission than of an addition on the part
of the copyists.
» Tischendorf (8th edit.), R.T., Westcott
and Hort, on the authority of ((, A, B, E,
as against D, E*, L, and other authorities,
suggest the most natural order of the two
words, appealing first to hope and then to
fear.
Ver. 11. — Then wonldst not have ' autho-
rity against me of any kind, either judicial
or actual, or both combined : thou wouldst
hold no judicial position which I or others
could recognize, nor wouldst thou have the
faintest power to proceed against me unless,
etc. Here our Lord points to the great
doctrine which Paul afterwards expressed
(Bom. xiii. 1) about the powers that be, and
hints that every circumstance and event
which led to Pilate's occupancy of that
judgment-seat, or which in recent times had
delivered up the people of the Lord to the
authority of Borne, and prepared for the
occupancy of the Prsetorium by Pontius
Pilate himself, was altogether beyond the
range of his judge's spontaneity and compe-
tency. Unless it were given thee from above
(Si'mfley). He does not say, "from my
Father," or "from God" — phrases which
would have been incomprehensible to a
sceptical heathen; but "from above," from
that Divine providential source of all power
which rules all. The Lord thus implies
the Divine legitimation of the judicial rank
of Pilate ; and the fact that his continuous
occupancy of it was a talent revocable in a
moment by the hand that gave it, and that
all the exercise of his so-called i^ovtrla was
dependent on his supreme will. Jor this
cause he that delivered' me up to thee.
Though Judas is continually described as
6 napaSois (ch. xviii. 2 ; xiii. 2 ; xi. 21 ;
xii. 4; vi. 64 — 71), yet we have already
seen that the act of Judas had been en-
dorsed by the people, and by the Sanhe-
drin, who now by their highest official
representative had " delivered ", him up to
Pilate (ch. xviii. 35, note), betrayed him
with murderous intention to the power
which could not merely excommunicate, but
could kill by judicial process. Our Lord may
either refer to Caiaphas (Bengel, Meyer,
Luthardt) or to the Sanhedrin and people
as a whole (Godet). Hath greater sin.
" Because the initiative has been taken by
him, and irrespective of thee; because thy
power, such as it is over me, is a Divine
arrangement, made irrespective of thy will ;
and the whole of this proceeding has been
forced upon thee against thy better judg-
' Efx", the reading of Tischendorf (6th
edit.), T.E. and B.T., Westcott and Hort, on
the authority of B, r, A, and other uncials,
is disputed by Tischendorf (8th edit,), who
reads ?x«'5- The imperfect indicative without
&!/ expresses the strong asseveration (Kiihner,
Stallbaum, and Meyer).
' napaiois, H, B, E, A, A, etc., is preferred
by Tischendorf (8th edit.), Westcott and
Hort, and B.T. to the wapaSiSois of T.R., Tre-
gelles (margin), and Alford, which rests on
A and twelve other iuiei«lt.
ua XIX. 1—42.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
«]
ruent." NeTerthelesB, he implies that Pilate
has sinned : he was exercising his seeming
judicial .rights irrespective of justice. He
bad declared Jesus to be free from blame or
charge in open court, but he liad neverthe-
less submitted the innocent Sufferer to the
utmost wrong ; but he that delivered Christ
toFilate had done so out of wilful ignorance,
and was sinning against light and know-
ledge. Caiaphas might have recognized
Christ's true Messiahship, and accepted his
true claims, and bowed before him as the
Sent of God, as the Son of the Blessed; but
instead of this he had violated the law, and
sacrificed the hope and spiritual indepen-
dence of his own people, out of deference to
the sacrosanct honours of his own order.
Pilate's consciousness of independence is
rebuked, and his conscience appealed to,
and the Lord, in this last word to his judge,
claims to be his Suzerain, and awards to him
his share of blame. Pilate said to the Jews,
" I find no fault in him ; " Jesus said to
Pilate, " Thou hast committed a great sin,
tliougli there is another God-given f^ovtria,
which is more seriously and culpably trifled
» ith than thine is : he that delivered me
to thee hath committed a greater."
Vers. 12 — 16. — (3) Pilate vanquished by
his telfiah fear», aiidjtulgment given.
Ver. 12. — ITpon this [Revised Version
(iKToirov) ; not from this moment, or " hence-
forth," as in the English Version,but in conse-
quence of this statement and apportionment
of blame, and not from any appreciation on
Pilate's part of the Divine Sonship which
Jesus had admitted without further defini-
tion]— upon this Pilate sought (imperfect
tense, suggesting repetition and incomplete-
ness in the act) to release him. We are not
told by what means, and we have no right
to introduce the additional notion of "pe-
remptorily," or "the more," but that he
made some further steps in the direction
of resistance to the will of "the Jews."
Baur and others think that the author is,
from doctrinal grounds by mere fabrication,
empliasizing the hostility of the Jews, and
prolonging the agony of a vain attempt.
Every one of these vivid touches impresses
us with the unintentional indication of the
eye-witness. Probably the governor pro-
ceeded to give the order of release;
beckoned his body-guard to remove our
Lord to a place of safety, and took some
obvious steps to screen him from the malice
and envy of his tormentors. But the Jews,
catching sight of tlie process, and ima-
gining some mauceuvre to baulk them of
their prey, reveaU <1 a spirit that has some-
times, but rarely, disgraced humanity : they
dropped their religious plea, they smotliered
their affected loyalty for their ancient Law,
•nd, having no ficrthar oharg« to bring
against Jesna, hid their most inteiue
hatred of Roman rule by assuming the
mask of loyal subjection to Tiberius and to
the majesty of the Caesar. They endeavoured
to work upon the fears of Pilate, who kncM
perfectly well that his position and life
were at jeopardy if the matter stood as
they pretended. With unscrupulous aban
donmeut of all their patriotic boasts, th4
men who hated Rome and were perpetually
plotting against the imperial power, ex-
olaimed {iKpaiycurav,' shouted with harsh
loud yells of bitter hate, that Kpaiy-q raii<
for half a century in the ears of the loved
and faithful disciple). If thou release this
Man, thou art not Caesar's friend. Tlie
friendship and confidence of Cse.-ar was the
title in their hearts to an unresting hatred
and loathing ; yet they are cunning enough
to know that Tiberius was jealous of his
own authority, and no charge was so fatal
to a Roman procurator as crimen majeetatis
(Tacitus, 'Ann.,' iii. 38). Amicut Csesaria
was a title of honour given to provincial
governors, and sometimes to allies of the
Csesar ; but (as Alford, Meyer, and Westcntt
think) on this occasion it was used in wider
sense, and was capable of a more deadly
emphasis. Every one who maketh himself '
a king speaketh against (declares himself
opposed to, rebels against) Ceesar. As if
that was likely to distress these maddened
fanatics ; and as if the very charge had not
been already deliberately laughed to scorn
by both Herod and Pilate. There was a Man
who said he was a King, and Pilate was
guilty of misprision of treason. Pilate's
political history aggravated his fears. His
relations with the emperor were not satis-
factory (Josephus, ' Ant.,' xviii. 3. 1, 2 ; ' Bell.
Jud.,' ii. 9 2 — i ; cf. Luke xiii. 1), and his
knowledge of the power of these Jews to
renew partisan and patriotic charges against
him was now a very serious danger.
Ver. 13. — When Pilate therefore heard
these words, or,myingi,' liis fear of Tiberius
' Here Tischendorf (8th edit.), Alford,
and T.R. read iKpaiya^oy, with numerous
uncials and cursives; Westoott and Hort,
Tregelleg, fxpavyaaav; but R.T. takes eKpa-
(ov, with N°, E, H, etc. ; Matthew and Mark
use ^xpalav and iKpaCov; the Vulgate reads
damahant.
' R.T., Westcott and Hort, Tregelles, and
Tischendorf (8th edit.), on the authority of
nearly all the uncials, read lauriiK instead
of a6T6y of T.B. and Compluteiisian Poly-
glott
• T£ir \Ayav Toiruv is the reading of N, B,
L, and is adopted by Tischendorf (Sth edit.),
Westcott and Hort, and R.T., in preference
to rovTor tir Kiyoy of T.B., which rests on
•mall anthori^. There were, in fact, two
43a
tHfi GOStEL ACCOSDIlfG TO ST. JOHtl. [oh. iix. 1—42
became greater than Ub fear of Christ ; his
anxiety for himself predominated OTsr his
denre for justice and fair play. He found
he had gone too far. Some commentators
and harmonists here introduce the " hand-
waahing" (see aboTO, ch. xviii. 40); but
such a proceeding at this moment, when he
was straightening up his back for the last act
of injustice, would have roused fresh and
' dangerous charges against bis personal
honour. He brought Jesus out from the
Pi setorium to a place in view of the people,
and sat down (not, as some say, caused Jesus,
in mockery, to take his place upon the judg-
ment-seat (Kddi(a has the transitive sense
in ] Cor. vi.' 4 and Eph. i. 20, but not in John ;
and undoubtedly it has the intransitive
sense, not only in John, but in Acts xxv. 6,
17. Moreover, the mockery was the act of
the soldiery and of Herod's men of war, not
of Pilate). It is remarkable, as Dr. James
Dixmxmond. (Theological Bemew, 1877) points
out, that Justin Martyr ('Apol.,' i. 35)
apparently refers to this supposed transitive
ubage of Ka6i^a) in this very connection by
John, by the words, ^laaipovrts ourir iKiSi-
oav eVl $ij^aTos Kol elTroy* Kpivof TjfUl/, It is
reasonable inference that Justin read John's
Gospel, and supposed him to give transitive
force to the verb (see Dr. Salmon, ' Intro-
duction to New Testament,' p. 89, note).
Upon tha judgment-seat in a place called
Kte6aTpa)Toi; the tesselated Pavement — equi-
valent to " stoi le-joining" — in which Romans
delighted from the days of Sulla ; a decora-
tion which Julius Csesar carried about with
him (Suet., 'Vit.,' xlvi) for purposes of
judgment — but in the Hebrew, Oabbatba.
This was probably an elevated and fixed
platform overlooking the temple-courts, or
joining the Castle of Antoiiia with the
temple. Its etymology is K;j'a-aA, the ridge
of the house or temple.* Ewald has en-
deavoured to find in the word the root yaj3,
Aramaic for "insert," modified into y||,
and then to suppose that we have here an
exact equivalent to KMa-rpairov ; but where
this word occurs in the LXX. it is the equi-
viilent of the Hebrew cjsn, Song of Sol.
distinct " sayings " which influenced Pilate.
To give the accusative after i.Koi» of the
thing heard, might easily have led to altera-
tion of the genitive, copyists not perceiving
Ihe personal interests involved in the sayings
which now rang in Pilate's ear.
' Eautzsch, 'Grammatik des Bibl. Ara-
m'aischen,' p. 10, gives the pointing yap$aBa,
with B.T., and remarks on Westcott aud
Hort (who, with Tregelles and Alford, read
yaPPaSi, and says it is an Aramaic word, Kria^
Stat, emphal to ttaj, ui elevation, which is
feminine to a|)k
iii. 10. The \i96<rTpuTov was possibly Bom«
elevated seat reached by a flight of stairs,
and in the open air, not the hema within
the Pratorium, where the more privat*
conversations took place.
Ver. 14. — Ifow it was the preparation of tha
Passover. Once more the question of the dis-
crepancy between the Johannine aud synop-
tic implication of the day of our Lord's death
reappears. This statement is claimed eagerly
by both classes of critics. Hengstenberg,
M'Olellan, Lange, Schaff, etc., all urge that
the word " preparation " is simply the
" Friday " before the sabbath — " the eve of
the sabbath," and that roS Ilcio-xa is added
in the broad Johannine sense of the entire
Paschal festival, and means the " Friday "
of the Passover week, and that thus John
only confirms tlie synoptic narrative that the
Passover had been sacrificed on the previous
evening. To this it is replied, by Meyer,
Godet, Westcott, Farrar, etc., that this use of
irapaaKft/f) belongs to a much later period,
and here it is used in the sense of the " pre-
paration" for the Paschal meal, without
interfering with the fact afterwards men-
tioned, that it was the pro-tdbiaton, the day
before the sabbath ; the first day of un-
leavened bread coinciding with the ordi-
nary weekly sabbath. The to5 ir&axa here
would liave no meaning for a reader, who
had not learned this technical and later
patristic usage. Why should not John, on
that understanding, have simply used the
word in the sense which the synoptists give
to it, as equivalent to the irpotriPPaTov ?
[There is another difficulty in the former
inteipretation : if our Lord was crucified on
the first day of unleavened bread and after
the Paschal meal, there would be a second
preparation of the Passover on that day
week, so that John could not have spoken
of it with the precision which he used (see
notes on ch. xiii. 1 ; xviii. 28).] The balance
of argument, so far as John is concerned, is
in favoiir of tlie Passover meal being still in
prospect, and the statement is made to call
attention to the fact that, as St. Paul said,
" Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us."
Thus doubtless the blindness of the Jews
is aggravated, and the typical and symbolic
meaning of the correspondence between
the ritual and its antitype emphasized.
Another serious perplexity occurs. It was
about the sixth hour. This is in manifest
opposition with Mai-It's statement (xv. 25)
that the Crucifixion took place at the third
hour, and with all three of the synoptists,
that the supernatural darkness overspread
Jerusalem from the sixth to the ninth hour.
This is represented as taking place after
our Lord had been hanging for some time
upon the cross. Some relief to this great
difficulty of horology Is found in the aU|ibt
OH. XIX. 1-42.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDniTG TO ST. JOSN.
423
modification of the text from Spa Si &<re\
«KTi) of T.B. to ffipo ^v &s 6KTi),^ which may
•uffer the reading of Lange ("es war gegen
die "), " it was going on towards the sixth
hour " — the third hour, 9 a.ra., was passed,
aud it was moving on to midday. Westoott,
in an elaborate note on John's measurement
of time, endeavours to prove that he aZway$
uses the Eomnn system of measure from
midnight to midday, instead of the Oriental
method of measurement from sunrise to sun-
set, and that he meant by the sixth hour
6 a.m., not 12 midday. But if this is pos-
sible, the perplexity is rather increased than
diminished. It is difSoult to imagine that
this stage of the proceedings could have been
reached by six o'clock a.m., and that three
hours still followed before the Lord was cru-
cified. M'Clellan hotly espouses this inter-
pretation, and, against Farrnr, maintains
that the Bomans did adopt this computa-
tion, by quotations from Censorinus (' De Die
Nat.,' xxiii.), Pliny (<Nat. HUt.,' ii. 77),
Aulus Gellius, and Macrobius ; and he re-
minds his readers that John wrote in Ephe-
sus, and proves that there was an Asiatic
computation of time which correspunded
with the Boman, and that there is abundant
time before 6 a.m. for all that is needed to
have taken place. This is the interpreta-
tion of Townson ('Discourses on the Four
Gospels '), and it is espoused by Gresswell,
Wieseler, Ewald, Westoott, Moulton. Godet,
however, gives strong proof, on ch. i. 39,
that the Greeks of Asia Minor were familiar
with the Jewish reckoning from sunrise to
sunset (see notes on ch. i. 39 ; iv. 6 ; xi. 9).
Eusebius supposed an alteration of the text
of John, converting 1^=3 into s''=6. It is
strange that no manuscripts have revealed
the fact, though the third corrector of X°
and the supplement to D suggest tliis early
solution of the difSculty. Eusebius was fol-
lowed by Ammonius and Severusof Antloch.
Beza, Bengel, and Alford with hesitation
accept this conclusion. Luthardt, Farrar,
and Schaff seem inclined to think that this
may be the explanation, unless the £is be
used with great latitude of meaning, and
that what is really intended was that it
was moving on to midday. The nine o'clock
had been passed. Luthardt is dissatisfied
with every explanation, not simply because
it ia inconsistent with the synoptic narrative,
but because it is incompatible with John's
own reckoning. Hengsteuberg thought
that the division of the day into four
periods of three houiB each is far older
• The latter reading is preferred by E.T.,
Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, Alford, Ti-
schendorf (8th edit.), on uncial authority
and numerous references to the subject in
the Fathers.
than either the Talmud or Maimonides (eC
M&rk xiii. 35; Luke xii. 38; Matt. xx.
3, 4), and that the synoptic narrative
reckoned by the terminus a quo, wliioh,
taken literally, would be too early for the
act of crucifixion, and that John's reckon-
ing points to the terminus ad quem, which,
taken literally, would be too late. M'Clellan
thinks this "outrageous 1 " tliough Andrewes,
Lewin, Ellicott, and Lange practically
adopt it. Augustine says, "At the third
hour (Mark) he was crucified by the tongues
of the Jews, at the sixth hour (John) by the
hands of the soldiers." Da Costa suggested
that the sixth hour was reckoned backward
from 3 p.m., the commencement of the pre-
paration. Mark, by using the aorist, cannot
have intended to convey that the whole
process of crucifixion, commencing with
the scourging, including the procession to
Golgotha, and the last scene of all, was in-
cluded in the verb, (Hesychius argued this
view at length, saying that Mark refers to
the verdict of Pilate, and John to the nailing
to the cross.) At the hour, thus indicated by
a term which cannot be finally interpreted,
Pilate, trembling with rage and impotent
fury, endeavoured to fling .it the head of
the haughty priesthood another maddening
taunt, and yet with a flash of inward con-
viction which, after all, staggered him : he
pointed once more to the sublime Sufferer,
bleeding from his wounds and crowned
with thorns, having every mark upon him of
their insulting cruelty and insensate hate,
wearing the mock and cruel habiliments of
royalty, and he saith unto the Jews, Behold
yoni King ! There is the King whom you
have crowned, and whose claim lies altogether
beyond your ken. Wavering between the
favour of Tiberius and the claims of justice,
remembering that Sejanus, to whom he had
personally owed his own appointment, had
already fallen a victim to the jealousy of
their common master, he yet eannut suppress
the bitter taunt involved in "ISe i Baai\fiis
Vers. 15, 16. — ^Ihey on the other hand there-
fore yelled • out, Away with him ! away with
(him) ! Cmcify Mm ! The aorists, ipov
<rTaipa><ror, imply the haste and impatience
which they manifest to have done with the
conflict ; and Pilate, eager to thrust another
envenomed dagger into the heart of their
pride, and knowing that to call this Man
whom he had made vile in their eyes theii
"Kins," and to crucify One to whom such
• title could be given would be gall and
• "Expaiyairav again. Tregelles, B.T,
Westcott and Hort, and Tifchendorf (Sti
edit.) give olv iKeivoi tot the oi Se of T.B.
and Lachmann, on the anthority of K*, S^
Ii, X.
424
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. irr. 1— 4^
wormwood to them, cried, with flashing
anger. Shall I orucify your Kingi This
wrung forth from them a cry which expressed
the uttermost and basest abandonment of
all their proud boasts, a heartless and fate-
ful acknowledgment of their servility and
dependence. The chief priests answered,
We have no king but Caesar ! Our Messianic
hope is dead, our national independence
is at an end, our witness as a people to
truth, our listening to the voice which
would have gathered us together, are over.
As before they had shouted, " Not this Man,
but Barabbas 1 " so now, " Not the Lord of
glory, but the daemon lord of Borne; not
this King of kings, but Tiberiug Augustus
et Dominus saoratissimus noster." In re-
nouncing Christ by the lips of their chief
priests, they put themselves under the power
of the prince of this world, and terribly they
aniwered for their crime. "They elected
Csesar to be their king ; by Csssar they were
destroyed " (Lampe). Their theocracy fell
by their mail rage against the perfect em-
bodiment of the highest righteousness and
purest love. " The kingdom of God, by the
oonfesbiou of its rulers, has become the king-
dom of this world." How terribly symp-
tomatic of the perpetual resistance of his
claims by all those who deliberately reject
his authority I " We have no king but
fashion 1" "We have no king but mammon I"
"We have no king but the leader of our
clique ! " " We have no king but pleasure I "
" We have no king but our royal selves I "
— are voices not unfrcquently heard even
now. This cry was too much for Pilate ; he
wavered, paltered with justice, vented his
insolence and pride, knew better and did
the thing which he felt to be base, " He
who had often prostituted justice was now
utterly unable to achieve the one act of jus-
tice which he desired. He who had so often
murdered pity was now forbidden to taste
the sweetness of a pity for which he longed "
f Farrar). Then therefore he delivered him
to them, in order that he might he ornci-
fled. "Ibis ad oruoem. I miles bxpedi
OBUCEM," were the awful words in which he
would deliver his judgment and secure an
everlasting execration. Be delivered, up
Je»ua unto them; for they, though not the
positive hands by which the foul deed was
done, were the sole inciting causes of the
Hct. Luke, as well as John, involves this
idea, and Peter (Acts ii. 23) says, " Ye slew
him, crucifying him by the hands of lawless
men," and (Acts iii. 15) " Ye killed the Prince
of Life." Yet they were profoundly anxioug
for hii death by Roman crucifixion, not only
becausie thus they were impelled to fulfil the
great prophecy and confirm the words of
the blessed Lord himself, but beoause they
wished to stamp out in disgrace and ihame
all his olaims ; because they wished that th«
supreme court, the heathen and corrupting
power, should dash down to earth and defile
this idol of some of the people and even
some of their own number; because they
wished to deliver themselves from the re-
sponsibility of the act, and to avoid being
called to give an account to Rome of their
judicial murder; and in the act itself they
wished to have a Roman guard to prevent
an escape and quell an fmertte. The school
of Tubingen endeavour to invalidate the
Johannine portraiture of Pilate, and to
ascribe its fictitious creation in the second
century to a desire then rampant, to charge
upon the Jews all the blame of the act, and
to exhibit Pilate as a symbol of the sym-
pathy which the Gentile world was extend-
ing to Chriitianity and the Church. The
persecutions which prevailed from the days
of Nero, Domitian, and Trajan, to those of
the Antonines, rebuke such a supposition.
Moreover, the synoptic narrative is equally
explicit with St. John in setting forth the
sympathy of Pilate, or rather his desire to
release Jesus (Matt, xxvli. 14 and 18, 17 —
23, 24 ; Mark xv. 8—10 ; Luke xxiii. 13—22).
Luke tells us that Peter charges the guilt of
the Crucifixion upon the Jews (Acts ii. 23 ;
iii. 15; cf. Jas. v. 6; Eev. xi. 8). The ex-
planation of Pilate's conduct and of his final
despicable act is given only in John's Gos-
pel ; and even Beuss admits that we have in
John " the true key of the problem " (see
Godet, in loo., vol. iiu pp. 260—263).
Vers. 17— 24.— (4) Tm Cbuoihxioh.
Love unto the utiermost.
Vers. 17, 18. — (o) Tfts eireumstancet of
the death.
Ver. 17. — ^Therefore they took (received)
Jesus ' from the hands of the Gentile, lead-
ing the way in their accursed procession,
gloating over their Victim. nap4\a$ov re-
minds us (Westcott) of the Trap4\a$oi> (ch. i.
11), where it is said, "His own received him
not." They did not receive him in the ful-
ness of his grace, but they did receive him
to iuHict the curse and shame and death
for which they had plotted and clamoured.
This powerful suggestion is brought out by
the amended text. At this point, when the
sacred Sufferer left the Pratorium and was
• The oSy, " then," has the authority of
B, L, X, 33, and some versions ; but a large
number of uncials read Si, with T.R., Gries-
bach, and Scholz, who also add, koI irliyayov.
The K* reads ol Si \ap6i^fs. The varia-
tions are numerous in the end of the sen-
tence. Tregelles, Tischendorf (8th edit.),
Westcott and Hort, and R.T. read oiv with-
out addition. (Syriao — Harclean, margin —
adds, fit rh irpaiT^/usv.) Some cursives add,
els T^ VTaveiaau
OH. XIX. 1—42.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
425
dragged into the nuh of the vociferating
crowd, the eynoptio narrative becomee far
fuller in detail. The terrible tragedy in-
cludes the disrobing. The bleeding form
is once more clothed with his own gar-
ments (Hatt. xxvii. 31 ; Mark XT. 20).
It is not necessary to suppose a second
scourging (see ver. 1). 'Ihe circumstance
mentioned (Luke xxiii. 26 and parallel pas-
sages) of Simon of Cyrene made to bear his
cross after him, shows bow Jesus in his
human nature had suffered already. A
second scourging (if we judge by all we can
gather of such an infliction) would have
been followed by immediate death, atid
would thus have snatched from them the
realization of their inhuman purpose. The
statement that, bearing his cross for himself,
he went forth, sliows that they tried to
force him thus in his agony to endure this
additional humiliation, and, from his physi-
cal exhaustion, were compelled to make use
of the expedient described by the syuoptists.
Mark (xT. 22) introduces another most sug-
gestive word, <j)4pou(riv avriii, literally, "they
carry him " from the place where they com-
pelled (ayyapeiovaiv) Simon to take up his
cross, and at least he hints, if lie does not
express, the terrible fact that they had, by
tlieir fell cruelty of all kinds, at length ex-
hausted all the human physical strength of
the Sufferer. John's language, though at
first sight discrepant with Luke's, really ex-
plains it. Luke also describes the wailing
of the daughters of Jerusalem, and the sub-
lime self-forgetfulness with which Jesus
turned their thoughts from his agony to
themselves and their children. Mattliew
and Mark both relate another scene, which
seems as if one gleam of pity had crossed
some heart — " They offered him wine, mixed
with narcotic gall," to stupefy liis senses,
and lull his physical agony. He did not
put it by " witli suicidal hand ; " but, as
LCeble sang —
" Thou wilt feel all, that thou mayst pity all ;
And rather wouldst thou wrestle with
strong pain
Than overcloud thy sou].
So clear in agony,
Or lose one glimpse of heaven before the
time."
(' Christian Year.')
He went forth to a place called the place of
a skuU, which is called in the Hebrew, Gol-
gotha. "He went forth " from the Prsatorium
along the ViS. Dolorosa, wheresoever it was,
beyond the city wall (Heb. xiii. 12, etc., " He
suffered without the gate "). Moses had for-
. bidden (Lev. xxiv. 14 ; Numb. xv. 35) capital
punishment within the camp (of. 1 Kings
xxi. 13 ; Acts vii. .58). The traditional site
of the place is far within the present walls
in the north-western quarter of the city, not
far from the gate of Damascus ; and endless
discussions have prevailed with respect to-
the line of the second city wall, which at
that time mnst either have included or
excluded the iite of the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre. The identification of the site
of Golgotha is rendered difiScult from the
eagerness with which theories have been
sustained. (1) Ferguson's' theory is that
Constantino's " Church of the Resurrection "
is to be found in the 'dome of the rock'
in the temple enclosure 1 He urges that the
tradition was moved thence to the " Church
of the Holy Sepulchre" in the eleventh
century, when Fatimite kaliphs drove the
Christians away, and persecuted the pilgrims
to such an extent as to produce the reaction
of the Crusades. (2) The ecclesiastical
theory is that the tomb and all the awful
and blessed associations are to be reckoned
for somewhere within the buildings or ruins
of the present church. The difSculties are
.great ; for, instead of being " without the
gate," or " nigh the city," it is situated ia
the heart of the present city, and it is very
difiScult to imagine or trace any line of wall
which could have run in such a way as to
e.\clude tlie supposed site of the tomb from
the city. (3) A modern theory (see ' Surrey
of Palestine ') finds the tomb in the imme-
diate vicinity of Jeremiah's grotto, to the
north of the Damascus gate. This site has
good claims, from the probability (o) that
it was the place of puhlio execution ; (fc) that
the second wall of the city did coraespond
with the present wall ; (c) tliat there are
reasons to think that it was built over and
concealed from view until comparatively
recent years. Warren and Conder give a
drawing of the tomb and its arrangement,
' See Ferguson's art. "Jerusalem," in
Smith's 'Diet, of the Bible.' Williams
(' Holy City ') places much dependence on
the sanctity of the tradition. See ' Survey of
Western Palestine: Jerusalem,' Warren and
Conder, pp. 319, etc., 429, etc., 380, etc., for
a lecent and most important suggestion;
' Pictorial Palestine,' i. 14, etc., for a descrip-
tion of the present Churcli of tlie Holy Sepul-
chre. Dr. Robinson, ' Bibl. Researches,' ii.
14— 80, shows that the walls of the city at the
time of Christ were so ordered as to include
within the city the traditional site. Caspari
{loo. cit., 229, etc., 304) strongly sustains the
traditional site, and believes, in opposition
to Robinson, that the second wall of the city
did pass south and east of the church. Dr.
Hitchcock, Lange, Schaff, and Stanley sup-
pose it to be the hill Goath (Jer. xxxi. 89),
on the eastern side of the sheep-gate. The
line of the wall is at the present moment
receiving fresh investigation.
426
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xix. 1—41
whioh rastaing the probability that it la the
tomb once hallowed by the most stupendous
event in the history of the world. Bobinson
said, " The place was probably upon a great
road leading from one of the gates, and such
a spot would only be found upon the west
or north side of the city, on the roads lead-
ing to Joppa or Damascus." The word
" Gulgotha" or "Gulgaltha " is the Aramaic
(of. Sy riao Oagulta) form of 6uZgoJatt,Hebre w
for " skull," and may derive its name from
the form of the mound or bare place where
was the garden in which the rock-hewn
tomb of Joseph had been excavated. The
Vulgate translates the word Calvana,& skull,
from which our word " Calvary " is derived.
The English version in Luke xxiii. 33
thus translates the Greek word KpaAop, and
from this passage the word has been natu-
ralized in our language. There is no autho-
rity for the appellation "Mount Calvary."
The name probably refers to the shape of
the site where the event took place. From
this verse we learn that Jesus went forth to
the spot, and (ch. xix. 20) John further says
it was " nigh unto the city," therefore not
within it. The same position relative to
the city is obvious from Matt, xxviii. 11,
where the Bomau guard came from the
tomb CIS tV ir6\iv. The Bomans were ac-
customed to execute theii criminals in some
conspicuous position, adjoining a travelled
road, so that those passing by, as well as
those who congregated for the purpose,
might know and learn its meaning. They
reached tlis chosen spot —
Ver. 18. — ^Where they crucified him. As
John barely mentions this awful climax of
his Gospel, it is not needful here to enlarge
upon the heartrending details of this
hideous process, one which Cicero described
as "crudeli8Bimum,teten'imum,summum sup.
plicium," one from which no Roman citizen
lould suffer, and which was reserved for the
most ignominious and degraded of mankind —
for traitors, brigands, and condemned slaves. '
It is sufficient to say that, from the mention
of the eireypailiii iir" avTif (Luke xxiii. 3S^,
the cross was not simply of the T shape
called crux oommissa, but rather (Luthardt
and Zockler) of the familiar shape "h and
termed crux immiasa, upon the upper arm of
which the title or accusation, which had
been placed round his neck, was afSxed,
The victim of this punishment was stripped,
laid on the central bar, and the arms
attached by ropes to the transverse beam,
the hands and feet fastened with, huge iron
' Otto Zockler, 'Cross of Christ,' Clark'i
tram.; Winer, 'Eealworterbuch,' "Creuzi-
gung;" Farrar'a 'Life of Christ;' have
exhausted the labjeot (of. Bteinmeyer,
' PMsion,' etc).
nails to the wood. A ledile was arranged
to bear a portion of the weight of the body,
which would never have been sustained by
the gaping wounds. The cross was then
raised by the executioners, and thrust with
a tierce jerk into the hole or socket prepared
for it. There was nothing in this inhuman
torture necessarily to occasion death. The
sufferers often lingered for twelve hours,
and sometimes for several days, dying at
last of thirst, starvation, and utterly in-
tolerable agony. The Bomans generally
left the bodies to be devoured by birds of
prey; the Jews buried the corpses. Constan-
tino I., after his conversion, out of reverence
for the Lord wliom he had chosen, abolished
the punishment, which, far more terrible
than one by wild beasts or fire, has never
been renewed, and rarely practised in Europe
since that day. There, then, these Jews, by
the handa of lawless men, by Boman execu-
tioners, "crucified the Lord of glory," and
by their hideous insensibility to goodness, by
judicial blindness, bigotry, envy, and pride,
not knowing the infinite crime they were
committing, offered up a sacrifice, slew the
Lamb of God, killed a Passover of transcen-
dent price. That torture-tree has become
his throne, and the very symbol of all that
is most sacred and awe-inspiring in the
entire region of human thought. They did
not by this gross and inconceivable wicked-
ness bring their rage to its full satisfaction ;
for they crucified two other with him, on
either side one QnTeiSev ical trrevBev, an
expression only found in this passage and
Bev. xxii. 2), and Jesus In the midst, most
prominent in this tragedy, and exalted to
what they believed was the very pinnacle of
■hame. The synoptic narrative has told us
these two men were " robbers " (Apo-raf, not
K\eirTai) or (icoitoSpyoi) " malefactors," who,
according to their own confession, were
"suffering the due reward of their deeds."
For a while both these dying rufSans tried
to add torment to their quiet and patient
fellow-Sufferer. Luke's account of the
change that came over one of them as the
awful hours rolled on is one of the sublimest
portents that attended the Crucifixion. John
passes this well-known incident by, most
obviously supplementing the synoptists' nar-
rative with matter which they had omitted.
It is strange that .lohn, if he had simply a
theological purpose in his selection of facts,
should have omitted the sublime prayer,
" Father, forgive them ; for they know not
what they do" (Luke xxiii. 34), a revelation
of compassion, power, inward agony, blended
with Divine prerogative and unspeakable
tranquillity, which has done so much to-
reveal "the heart of Christ," the eesenoa
and character of the living God.
Ver». 19— 22.— (J) The ti(l» en (h» enm
OH. XIX. 1—42.] THE GOSPEL AOCOEDING TO ST. JOHN.
427
Ver. 19. — ^The evangelist turns to an event
of which the Bynoptista say little, and qnietly
attribute to the Jews themselves. John,
from the special access which he had to
information about the high priest and the
court of Pilate, says, Kow Filate wrote a title
also (the Latin techJoical word tItKov is used
in preference to the Greek word Imypaijyfi,
"superscription"), and he put it, by the
hands of his own soldiers, on the cross. We
cannot translate Hypatfie as a pluperfect, and
therefore it becomes probable that after the
procession had gone howling and cursing
away to Golgotha, he bad had the rlT\oy
prepared. And there was written upon
the parchment, or the tablet, in letters all
could read, JESUS 07 NAZABETH THE
KING OF THE JEWS, thus Pilate resolved
to sting these murderous Jews to the last
point of exasperation, in harmony with the
character given him by Philo- Judieus ; but
perhaps this motive was also stimulated by
another — though he sought to punish their
pride with scorn and scoff at their hypocri-
tical charge, he may have had some strange
irresistible conviction that there was reality
in the royal supremacy of this marvellous
Being, who throughout was conspicuqusly
triumphant in his patient dignity. He seems
muttering to himself, " Let him be Chief of
malefactors, but he is and wUl be King of
the Jews nevertheless, and I do not ignore
the memories of either David or Solomon,
Zerubbabel, Hyrcanus, or Idumffian Herod.
The title differs sliglitly in its phrase in the
four evangelists, yet they all preserve lite-
ratim the central fact of the change, "the
King of the Jews." John alone mentions the
circumstance, which may explain the minute
differences (so Gresswell, 'Diss.,' xlii.), viz.
that it was written in three languages, (o) the
vernacular, or " Hebrew ; " (6) the official, or
" Latin ; " (c) the speech generally under-
stood by all strangers, or "Greek." The
minute differences may be represented by
Matthew using the Hebrew, Mark the Latin,
and Luke and John the Greek, the latter
simply adding the personal name of the
crucified. Whether this hypothesis explain-
ing the "this is" of Matthew, the "Eex
Judeeorum " of Mark, the " this " of Luke,
and the fuller statement of John, which gives
what was contained in one of the languages,
be verified or not, it should be observed that
the four evangelists agree as to the verbatim
form of the cuTla, John more abundantly
supplementing the information by record-
ing the full T(T\as. Even Strauss does not
regard these differences as discrepancies.
Ver. 20. — ^Ihis title therefore many of the
Jews read : for the place where Jesus was
oruoifled was nigh unto the city ; and it was
written in Hebrew, in Soman (Latin), and
ia Greek. The word 'EPpaia-rl occurs four
times in this Gospel and twice in the
Revelation, and nowhere else in the New
Testament. Codex B reads 'Fa/uuirTt first.
The Latin form of the trilingual inscription
may very naturally have been placed at
the top. The reference to this peculiarity
of the inscription as also given by Luke, in
T.B., is there oniitted by Tisohendorf (8tli
edit.), Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, and
B.T., M'Clellan, and others; it looks as if
the reading had been borrowed from John, or
rather from the spurious 'Acts of Pilafe,'
with which it verbally agrees. The procla-
mation of Christ's royalty to the three great
divisions of the civilized world is a providen-
tial fact of supreme interest. Thousands of
Jews would carry the news of the mysterious
" title " to far-off places, and ponder it in
their homes. This was part of the prepara-
tion made by Divine providence for au-
nounciug to the whole world the kingdom of
Jesus Christ. Since the cross from the very
first thus became a throne, and the Cruci-
fixion an installation into the kingdom, we
learn thence the meaoingof the Christian
principle, " If we suffer with him, we shall
also reign with him."
Ver. 21. — Then said the chief priests of
the Jews to Pilate. They must have hurried
back to him with petulant resentment of his
intentional scorn.. Observe the very unusual
phrase, " the chief priests of the Jews," as
though the priesthood felt the connection
between the priesthood and kiiig^-hip of the
theocratic people, and it gave additional
sting to the sarcastic reproach involved in
the inscription. Write not, The King of the
Jews ; but that he said, I am King of tha
Jews. They resented the association of
the theocratic or Messianic symbol with
the spiritual Being whom they had con-
demued. Had they not already declared
that they had no king but Csesar ? Doubt-
less he said, " I am the King of the Jews ; "
he made the claim, not in a sense ^hich
could be rationally entertained in a Boman
court, but in the true Messianic and pro-
phetic sense. The priests knew perfectly
well that because Jesus had altogether
refused. Heir of David though be was, to
entertain the Kingship in the only sense in
which they desired to proclaim it, they had
rebelled against him and rejected his claims.
For Pilate to have given any coluur to the
purely spiritual prerogative of their Victim
roused their remonstrance, but that it might
be treated as identification of the national
cause with a convicted and crucified felon
exasperated them.
Ver. 22. — ^Pilate answered, What I have
written I have written. And he curtly
dismissed them. Pilate no longer dreaded
their making his apparent favour to Jesus
into » oomplaint to the emperor, and h«
428
THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. [ch. xdc 1—42.
gave way to the indomitabl* temper of
which Philo accuteB him. He found grim
■atisfaction in insulting and browbeating
them for a monient, *0 yeypailia, yiypafa.
" I laid it, and I meant it ; I have crucified
rour King ; jes, true King in his own sense,
nt not in you is. You have falsely charged
him with Ttbeliing agiiinat Ccesixr, and you
know that you have lied to my face. Let
be ; he is your King, and so perish all your
futile attempts to shatter the arm that holds
you now in its grasp." That and more was
condensed in this haughty and obstinate
reply. While this was going on in the
Prffitorium, the tragedy was proceeding at
Golgotha ; and St. John now returns thither,
and describes an event of intense interest
which occurred, as all synoptists say, at the
very time of the elevation of the cross. John,
however, baa further facts and symbolic
detail to append which were omitted bj
them.
Vers. 23, 24. — (o) The seamless garment.
Ver. 23.— Matthew (xxvii. 35), Mark (xT.
24), and Jjuke (xxiii. 34) all mention that
the soldiers took his garments ((juktw), and
divided them according to the ordinary
pustnm followed at executions amongst
themselves. These were the head-dress, the
large outer robe with its girdle, the sandals,
one taking one thing and another another,
and each evangelist added that the soldiers
cast lots upon the garments, as to who should
take which. As these garments may have
been of varied value, the lot may have been
required; but Jolin, in his narrative, throws
fresh light upun this latter and humiliating
act. Then the soldiers, when they had cmci-
fied JesoB, took his garments, and made four
parts, to every soldier a part. This shows
that a quaternion of soldiers, and not the
" whole band," had been told off for the
infernal deed, Pilate knew now that there
wag no need of an army to keep the people
from popular insurrection. The rest of the
gairison were not far olt, should they be
required ; moreover, the servants of the high
priest were ready to act on an emergency ;
but John adds, And also the coat (the
X^riiv, the KJia^) ; the long vesture which
clothed his whole person, reaching from the
neck to the feet, and which, when removed,
left the sacred body naked. This had pro-
batjly not been removed by either Herod or
Pilate before, and the cursed indignity thus
renched its climax (Hengstunberg ; cf. Job
Tiiv. 7 — 10). Now the coat was without
Beam ' from the top — from the upper por-
tion*— ^woven thronghoat (Si' i?uiv, an ad-
' R.T., T.E., Westcott and Hort, and
Luthardt spell ipjiaipos; but Tischendorf
(8th edit.) and Tregelles read lipa<l>as, with
i<, A, D, utd a large number of later uncials.
verbial form) — woven, possibly, by the
mother who loved him, and correiponding
with the dress of the priests. Eeim and
Thoma see here " a symbolizing of Jesus as
the High Priest " (see Holman Hunt's cele-
brated picture the '• Light of the World").
Certainly John saw the Lord in bis glory
with a garment of the kind (woven of radiant
light, and-reacbing to the feet, Eev. i.). The
unity of the Saviour's seamless vesture has
been variously treated in patristic litera-
ture : as symbolic of the unity of natures in
his Person, by the Monophysites ; and by
Cyprian ('De Unitate Ecclosise,' § 7) in
his conflict with Novatianists, as symbolic
of the unity of the Church, and he actually
builds uu it his dictum, "He cannot possess
the garment of Christ who parts and divides
the Church of Christ." This garment could
not be conveniently divided.
Ver. 24. — ^Ihey said therefore to one
another, Let us not rend it, but let us oast
lots for it, whose it shall be. How obviously
we have the eye-witness again, and the
observation of one whose whole heart was
bleeding with unutterable anguish 1 Here
is the true explanation of the " lot " referred
to by the synoptists, and moreover a subse-
quent reflection of the evangelist, who saw
once more a realization of the prophetic
picture of the ideal Sufferer at his last ex-
tremity of reproach and humiliation. He
quotes almost verbally from the LXX., That
the Scripture might be fulfilled (which '
saith). They parted my garments among them
(to themselves), and for my vesture (i^aTiir-
n6v iiov) they did cast lots. If John had
quoted accurately from the Uebrea, he
would have preserved more obviously the
contrast between the onia and the ti^'iaS
which yet was clearly in his mind. The
Xiriv was the portion of the iiiaTia/ids upon
wliich the lots were cast. Liicke and De
Wette (though not Meyer) regard it as
certain that John took the l/iaTiffp-is as
identical with the x'tiSv. Strauss describes
Ps. xxii. as the programme of the Crucifixion.
He styles it thus for the purpose of under-
valuing the historical character of the
narrative, and of suggesting that it owed
its origin to the prophetic picture rather
than to the actual fact (so Thoma). There
is another sense in which the statement is
true. Unconsciously the various concomi-
tants of the suffering of the Holy One of
God were being one by one realized by the
Divine Lord. The synoptists, without refer-
ence to the ancient oracle, record the fact
' K, B, and the Italic, and other authori-
ties omit II \fyowra, witli Tischendorf (8th
edit.), and Westcott and Hort. The word*
are retained by B.T., T.B., Tregelles, mi
Alford.
•H. xnt 1-42.] THE GOSPEL ACOORDINa TO BT. JOHN.
429
imperfectly. John adds what oame trader
his own eye, explains their inadequate re-
presentation of the "lot," and discerns the
veritable fulfilment of the prophecy. The
reference in Matthew to this fulfilment of
prophecy is expunged from the text by
Tischendorf (8th edit.), Westcott and Hort,
and B.T., on the authority of K, A, B, D,
nine uncials and two hundred manuscripts,
numerous versions and Fathers. Thus the
fourth evangelist is the solitary authority
for this fulfilment of the prophetic word, and
he reveals a feature which is sometimes
denied him by tiiose who tiy to establish
the OentUe origin of the Gospel. These
tilings therefore the soldiers did. A grapliio
and historic touch, corresponding with the
method in which Herodotus closed his
account of the slaughter at Thermopylie.
In John's case more was suggested. While
Pilate had announced to the world that
Jesus of Nazareth was " King of the Jews,"
and Caiapliaa had declared that " it was
expedient that one man should die for the
people," the Boman soldiers, without any
Knowledge of Hebrew oracles, had all nn-
oonsoiously filled ap the features of the
suffering Messiah in literal harmony with
the ancient prediction. In a commentary on
John's Gospel we cannot here disouas some
of the other impressive features of the Cruci-
fixion, npon which the fourth evangelist
is silent. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all
describe a revolting scene of brutal mockery
which ridiculed the dying Lord with his
helplessness, and charged him with hypo-
crisy, Bcofi'ed at his having boasted of his
Divine Sonship, and of power to build the
demolished temple in three days — an
ominous charge, which he was so soon to
meet. They did not see that they were de-
stroying the temple of bis body, and that he
would verily paralyze all their power to
crush his kingdom by building it up at the
predestined hour. The great cry was,
" Come down from the cross, and we will
accept thy claims, and believe that thou art
' Son of God.' " This was even a greater
provocative of his human soul than that
which the devil had suggested in the
wilderness, or which he had endured on
the Mountain of Transfiguration (Godet's
•Biblical Studies of the New Testament ').
He knew that he could at once have stepped
upwards from the high mountain on the
shining way, and left behind him a perfect
and most gracious memorial and ideal of the
blessed life. But he had a "decease to
accomplish," and he came down to "give
his life a ransom for many," to take all our
burden and all our care and all our gin
upon him, to lay down his life that he
might take it again (of. oh. z. 17). But
the qneation doe* ariae— -Haa 1m not done
enough to meet all the case? Has he not
been offered up as certainly as Isaac waf
when Abraham bound his son upon the
altar? Could he not, might he not, now
come down from the cross, having perfectly
consecrated himself? Would he not by
this act make converts of the Sanhedrin ?
and would not tens of thousands at once
turn their curses into jubilant hosannas?
The chief priests join in the same taunt,
end, according to Matthew and Mark, even
tlie dying robbers cast the same reproauhes
in his teeth. The special taunt was, " He
saved others; himself he cannot save."
Sublimely true, the very hurricane of abuse,
as it reaches him, is transformed into the
sweetness and fragrance of the eternal love.
He had power in the desert to make the
kingdoms of the world his own, if he would
have bowed down to the prince of this
world. He had authority to vanish into the
ethereal home with Moses and Elijah. He
might have saved himself, hut he could not.
He must drink the cup to the final dregs.
He must bear the death-penalty itself. If
he had not done this, the sympathy with
man had fallen infinitely below the demands
of his own heart. Sin and death would still
have been inseparably linked ; the curse
would not have been broken, nor the sacri-
fice been completed. As before Pilate,
Herod, and the rest, he was silent. No
murmur, no rebuke, broke from him. The
breath of his mouth is as yet no two-
edged sword. But the penitent brigand,
overcome by his majestic patience, pleads
for mercy, and, after the long hours have
passed, the cry of the helpless sufferer at
his side meets with immediate response,
while all the cruel howling bigots around
him could not prevail to draw from him one
syllable of remonstrance 1 The " To-day
shalt thou be with me in Paradise " is the
royallest of all the words from the cross.
According to the hypothesis of the Tiibingen
school, they ought unquestionably to have
been selected for citation by the author of
the Fourth Gospel. The assumption of the
existence and reality of his kingdom, and
the admission in tiie other world of his
conscious Lordship over the souls of men,
is the most explicit and unapproachable
claim that he ever made to Divine preroga-
tives. John takes notice of another most
impressive scene, in which himself had
personal concern, and which affected the
remainder of his own wonderfid life. An
incident this which the other evangelists did
not presume to touch. It was the Divine
expression of the true humanity of the Son
of God.
Vers. 25—80. — (5) The wordi on the erot*.
Vers. 25, 26.-<a) IKlial lov^—" Behold
thgioal"
430
THE GOSPEL ACX30EDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xix. 1— 42
Ver. 25. — ^Bnt there were Btanding by the
cross of Jesus. Matthew says (xxvii. 55;
Maik XV. 40, 41) that many women stood
afar off beholding these things, and amongst
them Mary Magdiilene, Mary the mother of
James (the less, i.e. the son of Alphteus) and
Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children,
expressly identified here as elsewhere with
Salome, " womc n who followed him from
Galil)e" (Luke xxiii. 55), and ministered
unto him. The irapii of this verse implies
that, in the courage of their love and tender-
ness, they had drawn nearer to the cross, led
on as it would seem by his mother herself,
whom John with fuller knowledge men-
tions as the most important member of one
group. John adds, and the sister of his
mother, then (it must be admitted without
any conjunctive koI) he adds, Mary the
(wife)of Clopas, and fflary Magdalene, kacu-
iras is by almost all admitted to be identi-
fiable with '3^n, Alphseus, of Matt. x. 3.
Consequently, "the Mary (of Clopas)" is
none other than the mother of James the
less-known disciple, as well as of others.
And this second Mary is identically the
same as the Mary spoken of in Matthew
and Mark by slightly different phraseology.
The question arises — Does John here speak,
then, oi/our women ? or does he say that this
Mary was the sister of the Virgin Mary?
If " Mary tlie wife of Clopas " be the sister
of the Virgin, then James the less, Joses,
and others are cousins of our Lord. This
hypothesis has been used by those who
identify these men with the " brethren of the
Lord ; " but it is rendered improbable by the
fact referred to twice over in the synoptists
and John, that his " brotliren did not believe
in him," and the growing certainty that
" James the brother of our Lord " was not
" James the less." Moreover, it is impro-
bable that two sisters should have t)ie same
name. The other supposition is that the
third woman mentioned by the synoptists
(namely, Salome, the mother of Zebedee's
sous) was the tieter of the mother of Jesut.
Against this is the non-appearance of the
Ktti between the second and third names.
This absence may be simply due to the fact
that John mentions "two and two," singling
them out from " the many women," accord-
ing to his wont. Against it, Godet and
others have urged that we have no other
hint of the relationship ; but of many similar
facts throughout the Gospel we have only
the slenderest indications — take, for instance,
the identification of Judas (not Iscariot)
with Lebbfsus and Thaddeeus; Natbanael
with B:i,rtholomew — and there is much which
makes the identification naturnl. It is after
the manner of John to omit the name of
Salome, as he always does his own through-
out the Gospel and Epistleg. But the entire
narrative from beginning to end is illumined
by the fact that John was the near relative o/
Jesus. The bv fiyiira flashes into light and
justification at once. Very much, both in the
synoptio and Johannine narratives, receives a
deeper meaning. The eaily friendship, th*
private ministry of our Lord, with John as
his principal companion, the request of
Salome, and the exquisite incident which
now follows, all receive a richer meaning
when it becomes clear that Salome was
so nearly related to Jesus. In this conclu-
sion Wleseler, Luthardt, Lange, Westcott,
Sears, Moulton, SchafiT, and others coincide,
though Meyer and Hengstejiberg take the
other view. Hengstenberg thinks the tra-
dition of three Marys is enough to counter-
balance what he calls a learned device 1
Assuming, then, that John was so dear a
friend, so near a relative, we understand
better what foUowe.
Ver. 26. — Jesus then, seeing the (his*)
mother, and the disciple whom he loved
standing near, saith to the (his) mother,
Woman, behold thy son I The term " Wo-
man " was on his lips an honorific title rather
than an expression of coldness. No atom
of disrespect or failure of afiection is evinced,
nor can we conceive it possible that our
Lord was here separating himself in his
mediatorial character from all relationship
with the mother who bore him I This view,
adopted by Hengstenberg in part, by
Steinmeyer, Luthardt, Alford, and originally
by Professor Hoffmann of Erlangen, seems
utterly inconsistent with the spirit of Christ.
True, he had warned hur not to intrude upon
his modes of activity (ch. ii. 4), and had
said that his disciples were his brothers,
listers, mother; but the greatness of his
heart is human to the last. No Monophy>
site explanation of the itatus majeetaticus,
no Nestorian severance of the Divine and
human Christ, is needed. Christ yearned
over the mother whose heart was being
pierced by bis agony, and with filial anxiety
entrusted her, not to those brothers of hi>
— whatever was the degree of their relation-
ship to him — who, nevertheless, did not be-
lieve on him, bat to the disciple whom he
loved.
Ver. 27.— (5) FUita love— " Behold thy
motlier I " and the umce. Then he saith t*
the disoiple, Behold thy mother ! The very
farments that covered him had been rudely
ivided among the soldiers. He is there-
fore as t> deail man, and yet he made the
most royal gifts and precious assignments
of that which was nevertheless inalienable.
' The avTov of T.R. is omitted by Ti-
■chendorf (8th edit.), E.T.,Tregelle» (Alford
brackets itX on the authority of K, B, L, &,
1,22.
OH. xn. 1—42.] THE GOSPEL AOOORDINQ TO ST. JOHN.
431
He gave a mother to his dearest friend. He
gave a son moat precious to the bereaved
and desolate and broken heart of his
widowed mother. Inconceivable that Weisse
should call thia " the basest self-adulation."
The animus manifested to this document by
a certain school partakes of the animosity
of political partisanship. 7iom that hour,
says the evangelist, the disciple took her
{eis TO tSia) to his own home. This may
have been some temporary lodging in Jeru-
salem, but it is more probable, as we have
seen, that Salome and John had homes both
in Jerusalem (see Introduction, p. Ivi.) and
Capernaum. The mere phrase is used in
oh. xvi. 32 in a more general sense of all the
apostles. It is not necessary to believe that
John at once removed the sacred deposit and
bequest of his dying Lord to that home,
though it is just possible. Bengel and many
others think so, but it is not necessary to
limit the meaning of "hour" to moment.
The departure could hardly have taken
place till all was over. In this brief reference
a key is given to what John became to
the Church. We must think of Salome and
John ever by the holy mother of the Lord,
whether at Jerusalem, Capernaum, or Ephe-
sus. The few words speak volumes, and
his reticence here, as elsewhere, gives an
unutterable grandeur to his words.
Vers. 28, 29.— (o) "I tt/r**"— tfw Uut
agony.
Ver. 28. — It does not come within the
purpose of John to record the portents
which attended the final scene — either the
supernatural darkness on the one hand, or the
rending of the veil of the temple on the other.
He does not record the visions of the saints,
nor the testimony of the centurion (see Matt.
xxvii. 45—56; Mark xv. 33—39; Luke
xziii. 44—49). He does not record the
further quotation of Ps, xxii.; the cry,
"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani ? " nor the
misinterpretation of the multitudes ; nor the
jeer at his dying agonies. But he does
record two of the words of the Lord, which
they had omitted. He, moreover, implies
that he had purposely left these omissions
to be filled up from the synoptists, for he
adds. After this, Jesus, knowing that all
things had been (TeTcXeo-Tai) now finished,
said, I thirst, in order that the Scripture
might be fulfilled. John heard in this word
the comprehensive cry which gathered up
all the yearnings and agonies of his soul,
which fulfilled its travail, which expressed
the awful significance of his suffering, and
strangely filled up the prophetic picture
(Ps. Ixix. 21).
Ver. 29. — There was set there ■ a Tessel
* A, B, L, etc., omit odv, and K gnbstitutes
U: it it omitted by all modern editors.
fnll of vinegar, probably tai the use of th«
soldiers, and occasionally offered to the
Buti'erers to soothe a part of their torment.
John clearly associates this fact with the un-
conscious fulfilment of prophecy. Matthew
gives it, with strange lack of connection, as
following the cry, " Jfy God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me ? " So they (Matthew,
" one ") having placed ' a sponge fall of the
vinegar upon hyssop. This hyssop plant,
if identical with the caper plant, does pro-
duce stems tliree or four feet long, and may
tlierefore be identical with the " reed " men-
tioned in Matthew and Mark, while Luke
(xxiii. 36) refers the act to the soldiers offer-
ing him vinegar to drink, saying, " Let us
see whether Elias will come and save him." .
They put it, brought it, presented it to his
mouth. This was not the stupefying draught
which he refused, but an exhilarating one.
Ver. 30.— (d) "It is finished 1 " — the great
victory of completed sacrifice. When he had
received the vinegar, he said (TeTcXco-Toi),
It is finished! and he bowed I^ head and
delivered up his spirit. The ether evangelists
record yet another word of Divine and sub-
lime submission, "Father, into thy hands,"
etc. John simply adds the climax, and leaves
the Divine, inscrutable, mysterious f^ct in
its awful grandeur. The world's debt was
paid. The types and symbolism of the old
covenant had been adequately fulfilled. The
mighty work, undertaken by him who would
realize the expectations of the oldest pro-
phets and the unconscious prophecies of
heathendom, was done. Every iota and
tittle of the Law had been magnified. The
reality of which the temple and the sab-
bath were shadows, the priesthood and the
offerings innumerable were figures, had all
been realized. TeTcXeo-Tat I Oonsummatum
est t From the ground of human nature, from
the heart of the Man in whom all the wants,
perils, sins, mysteries of the human race
were gathered up, has gone the adequate ad-
mission of the righteous judgment of God
against that nature in its present condition.
Death itself becomes, not his shame, but his
veritable glory. The itn of humanity is
branded with an eternal curse, more deep
than any previous manifestation of the
Divine justice could have produced; and
yet it loses its sting. God reconciles the
world to himself by the death of his Son,
by this curse thus falling upon his Only
Begotten. The earthly judges are con-
demned by their Victim. The great and
• A, D, V, r. A, n, Vulgate and Syriac,
read, ol S4 ■K\i]aaina airixyov i\ovs ml,
"They filled a sponge with vinegar." So
T.E. ; but, with N«, B, L, 1, 33, Tregelles,
Tischendori; and B.T., nad, nr^yac olt
furrcS rev tfovt.
482
THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST, JOHN. [oh. xix. 1— 44
last enemy is itself wonnded unto death.
The Seed of the woman bruises the serpent's
head when that Seed receives the bruise in
its own heel. The Paschal Lamb is slain.
The Lamb of Qod takes away the sin of the
world. The priaoe of this world is oast out.
The reader must turn to the synoptic narra-
tive for the other portents of the Crucifixion
— the earthquake, the supernatural darkness,
the rending of the temple veil, and the testi-
mony of the Roman centurion. The silence
of the Fourth Gospel concerning these erents,
on the supposition of its late origin, or on the
hypothesis of the glorifying myth, or upon
the suggestion that this evangelist was a
theologizing mystic of the second century,
who was merely fashioning the narrative
to establish the doctrinal thesis of the
Divine incarnation of the Logos, becomes
entirely nnintelligible. But the hypothesis
that tbis eye-witness wag svipplementing
other well-known narratives with particulars
which came forcibly under his own observa-
tion, and made a deep impression upon his
own mind, is suggested by every line. Dr.
Westcott places " the seven words from the
cross " in the following order : —
(a) Before the darknets —
(1) " Father, forgive them ; for they know
not what they do " (Luke xxiii. 34).
2) " To-day shalt thou be with me in
Paradise " (Luke xxiii. 43).
(3) "Woman, behold thy son! . . . bo-
hold thy mother I " (oh. lii. 26>
(6) During the darkiieiM —
(4) "My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me ? " (Matt, xzvii. 46 ; Mark
XV. 34>
(e) After tht darhnei$ —
(5) «Ithirst"(oh. lii. 28).
(6) " It is finished I " (oh. xix. 30).
(7) " Father, into thy hands I commend
my spirit" (Luke xxiii. 46).
It is a question whether the sixth or seventh
word is the more triumphant.
Vers. 81— 37.— <6) The piercing of the
tide, with iti tignifieance — the final eUne of
the life of earth.
Ver. 31. — The Jews therefore, because it
was the preparation ; that is, the day before
the sabbath (Mark xv. 42). This note of
time certainly blends both the synoptists
and Jolin in the assurance that the oruci-
ijxion took piece on a Friday. It was also,
according to the previous statement, the
preparation of the Passover, which, we have
seen, is better understood in that literal
sense than in the sense of " the Friday of
Passover week." Consequently, there was a
twofold sanctity about tnat particular sab-
bath, seeing that the sabbatic rest of the
day fvUowlng the Pasolsal meal coincided
with the ordinary weekly sabbath ; (for greati
or high, was the day of that sabbath) (cf.
Exod. xii. 16 ; Lev. xxiii. 7 ; and notes on
eh. xiii. 1 ; xviii. 28 ; xix. 14). It was a
"great" and "high" day in a sense far
more profoundly impressive than any that
eould be derived from the ceremonial enaot-
ments of the Hebrew code. The sabbath
of his rest came at length. The toil, the
agony, are over, the whole world is trans-
formed during its hours into his resting-
place. There has been no such sabbath
since the creative Word rested from all his
work. In order that the bodies should not
remain on the cross on the sabbath. This
statement, with the events which followed,
strongly confirms our interpretation of the
day of the Crucifixion. The Jews would
scarcely have justified a crucifixion on the
first sabbatic day of the feast, if they shrank
from the proceeding here described as in
danger of taking place on the ordinary sab-
bath. They follow the law (Dent. xxi. 22,
23) so far as it would apply, and hasten the
dissolution of the crucified, if it had not
already occurred. (They) asked Filate that
their legs might be broken (crushed) [kotc-
ory&ffLv^ the same as aorist passive, Kardyvvfu
(Winer, Enp;. trans., p. 85), i.p9iiffui, first
aorist passive], and that they might be taken
away, as polluting corpses. The <rKe\oicmla,
equivalent to crurifragium, is a Soman cus-
tom, as it is clearly established by nume-
rous authorities (Suet., ' Aug.,' 67 ; Seneca,
' De Ira.,' iii. 32 ; see Wettsteia) ; — a brutal
custom, which added to the cruel shame and
torment, even though it hastened the end.
Vers. 32 — 34. — Then oame the soldiers,
and brake the legs of the first — two of the
quaternion employed on the one deed, and
two on the other — and of the other which
was oruoified with him. But when they
oame to Jesus, and saw that he was already
dead, they brake not his legs. Their
barbarous mercy was unnecessary, and John
saw in this another correspondence with the
sacred symbolism and prophetic anticipa-
tions of the Old Testament. But one of
the soldiers pieroed — gashed, probably, for
the word lyu^ey is used in both senses — his
side with a spear {K6yx!i, a lance, a heavy
formidable weapon) to give him the eoup
de grdce, should their expectation not he
actually realized, and forthwith came there-
out blood and water. We do not enter into the
numerous physiological reasons which have
been advanced by Griiner, Bartholinus, and
Dr. Stroud (' Physical Cause of the Death
of Christ ') for this event, but regard it as
one of the great portents of the Crucifixion,
which cannot be entirely explained as some
physiologists have done. Dr. Schaff appears
willing to accept the hypothesis that the
extravasated blood, being flxst separated iat*
ca.xiz.1—42.] THE GOSPEL AOCOBDIKa TO BT. JOHN.
433
its two eonititnenti, wai thni liberated &om
tlie perioaidinni — a phenomenon tliat miglit
seem to justify the inppoBition of the
evangelist, that it was blood and water.
Dr. Stroud endeaToured, with much medical
learning, to show that this might follow the
side-piercing if the Lord's physical death
had followed, as he argued, from rupture of
the heart due to his intense agonies. Sir
B. Bennett has accepted this solution. Nor,
further, do we see here any reference to the
sacramental system of which John else-
where says so little ; but we do see a token
miraculously given of the twofold power of
his redemptive life and work (1) renovation,
re&eshment, rivers of living water issuing
tiom the Ko(\ia of Christ, the first great
rush of spiritual power which was to re-
generate humanity ; and (2) the expression
of that redemptive process which was effected
in the positive shedding of his precious
blood. It was, moreover, a proof and sign
given to Roman soldiers that their Victim
was actually dead. We cannot think, with
Westcott, that it was a kind of sign of
the commencement of the resurrection-life,
which goes perilously near to the assertion
that he never really died. Moulton argues
that the phenomena were physiologically
possible if the event occurred immediately
after death. There is nothing in the narra-
tive to prevent such juxtaposition. That
John should have witnessed it, and been
unable to understand it, and therefore put
it down among the marvels of the Crucifixion,
corroborates the veracity of the eye-witness
(Webster and Wilkinson). The interesting
catena of patristic interpretations given by
Westcott ('Additional Note') shows that
the earliest writer who refers to the marvel,
CUmditu ApollinaHs, regarded it as expres- .
sive of \irfoi andirveCfio, " the Word and the
Spirit." Origen showed that from a corpse
such a phenomenon could not occur ; and so
even in his death there are still the signs
of the living one. Cyril of Jerusalem saw
the two baptisms of blood and water;
Chrywetom, the two sacraments, or the
mysteries of baptism and of the flesh and
blood. Macarim Magnet and ApolUnariui
saw an allusion to the tide of Adam, from
which Eve, the source of evil, was taken ;
that now the side of the second Adam should
give forth the means of salvation and deliver-
anee. TertuUian dwells on the two baptisms
of water and blood; so Jerome; while
Auguitine sees in it the laver and the cup.
That there was some special, abnormal phe-
nomenon seems specially noticeable from the
emphasis which the eye-witness lays upon
the observation and record of the fact
Ver. 35.— Hs that hath seen hath borne,
and is now bearing, herein and hereby,
witness, and hii witness is Tsritabls —
JOHN. — ^n.
the highest and surest kind of witness,
that of direct observation, staggering, con
founding the ordinary sense, but proving
that the Son of God died in his human
body — and he knoweth, by his own inward
experience, that he salth tras things, that
ye also ' may believe. A vehement effort
has been made to sever this testimony from
the evangelist, and refer it to a third person
ixeivoi, and suppose that it took place during
John's absence from the cross (so Weisse,
Schweizer, Hilgenfeld, and others) ; but, as
Meyer, Godet, etc., affirm there is no necessity
whatever for such an interpretation. 'Ekei-
vos is used of the subject of the sentence
when it is clear &om the context that the
speaker himself is that subject (see ch. ix.
37). Concerning a third person, the writer
could not have written, " He hnoweth that he
taith true things, that ye may believe," but
rather, " We know that he saith true things,
that we may believe." But John here speaks
strongly of his own invincible conviction,
and, as in ch. xxi. 24, it is here given to
induce a stronger faith on the part of his
readers — not of himielf and his readers — in
the supernatural death, in the signs that
accompanied it, adapted to convince the
bystanders of its marvel, and to fill up the
prophetic picture. Hilgenfeld, with strange
perversity, urges that the clever forger of
the narrative "falls out of his part" and
forgets himself (see Luthardt on 'Author-
ship of the Fourth Gospel,' p. 180). The
symbolical and allegorical explanations are
numerous. E.g. Toplady's weU-known hymn,
" Bock of Ages," contains the words —
<* Let the water and the blood.
From thy riven side which flowed.
Be of sin the double cure.
Cleanse me from its guilt and power."
Ver. 86. — For these things came to pass,
that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Buth
the omission of the erurifragitim, and the
piercing of the Redeemer's side, with its
solemn and strange issues, confirm to this
great eye-witness the spiritual meaning and
Messianic portraiture involved in them. A
bone of him shaU not be broken. This quo-
tation from the ceremonial of the Passover
(Exod. xii. 46; Numb. ix. 12), where the
lamb offered to God was to be shielded
from unnecessary mutilation, is in harmony
with the words of the Baptist, " Behold the
Lamb of God I " and with Paul's language
(1 Cor. V. 7), "Christ our Passover is
sEwrificed for us," and shows that the Fourth
* Kai, on the strongest authority of
K, B, A, eto., twenty-five manuscripts, and
Italic, Vulgate, Syriao, B.T., Tischendorf
(8th edit.), Meyer, Godet, at*. It is omitted
byT.B.
tv
<34
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xix. 1— 44
Gospel doM recognize this parallel, which
is in a \ezj remarkable way thus quietly
rea£Srmed. This passage acquires meaning
from the lupposition that the Jews were
hurrying away to eat their Paschal lamb,
not a bone of which could be legally broken.
The opponents of the authenticity think
that incidents are invented to establish the
supposed relationship. Those who seek to
reply to them by explaining away this
reference to the Passover think that Ps,
xxxiv. 20 is referred to, " He keepeth all
his bones : not one of them is broken ; " but
the force of that passage in this connection
would violently clash with any such adap-
tation of it as could make it refer to the
cruel and violent death of the Lord.
Yer. 37. — And again another Sortpture
Baith. The second of the Old Testament
quotations is in several ways important
and noteworthy. They shall look on Mm
whom they pierced (^eis <tv k^eKevrrja'ay').
The original passage is (Zech. xii. 10), iQ'anj
npi "lafts-riN '^n, " They shall look upon
me whom they pierced." The evangelist
altered the us into him, which, as it stands
in the old oracle, and regarded as the
language of Jehovah, is Buflnciently sur-
prising. The LXX. had felt the difficulty,
and translated it 'E7rij8Ae';|/oi'Tot vpds f-e i.v9
Siv KuToipxiio'avTOf i.e. " They shall look
towards me, because they have insulted me."
Their repentance and misgiving shall be
aroused, because in response for those things
which they haye done contemptuously
against me. It is interesting to see that
John is more accurate in his Greek transla-
tion of this prophetic passage, viz. Stj/ovTai
CIS %!/, "They shall look" with love and
grace and repentance " on him whom
(e{6K€KTi7(rai') tiiey pierced." This Greek
rendering of the Hebrew is followed by
Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus, and
is quoted by Justin Martyr; it is also
found in Eev. i. 7, forming a link of
connection between the Gospel and the
Apocalypse. Moreover, it is most impressive
to find that the awful tragedy does not cli)se
even in the hands of this writer without a
word of promise and hope. Zech. xii. 8 — 14
is clearly in the mind of the apostle. The
merciful Lord waits for the repentance of
Israel, of those who, by instigating Boman
power for his destruction, pierced him by
their trenchant ingratitude as well as by the
Homan spear. It will be fulfilled more
completely when every eye shall see him,
and the full revelation of his majesty shall
smite the whole world with penitence or
despair. This remarkable event and its
issue, whatever may have been the precise
physiological fact, establishes : (1) The au-
toptic testimony of one who scarcely expected
to be oiedited with the result of his observa-
tion. (2) The gennine humanity of oni
Lord. (3) The more than humanity of his
manner of death. (4) The fact of his death,
and therefore the reality of the Resurrection.
(4) Tlie symbolic and twofold aspect of his
redemptive act. (6) The fulfilment of
prophetic word. (J7) The establishment of
the connection between the Passover sacrifice
and the Lamb of God who taketh away the
sin of the world.
Vers. 38— 42.— (7) The burial— the tun
friends, Joseph and Nicodemui.
Yer, 38. — After these things — i.«. after all
these transactions and impressions, after the
erurifragium and the piercing and the pro-
ceedings of the soldiers with Pilate's per-
mission ; after, that is, time was left to see
the full issue of the previous act, and the
awful fact was patent to all — Joseph, who is
from Arimathssa. This " Joseph " is intro-
duced with the article (j *), and a second 6
before iiirh, implying to the reader that he
is now, by reason of the synoptic narrative,
a well-known person. This Arimathiea is
probably the Bamathaim of 1 Sam. i. 1,
the birthplace of Samuel, known nuw as the
Nebi Samwil, about two leagues norlh-west
of Jerusalem (Caspari, § 49). Hengsten-
berg thinks the site is Bamleh, eight hours
from Jerusalem. The maps of the Palest.
Explor. Fund place it alxiut a league to the
east of Bethleliem. He was a " rich man "
(Matt. xxviL 57)— a fact which the First
Gospel recalls Without quoting the remark-
able oracle of Isa. liii. 9, tiiat Messiah.
Servant of Jehovah, was with the " rich in
his death." We may judge that Joseph
had a residence in Jerusalem, even though
he may still be known as belonging to and
" from " Arimathsea, because he had pre-
pared, hard by the metropolis, a sepulchre
which as yet had never been used. He
waa, moreover, a PouKevriis (Luke xxiii. 50 ;
Mark xv. 43), a member of the Sanhedrin,
of high character, " good and just," " wait-
ing for, expecting the kingdom of God"
(say Mark and Luke), " and by no means
consentient to the counsel and deed of his
colleagues " (adds Luke). The whole posi-
tion is briefly put by John : Being a disciple
of Jesus, but a hidden one {KeKpvfLnivoy\
who had been concealed as such up to this
crowning climax of his Lord's humiliation,
not daring to confess Christ, by reason of his
fear of the Jews. Strange that he and Nico-
demus should have cast away their fears at
such a moment I Joseph asked of Pilate
(fjpcSTTurev) ; a word that implies something
of claim and confidence on his part. The sy-
noptists all three use j^T^traTo, which rather
denotes the position of a suppliant for •
> Westcott and Hoii omit the two article^
and Tisohendorf (8tb edit.) the firsL
BH. XIX 1-42.] THE GOSPEL AOCiOBDINa TO ST. JOHN.
43S
faToar. That be might take away the bodjr
of Jesus ; and Pilate gave him leave. This is
supposed by some, who are anxious to make
diffloulties where none exist, that (accord-
ing to Mark xv. 43) Pilate had already given
permission for the crurifragium, and yet
was astonished that he wae dead already.
The statement of Mark i( perfectly con-
sistent with this and with the apSaatv ~of
ver. 31. Joseph, when all the transactions
were over, sought for himself the privilege
of a friend to take the body and bury it.
Soman law permitted this privilege to
friends; as Lnthardt says, "The Chris-
tian martyrs of Borne were often buried
in the catacombs," Not nntil death was
obvious was it lawful to remove a body from
the cross. The death had taken place ; the
Jews were prepared with Pilate's authori-
zation to remove the corpse to the Valley of
the Son of Hinnom. Joseph comes with a
permission to take the corpse foi honourable
burial. He oame therefore — ^by reason of the
permission — and took > the body (of Jesus).
Yer. 39. — Bat there came also Nioodemni
who at the first came to him by night point-
ing back (as the evangelist also does at oh.
vU. 50) to the memorable converse with our
Lord detailed in ch. iii. 1 — 20, when Jesus
made clear to his visitor that he would be
" lifted up, even as the serpent was lifted up
in the wilderness." There is no proof that
this "ruler of the Jews" and "master in
Israel " had been encouraged by the act of
Joseph; but it might seem that these two
between them had arranged the costly cere-
ments. There is a world of suggestion lying
in this quietly mentioned fact. Doubtless
there were many others of timid disposition,
who had received deeper convictions than
the narrative of the Passion seems to sug-
gest. Nicodemus had said, " We know that
thou art a Teacher sent from God." By
reason of their unacknowledged faith, the
way was prepared for the marvellous con-
versions of Pentecost and later days. Nico-
demus came to the cross, in all probability
aided by the loving cares of the women
and the disciple whom Jesus loved, bringing
a miztnre' of myrrh, an odoriferous gum,
and aloes, a firagrant wood, prepared for the
embalming process, about an hnndred pounds
• Tisohendorf (8th edit.) and Bftle Be-
visen read, with X, ^\6ov and ^pav ; but
K.T., Tregelles, Alfgrd, Westoott and Hort,
Oodet, etc., abide by the T.R. The reading
ToB 'Ijjo-oB rests on feeble luthority. The
omission by B T., Lachmann, and others rests
on XS B, L, etc. Tischendorf reads mniv.
* v.* and B read l\iyiui, " a roll," rather
than fuyna; but it ia only placed by Ti-
sohendorf (8th edit.), Westoott and Hort, and
the Beviaers in the maripiL
weight. Thia wai a vast quantity. It n-
minds the reader of "the myrrh and aloes "
of the royal Bridegroom of the Church (Fs.
xl V.) ; of the frankincense and myrrh brought
by the Wise Men of the East ; of the lavish
gift of Mary the sister of Lazarus ; of the
outburst of boundless love which, spite of
all the cruel persecution and rejection to
which the Lord was exposed, at length was
lavished upon him. The myrrh and aloes
were pounded and mixed for the purposes
of resisting the decomposition of deat h. The
method was entirely to cover the odoviai
with its pungent and purifying powder, and
then to swathe the whole body with the
grave-clothes thus enriched.
Ver. 40. — They took therefore — i.e. Kioo-
demus and Joseph — the body of Jesas, and
bonnd it in linen olothes with the spioes, as
is the manner of the Jews to bury. The
synoptists specially mention a linen cloth
(aivitoii), which they wound around it. It
would seem probable, from what is after-
wards said, that John wished to discrimi-
nate and affirm both processes (see ch. xx.
7), The Jews' method differed from the
Egyptians' embalming process. The latter
removed all the viscera ; and, by long baking
and other processes, rendered the remaining
sbeU of the corpse incorruptible and almost
imperishable. The Jews' process of sepul-
ture differed from the Boman cremation, and
is emphasized. Importance was attached to
a splendid funeral (Luke xvi. 22) ; and this
costly interment was not without its deep
significance.
Ver. 41. — ITow there was in the place
where he was crucified, close at hand to the
very cross, a garden, and in the garden a
new sepulchre, wherein as yet no man was
laid (on site, see ver. 17, notes). John aloae
tells us of the " garden ; " and he clearly saw
the significance of the resemblance to the
" garden" where Christ agonized unto death,
and was betrayed with a kiss, and also
to the garden where the first Adam fell
from the high estate of 'poiie non peccare.
We are not told, however, by him that this
sepulchre was Joseph's own (Matthew gives
this explanation), nor that it was cut out
of a rook, nor the nature or quality of it.
Matthew, Luke, and John remark that it
was icalmy, not simply i/eov, recently made,
but new in the sense of being as yet unused,
thus preventing the possibility of any
confusion, or any subordinate miracle, Buoh
aa happened at the grave of Elisha (2
Kings xiii. 21), and so our Lord's sacred
body came into no contact with corruption.
Thus from the hour of death, in which
the love of God in Christ is seen at its most
dazzling mond lustre, and the glorification
of Christ in his Passion reaches its climax,
death itself b«gini to put on new iinez>
486
THE GOSPEL AOCOBDINO TO BT. JOBS. [oh. xix. 1— «.
peot«d fonuB and chanua: (1) the ■ymbolio
effusion of water and blood ; (2) the costly
nnguent spices and honourable burial
lavished on One who had been put under
ban, and had died the doom of the slave ;
(3) the garden and the watchers.
Ver. 42. — There, therefore, by reason of the
preparation of the Jews, for the sepnlohre
was nigh at hand, they laid Jesns. John
assigns the rapidity with which the process
could be completed as a reason for entomb-
ment in this particular garden sepulchre,
and the ground of the urgency was the
" preparation " solemnities. Once more the
critics divide into two groups as to the sig-
nificance of this reference to the date of the
Lord's death. It is obvious that both the
synoptists and John imply that it was a
" Friday," and that the next day was the
sabbath. Why, for the third time in the
space of a few lines, should this circum-
stance be noticed ? On the^r»< occasion, the
morning of the day is said to be " the pre-
paration of the Passover ; " on the second it
is called " preparation before the sabbath,"
and John adds that that particular sabbath
was a " high day," which, as we have seen,
is explained by remembering that its sanc-
tity was doubled, seeing that on tliat par-
ticular year the weekly sabbatli would coin-
cide with the IStli of Nisan, which had a
sabbatic value of its own. Now he says
for the third time it was the " preparation
of the Jews " — as we understand it, a day or
a time when special preparations were being
made b\ the Jews, and tliat before sunset, for
the slaying of the Paschal lamb. Moreover,
the sabbath was drawing on ( JTr^i^coir/cfi', Luke
xxiii. 54). This threefold statement implies
that there was S'imethiiig more in the irapa-
a-Keui) tlian the Friday of the Passover week.
It is curious to observe the precisely contra-
dictory conelusiuns drawn from this state-
ment by two classes of interpreters. Godet
has given an interesting sketch (vol. iii. pp.
286, 287) of the extraordinary idea of M.
Lutteroth, that the Lord was crucified on the
10th of Nisan t that he rose from the dead
three full days and nights afterwards, on
the morning of the 14th. But why should
John three times over thus designate the
day ? and why should the synoptists lay
such emphasis on its being the " prepara-
tion," if the day were really the first great
day of the Pnssover Feast? It is remark-
able that St. Paul, referring to the institu-
tion of the Eucharist, does not say "on tlie
night of the Passover mral," but on "the
night in which he was betrayed " (1 Cor.
xi. 23), and he speaks of Jesus as the
(Inrapxii) " Firstfruits of the dead," as
though the resurreution morning coincided
wi th the presen tation of the firstfruits, which,
•D the idea that Jesus suffered on the ISth,
wonid have been presented on the morning
of the Jewish sabbath, while the refereno*
in 1 Ooi. T. 7 — 9, written at the time of •
Passover, is rather in favour of the slaying
of the Paschal lamb coinciding with the
death of Jesus than the institution of the
Eucharist doing so. The most extraordi-
nary reference to the TlapatrKcv^ is that
which St. Matthew (xxviii. 62) introdnoei,
when he actually refers to the sabbath when
it had begun (on the evening of the 14tb
or 15th, whichever it was, t.e. after 6 p.m.)
under the designation of " the day after the
preparation." Generally the more important
day would receive its own proper name, and
not be designated by the less signal day,
Why did not St. Matthew say, " On the
morrow, which was the sabbath " ? The one
group of interpreters answer that he wished
to discriminate the veritable sabbath as dis-
tinct from, the half-sabbath of the previous
day, maile so by being also the great dsiy
of the feast I But it is more natural to
suppose that " the day of preparation," the
death-day of the Lord, loomed so largely in
the mind of the evangelist, that its. morrow
derived importance in this particular in-
stance from itself. The only real difficulty
in settling this wearisome controversy arises
from one statement in the synoptists, which,
if resolved in the rigid sense of limiting their
expressions to the evening of the 14th and
beginning of the 15th, involves us in grave
difficulties when considering five or six dis-
tinct and independent statements of John's
Gospel. We have shown at each of these
places the double method of exegetical
treatment that has been attempted, and in
each case honesty compels us to admit that
John is here in apparent discord with the
synoptists. If, however, our Lord antici-
pated by a few hours the celebration of the
Paxchal supper, seeing that his " hour was
come," not indeed deviating Irom the legal
day (though, as Lord of the sabbatli and
greater than the temple, he was amply
justified in doing so), but hurrying on the
process between the I3tli and 14th, when
the water-bearers would be seen fetihing
their pure water for the purpose ; and if ho
celebrated the Passover at the beginning
rather than the end of the 14th of Nisan, then
the apparent discord between John and the
synoptists vanishes, and the terrible events
of the trials and crucifixion of Jesus really
took place at the time when the Jews (not
Christ himself) were preparing for tlie Pass-
over proper. On this hypothesis the two
narratives would be no longer in hopeless
antagonism. With this conclusion we are
more satisfied, since, as we have seen in oh.
xiii. 1 and elsewhere, the synoptists them-
selves afford numerous corroboratory evi-
deuces (Introduction, pp. xoii. — zot.)>
1—48.] THE GOSPEL AOOOBDINd TO ST. JOHN. 487
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 17, 18. — The Orveiflxhn. The end has come at last.
L jBsns 0A.RBTIN9 HIM OBOss. " And be, bearing his cross, went forth to the place
of the skull, which is called in the Hebrew, Golgotha." 1. Tke condemned, according
to Roman law, had to ixirry the instrument of their own punishment. 2. Jesus bori
his cross part of the way, till he sank with exhaustion. Accordingly, Simon of Gyrene
was required to do the office. The exhaustion of Jesus was caused (1) by his long
watching and his deep mental anguish in Gethsemane ; (2) perhaps, also, by the pain
or smart which the cross would inflict upon his scourged and galled shoulders.
II. The scene of the Cetjoifixion. 1. It was outside the gate of the city, according
to ancient Jewish law. (Lev. xxiv. 14.) 2. TJie exhortation, " Let us go forth to him
without the camp, bearing his reproach " (Heb. xiii. 12, 13), is founded upon this ancient
custom. 3. T%e actual spot is called Oolgotha, or Calvary ; but it has not been identi-
fied in modern times.
III. Thb CatJciFixioN. " Where they crucified him, and two others with him, on
either side one, and Jesus in the midst." 1. Who were they who did this deed t (1)
Not some savage people belonging to an uncivilized land, who had never heard of
Jesus. (2) Not some prowling banditti, who had got the upper hand in Jerusalem,
and rioted in murder. (3) It was the Jews, acting through the Bomau soldiers, (a)
God's ancient people ; (6) the witnesses of his marvellous works ; (c) in the land where
Jesus was best known ; (d) and in the capital of its solemnities. 2. What did they do f
" They crucified him." (1) This was the death of slaves and malefactors. (2) It was,
in Cicero's words, "the most cruel and the most terrible punishment." (a) The
victim was nailed by his hands and his feet to the cross, while it still lay on the
ground. (6) These nails, by their position, added to the victim's torture, (c) It was
a lingering death, for the victim sometimes survived till the third day. 3. Whom did
they crucify f (1) The Lord of glory, the Prince of life, the Son of David, their own
Messiah, (2) Mark the indignity of his position at Golgotha, (a) He is crucified
with two robbers, as if he were the fit colleague of malefactors. (6) He is crucified
between them, as if to add to his disgrace. He is the Prince of malefactors. He was
indeed " numbered with the transgressors " (Isa. liii. 12). (e) His central place in that
death-scene — " Jesus in the midst " — is, after all, in keeping with his central place in
heaven and in earth, and in the hopes of dying; men. (a) He is central in heaven ; for
" the Lamb is in the midst of the throne." (j3) He is central on earth, (i.) as the Lord
who, at the heart of the universe, upholds all things by the Word of his power ; (ii.) as
the Centre of the invisible Church, for he is its only Head ; (iii.) as the Centre of the
risible Church, for all Christendom crystallizes around the Person of Christ ; (iv.) as
the infrangible Centre of man's dying hopes.
Vers. 19 — 22. — 3%e inscription on the cross. "And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on
the cross. And the writing was, Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews."
I. PiLATB TOOK ADVANTAGE OF A BoMAN CUSTOM TO INSUIiT THE JeWB BT BEFBB-
gENTiNO THIS Malefaotob ab theib Kino. It was an act of revenge for all the
humiliation the Jews had inflicted upon him.
II. It was written in the LANOUAOES of the three PEINOrPAL PEOPLES OF THE
WORLD. " Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin." 1. Hebrew was the national language of
the Jews. 2. Ctreek was the language of common life. 3. Latin was the language of
their Soman masters.
III. How DO WE RECONCILE THE VARIOUS FORMS OF THE INBORIPTION WITH THE
DOOTBINB OF VERBAL IN8PIBATI0N? 1. It is extremely probable that Pilate employed
representatives of eacA language to draw up the title, which would therefore be variously
framed according to a threefold idiom. 2 2%e title in John's Chspel, " Jesua the
Nazarentj, the King of the Jews," would be the Greek form. The title in Mark, " The
King of the Jews," would be given with Boman brevity, " Bex Judasorum." The title
in Luke, " This is the Kins of the Jews," does not differ from that in Mark, for the
introductory pronoun is Luke's own. The title in Matthew, " This i« Jesus the King
of the Jewfl, ' would be the Hebrew form.
438 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. dx. 1—42.
IV. The dibbatisf action of the Jews at the fobm of the insobiption. •' Then
•aid the chief piiesti of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews ; but that
he said, I am King of the Jews." 1. The title here given to the remonstrants suggests
that'they were the guardians of the theocratic honour of the Jews. 2. They wished to
disconnect the name of Jesus from all their ideas of Messiahship, and represent him at
a usurper. 3. Or, perhaps, they were anxious to adhere to the fatal admission, "We
have no king but Cnsar."
V. The inflexibilitt of Pilate. " What I have written I have written." 1. He
is very resolute in his purpose now that all danger is past. Phrlo calls him " an
inflexible man." Well had it been for him if his firmness of purpose had been mani-
fested in the earlier hours of the day. 2. He was, after all, by his inscription, only
representing the true fact unconscioudy. Pilate is the herald to proclaim the Kingship
of Jesus.
Vers. 23, 24. — The parting of the raiment. The soldiers regard Jesus as already
dead, and therefore dispose of his raiment according to the usage of Soman law.
I. It was a obbat humiliation to the Victim to see his gabmbnts pabted. 1.
It implied that nothing remained for him henceforth but to die. He had done with
earth. 2 It is implied that his body was exposed naked on the cross.
II. The 80LDIEB8 WERE ONLY FULFILLING THE OlD TESTAMENT PBOPHECT. "That the
Scripture might be fulfilled. They parted my rainieut among them, and for my vesture
did they cast lots." Little did the rude soldiers think that they were unconsciously
fulfilUug the letter of ancient prophecy.
Vers. 25 — 27.— 2%e mother of Jesus at the cross. Here is the record of the filial
.egacy.
I. The sympathizing geoup of women. " Now there were standing beside the cross
of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary
Magdalene." 1. There was a company of Oalilsean women standing at a distance from
the cross, " beholdiog afar off" (Matt, xxvii. 55). They were more courageous than
Christ's apostles, who had all, but John, fled through fear of arrest. 2. There was an
inner circle of three women mxire courageous than the rest, who stood under the very
shadow of the cross.
II. The last bequest of Jesus. " When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the
disciple standing by, whom he loved, he said to his mother. Woman, behold thy son 1 "
1. Mary was now experiencing the bitter truth of Simeon's prophecy, " A sword shall
pierce through thine own heart." It was a terrible ordeal for a mother to watch the
protracted sufferings of her beloved Son. 2. Jesus is not so absorbed by his agonies as
to forget his mother. 3. He calls her " woman," not " mother," as if the old relation
was now to end, and a new one to be formed for her future comfort. Death was to
close all the earthly relationships of the Redeemer. 4. While he gives a son to his
mother, he gives a mother to his beloved disciple, " Then saith he to the disciple.
Behold thy mother 1 " (1) It was a mark of loving confideuce in John. (2) John was
to comfort Mary in her widowhood, for Joseph was evidently now dead. (3) The
charge was promptly accepted, and faithfully carried out. " And from that hour that
disciple took her to his own home." Nothing is known of the after-life of Mary.
Tradition says she died eleven years after the Lord at Jerusalem, in the fifty-ninth
year of her age.
Vers. 28 — 30. — The death of Jesus. After he has thus ministered to others, atten-
tion is tnrned to himself.
I. The thibst of the Sufferee. " After this, Jesus knowing that all things were
now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst." 1. The burn/-
ing fever caused by the infiammation of his wounds made him athirst. The cry attests
Vis extreme suffering. 2. Ttie minute fulfilment of prophecy is present to the Sufferet'e
mind." " They gave me vinegar to drink " (Ps. Ixix. 21). He was surely " made
perfect through sufiering."
IL The thibst assuaged. " Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they
filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to hii mouth." L 2%<i
OH. XIX. 1—42.] THE GOSPEL AOCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. 4n
drink toot not that ivhie^ he had reftised at the beginning of his erueifixion — a drink
given in mercy to stupefy the sufferer. Jesus would die in the perfect clearness of hit
(acuities. 2. The act of the soldiers was one of compassion, not <^ moeleery.
IIL The sueeendeb ot' life. " When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar,
he said. It is finished I and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." 1. The cry,
" It is finished 1 " proclaimed : (1) The consummation of his sufferings. (2) The final
.accomplishment of his Father's will that he should give himself a sacrifice for sin. (3)
The complete fulfilment of all the Messianic prophecies, as well as the types of the old
dispensation. (4) The perfecting by one offering " them that are sanctified." 2. The
death. (1) It was a free, spontaneous act. " No man taketh my life from me ; I have
power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again " (ch. i. 18). (2) The apostles
regarded it exactly in this light. "He gave up himself" TEph. v. 2, 25; Gral. iL 20;
1 Pet. ii. 23). Though therefore his death was violent ana cruel, it was « voluntary
sacrifice.
Vers. 31 — SI.— The breaking of the legs. It was nsual for the Roman* to leava the
dead on the cross to the ravages of wild beasts. A providential event changed the
usage in this case.
I. The anxiety of the Jews fob the ebmoval of the bodieb. "The Jews
therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the
cross on the sabbath day (for that sabbath was an high day), besought Pilate that their
le°;s might be broken, and that they might be taken away." 1. The Jews had accom-
plished their purpose, and were now anxiotu to carry out the letter of the law. The
bodies ought, in any case, to be removed before night ; but there was a special necessity
on account of the day of the Crucifixion preceding a great festival. 2. Mark their
hypocrisy. They regarded themselves as strictly bound to observe the outward cere-
mony, but they had no scruple in crucifying the Son of Qod. The ceremonial part of
religion was of greater moment to them than the moral.
II. Pilate's concession to theib demands. " Then came the soldiers, and brake
the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him." 1. Though a cruel
act, it was designed to shorten the sufferings of the crucified. Ghmgrene was the imme-
diate result. The breaking of the legs, together with crucifixion itself, was abolished by
Constantine, the first Christian emperor. 2. 2%e soldiers treated Jesus in an exceptional
manner. " But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was'dead already, they brake
not his legs." (1) The quickness of Christ's death took Pilate by surprise. (2) Scrip-
ture was fulfilled in the exemption of Christ from the crurifragium. " But these things
were done, that the Scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken."
(3) The act of the soldier, in piercing the side of Jesus, made his death certain. " But
one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood
and water." (a) It could not be said hereafter that he had merely swooned, and that
his disciples had come in the night and taken him away. (6) The pierced side was the
subject of prophecy. " They shall look on him whom they pierced." (c) The blood
and water bad a figurative application. " This is he who came not by water only, but
by water and blood " (1 John v. 6). (a) The blood indicated life sacrificed. (/3) Water
was the symbol of the spiritual life. The death of Christ secured at once the cleansing
away of sin, and the quickening of dead souls by the Spirit.
III. The tbstimont of the Apostle John to these facts. " And he that saw
it bare record, and his record is true." 1. It was the testimony of an eye-witness. 2, It
was designed to support the faith of the vmrld in the facts of ow Lord^s deaih.
Vers. 38 — 42. — The burial of Jesus. It was an honourable interment.
L The devoted ministet of fbiends. " After this Joseph of Arimathssa, "beting
a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might
take away the body of Jesus : and Pilate gave him leave." 1. The character and posi-
tion of Joseph. (1) He was a member of the Sanhedrin; (2) a just and honourable
man (Mark xv. 43); (3) a disciple of Jesus, who "waited for the kingdom of God,"
and did not consent to the counsel of the Sanhedrin against Jesus ; (4) yet a timid
disciple, who feared to compromise himself with the Jews. 2. His application is
Pilate. (1) His positiop »« * membar of the Sanhedrin would entitle him to the r —
4iO THE GOSPEL AOCOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. [oh. nz. 1— !&
aidtntion of the governor. (2) The cro«8 brings out curioue contrasts in the eondnct
»nd drcimiBtances of those who are related to Christ, (a) The disciples, who were
•penly identified with him in life forsake him in his last extremity, and have no share
in the honours of his burial, (b) Two disciples, who had no open relations with him in
life, step forward boldly at his death, and give him the last offices of the dead. (3)
Joseph obtains possession of the body of Christ. " He came therefore, and took the
body of Jesus." He interred it in his own new sepulchre.
II. The association op Nioodemus with Joseph ik the honotjb done to the
DEAD. " And there came also Nicodemus, which, at the first, came to Jesus by ni<^ht,
and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pounds." 1. 2%« cha-
racter and position of Nicodemtu. (1) He was a member of the Sanhedrin, who first
appears in Scripture history as a secret inquirer (cb. iii.). (2) He was, like Joseph,
afraid of the Jews. (3) He manifested a growing faith when he pleaded for justice in
the council, " Doth our Law judge any man before it hear him, and know what he
doeth?" (4) The last stage in his experience is reached when he meets Joseph in
presence of the dead body of his Redeemer. 2. I'he two friends wind the body of Jesus
Mt linen with spice$, and then place it in the sepulchre of Joseph. (1) It was done in
haste, "because of the Jews' preparation." (2) The holy women intended to com-
plete their provisional embalming after the sabbath day. 3. I'he two friends then dis-
appear from history. (1) They are never again mentioned in Scripture. (2) We envy
them the sacred privilege they enjoyed. (3) Their conduct suggests the following
lessons, (a) It is better to be a timid disciple than none at all. (V) There are draw-
backs to secret disciples' life. How much they lost by missing the opportunity of con-
stant association with Christ in life I (c) Timidity does not save men from annoyance.
Joseph and Nicodemus would lose the confidence of those with whom they were still
visibly identified, while they would be exposed to the first just reproach of Christ's open
friendis. (d) Let none of us tread the solitary way, but rather openly coniess the Lord.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Ver. 2. — TTie crown of thorns. How deeply the incident here related impressed itself
upon the mind and heart of Christendom is manifest (1) from the romantic legends
current among Christians regarding it, from the time of Helena, the mother of Con-
stantino, downwards ; and (2) from the frequent representations of the thorn-crowned
Redeemer produced by Christian painters, who have used all the resources of their art to
give to the " Ecce Homo I " the interest of sorrow and of spiritual beauty.
L The obvious and orioinal biqnifioanoe of th* cbown of thobnb. 1. It was
an evidence of the cruelty and brutality of Christ's foes. The actual plaiting of the
crown, and the actual placing of it upon the holy Sufferer's head was the deed of the
Roman soldiers. Insensibility to the pain experienced by Jesus may have been natural
to such men ; but the mockery and scorn displayed in the pretence of homage must
have been learned from the Jews. 2. It was an opportunity for Jesus to exhibit those
moral quaUties which have ever since been peculiarly associated with his name. His
patience, his meekness, his dignity, were never more conspicuous than when he was
insulted and ill used by his calumniators and foes. Kor can we see that such dispo-
sitions could have been so strikingly exhibited except in circumstances such as those in
which the Man of sorrows was then placed.
n. The byubolio and prophetic significance op the cbown op thoenb. 1.
This affecting coronation is an emblem of our Saviour's earthly ministry. His career
brought together the hate and the loving devotion of multitudes ; it was marked by
poverty and lowliness, and yet by a majesty quite unique j he was despised and rejected
of men, yet his teaching constrained the exclamation, " Never man spake like this Man ! "
and his miracles constrained the cry, " What manner of Man is this ? " The thorns of
hatred and contempt were thrust into his head ; yet love and loyalty wrought them into
a victor's wreath, a monarch's diadem. 2. The crowning of Jesus with thorns aym*
bolized the character of the religion which he founded. The cross was followed by the
resurrection; the entombment by the ascension. Thug God brought together, ia the
career of his own Son, the ptofoundest humiliation and the most exalted gloiy. And
OH. XEC. 1—42.] THE GOSPEL AOCORDINO TO ST. JOHW. 441
this arrangement represents the natnre of Ohristisnlty. It !■ • religion of hnmilitj,
contrition, and repentance, and also of peace, rictory, and power. It smites the sinner
to the earth ; it raises the pardoned penitent to heaven. 3. This incident was pro-
phetic of the progress and the victory of the Christian faith. Our religion has indeed,
triumphed, but it has triumphed through suffering. Its onward course has been marked
by the blood of confessors, martyrs, and missionaries, and by the toil and anguish of
thousands of faithful promulgators. The thorns of suffering are the means ; the crown
of glory and of conquest is the end. Ohrist was made perfect through suffering, and his
Church shall reach a universal dominion only by a toilsome path of strife, watered by
tears and stained with blood. — T.
Ver. 6. — " Ecce Homo I " Observe the spirit in which Pilate uttered these words.
We discern in them pity for Jesus, whose character was innocent, whose position was
sad and grievous, whose attitude was one of calm and patient endurance. Oontempt
mingled with pity — contempt for a fanatic who deemed himself possessor of the truth,
and for a prisoner who held himself to be a King. In the governors mind was perplexity
as to how he should deal with the accused, in whom he felt was something mysterious
and unaccountable. Towards the Jews Pilate felt a sentiment of disgust, for he read
their motives and despised their malice, even though he knew not how, without danger
to himself, to protect his prisoner from his foes. Observe, too, the spirit in which the
Jewish rulers and multitude heard these words. They were untouched by the pathos of
his position and demeanour, by the Divine dignity of his character, by the appeal of
Pilate to their compassion, by any concern for themselves and their posterity as to the
consequences of their injustice and malevolence. The same Jesus who was exhibited
by Pilate to the people of Jerusalem is set before us who hear his gospel, and these
words which the Soman governor employed before the Frastorium are addressed to all
to whom the Word is preached : " Behold the Man 1 "
I. Whom do we behold? 1. The Man whom Gbd sent into this world — ^his Repre-
sentative and Herald, his Anointed One, his only Son. 2. The Man whom, as a matter
of history, the Jews, in their infatuation, rejected. 3. The Man whom his own disciples
forsook in the hour of his distress. 4. The Man whom the Romans, unconscious
instruments of a Divine purpose, crucified and slew. 6. The Man who was destined, as
events have shown, to rule and bless the world where he met with a treatment so
undeserved. Reading the Gospels as ordinary narratives, gazing upon the figure of the
Kazarene as a great figure in human history, we see thus much. But as Christians we
are not satisfied to behold him thus. We see in him what the lessons of inspiratiom
and of experience have taught us to see, and what we wish the world to see for its own
enlightenment and salvation.
II. What do we behold in him ? The Man : more than meets the eye, the ear,
far more than Pilate understood by the words he used. We behold : 1. The faultless
Man. He alone of all who have appeared on earth claims sinlessness, and is admitted
to have been without a stain. In his character he fulfilled the law of holiness. 2. The
benevolent, self-sacrificing Man. Not only was he without sin ; in him was exempli-
fied every active, self-denying virtue. He lived and died for others — ^for the race whose
nature he assumed. 3. The Man, the Mediator, bringing about reconciliation between
heaven and earth, introducing the Divine grace and the Divine life into human hearts.
i. Thus the idegj Man, and the Head and Founder of the new humanity. Wonderful
is the correspondence between Christ and man as he first proceeded from the plastic
hand of the Eternal, between Christ and man as he shall be presented at the last before
the Author of his being and hii salvation.
III. How should we behold him ? 1. With sincere interest and concern. Well
may the world be asked concerning Christ, " Is it nothing to yon, all ye that pass by?"
etc. 2. With admiration and reverence. The hero-worshipper has often been dis-
appointed in the object of his adoration, in whom he has discovered unsuspected flaws.
But the longer we gaze at Jesus, the brighter grows his glory, the more harmonious hia
perfections. 3. With gratitude and love. To behold him is to remember what he luM
done, what he has suffered for us, is to cherish towards him those feelings to which in
the same measure no other has a claim. 4, With faith and trust, dispositions of the
•oul which fini in him their supreme Object 6. With consecration and obedienoa He
*a THE GOSPEL AGOOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xnc 1—41
who finds it hard to serve God is bidden to behold his Saviour ai he stood crowned with
thorns before his murderers : there is no such rebtike to selfishness and wilfulness, no
such motive to devotion and self-deniaL 6. With the hope of beholding him more
nearly and for ever, not in lowliness and shame, but in l)eauty transcendent, in glory
eternal. — ^T.
Ver. 9. — " Whence art thou t " This question, put by Pilate to the Lord Jesus, was
not so mnch intended to guide the questioner in his judicial capacity, as to satisfy his
own curiosity. It is clear that Pilate was satisfied of the Accused's innocence of any
political ofience. But it is also clear that he was perplexed in mind, and unable to
satisfy himself as to the real character and origin of the mysterious Being who stood
before him. There is no reason to suppose that the Eoman procurator felt any very
deep or lasting interest in the Prophet of Kazareth. Still he had his misgivings as to
whether Jesus was not possessed of some superhuman claims. Hence the question,
"Whence art thou?"
I. The inquiry. 1. There is much in Christ himself which prompts the question.
His character, his wonderful works, his still more wonderful language, the whole
ministry which he fulflUed upon earth, and especially the sacrifice and the victory in
which that ministry culminated, — all are fitted to suggest and urge inquiry into his
origin and nature. 2. There is much in man wtiich induces him to seek the truth upon
this most interesting question. It concerns every one to whom the gospel comes to
know with what authority Jesus spoke, and what value attaches to his redemption.
And in order to this it is necessary to know whence he is, frond whom he comes, and
in whose name he makes his claim upon men.
n. The reply. Why Jesus did not answer Pilate is not hard to imderstand. He
had already, both by his language and by his demeanour, given abundant evidence for
the formation of a judgment. And Jesus intended Pilate to understand what were
their relative positions. The governor deemed himself in this case omnipotent ; Jesus
gave him to under.itand tliat in reality his power was very limited, whilst the power of
the accused and apparently helpless One was in reality that of God himself. But we
should make a mistake if we supposed that the Lord Jesus was or is unwilling to give
reason for men to acknowledge his claims and to render honour to the Son. 1. Christ's
origin is Divine : he came forth from God, and was one with the Father. 2.
Christ's authority is Divine: he spake, wrought, and suffered in the name of Gfld.
3. Christ's Divine origin and authority render him in all his offices fit to fulfil his
gracious purposes towards mankind. Is he our Prophet, Priest, and King ? It makes
all the difference to his sufficiency whether or not he fulfils these offices with Divine
authority. Men are right in asking of Jesus, " Whence art thou ? " But they are
wrong is, receiving his own answer, they refuse him the faith of their heart, the
allegiance of their life. — T.
Ver. 14. — " Behold your King 1" It is not easy to decide in what spirit these words
were spoken by Pilate. Certainly the Roman governor was not deceived into believing
that Jesus made a claim to a temporal sovereignty which might conflict with the
Roman dominion. Certainly he could not expect to move the Jews to pity by repre-
senting Jesus as One who had in some way authority among them, a claim to their
regard ; for they had delivered him up on the charge of assuming royalty. It would
seem as if Pilate took a pleasure in angering and insulting the priests and Pharisees,
whom he hated and despised as he did the nation whom they headed and guided. He
had no motive for ridiculing Jesus ; he had a motive for scoffing at the Jews. He could
not but recognize the superiority of the august and patient Sufferer before him over the
hypocritical priests and the fanatical mob who demanded that Sufferer's death. And even
when yielding, for his own safety's sake, to the unjust and clamorous request of Jesus'
enemies, he gratified his own scorn of the Jewish rulers and people, first by summoning
them to behold their King, and then by causing the inscription tobe placed upon his
cross, " Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." The language which Pilate uttered
in derision, and which the Jews rejected in their wrath, is nevertheless language which
contains precious and glorious truth.
I. Tu OBODND OF Christ's KmosHiF. Earthly sovereigns oom« to the thione i
tm. Tax. 1—42.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDmG TO ST. JOHN. 443
times by right of conquest, lomelimes in virtue of inheritance, sometimes by means of
election. Now, Jesus is Kssg : 1 By Divine appointment and native right. " Yet,"
ran the prophecy, " have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion." He is Ohiist, i.e.
the Anointed, and he is anointed Monarch of mankind. Men's recognition or rejection
of him makes no ditference as to the fact. In the very nature of things, because he is
Son of God, he is the rightful Buler. 2. By mediatorial acquisition. He is Prophet
and Priest, and therefure King. In order that his rightful sovereignty might becoma
an actual sovereignty, the Lord Jesus was obedient unto death, and purchased his own
inheritance. The cross was the means by which he won the throne.
IL The bealm otbb which Chbibt exebcises his swat. 1. His kingdom ii
differenced from the kingdoms of this world in that it is not over the outward actions,
the life merely, of men. He does not reign by the sceptre and the sword. He has no
palace, no army, none of the paraphernalia of earthly royalty. 2. Our Lord's kingdom
is spiritual ; it is first and chiefly a dominion over the hearts, the convictions, and tha
affections of men. He sets up his throne in the inner being and nature of his subjects ;
and if he rules oyer their speech and actions, it is because he first rules over theii
thoughts and desires. All Ms true subjects, therefore, are such willingly, and not by
constraint.
III. The ohaeacteb of Christ's botal dominion. Our Lord Je!!U8 combines in
himself the two supreme attributes of government. 1. He is the Legislator King. He
promulgates the laws which his subjects are bound to study, to respect, and to obey.
The laws of earthly kingdoms are sometimes unjust. But Christ's laws are supremely
righteous; they are commandments of God himself; only the authority which properly
belongs to them is penetrated with a spirit of grace and kiddness, 2. He is the
judicial King. He enforces his own edicts. He is the Judge alike of the Church and
of the world. He demands submission and obedience. And from the sanctions of his
rule none can escape. His friends shall be exalted, and foes and rebels shall be placed
beneath his feet.
IV. The extent and duration op Chkist's Kingship. 1. His kingdom is universal.
When Jesus, in his parables, spoke of the kingdom of God as destined to include all
nations, nothing could have seemed to ordinary listeners less likely of fulfilment than
such a prediction. And when he himself was crucified, what prospect there was of
dominion to be exercised by him must, in the view of most men, have vanished utterly.
Yet our Saviour's dominion has been constantly extending, and is still taking in new
pi-ovinces. And faith realizes the approach of the time when " the kingdoms of this
world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ." 2. His kingdom is
immortal. Of states and empires historians have written the decline and fall; no
earthly kingdom can resist the law of decay to which all things human appear subject.
Of Christ's kingdom, however, "there is no end;" it is "from everlasting to ever-
lasting."^
Pbactioal conclusion. 1. Let attention be given to this Divine Monarch. "Behold
your King 1 " Of all beings he first claims the regard of men. 2. Let his dignity and
authority be recognized. When Pilate pointed the gaze of the multitude to Jesus,
his was a disguised Royalty, for Jesus was "a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with
grief;" and his was a derided, insulted royalty, for he had been clothed in mockery
with a purple robe, and a crown of thorns had pierced his head. 3. Let homage,
reverence, loyalty, devotion, be rendered to him to whom they are justly due. Truly
to behold Christ is to discern his just claim to aU that our heart, our life, can offer.
His sovereignty is absolute, and our obligation to him is unlimited. — T.
Ver. 18. — Three crosses. What a pictvire is this I At a place near Jerusalem, called
Golgotha, the Roman soldiery have reared three crosses. And on these crosses hang
three figures. The sufferers have been doomed to die. With a criminal on either hand,
the Son of man is enduring, not cnly anguish of body, but agony of mind unpaniUeled,
The soldiers, with callous indifference, watch the tortured victims. The multitude gaze
with vulgar curiosity upon the unwouted si^ht. The Jewish rulers look exultir^ly
upon him whose death their malignant hate has compassed. Friendly disciples and
tender-hearted women gaze with sympathy and tears upon the dying woe of their
beloved One. Ho wonder that the scene should have riveted the imagination and
H* TEE OOSFEL AOOORVTSQ TO 8T. JOHK. [en. nz. 1—43.
hare elidted the pathetic and pictorial powers of unnambered painters. Vo wonder
that «Tery great picture-gallery in every Christian land uontains some masterpiece of
some famons painter, of one school or another, depicting th'e crucifixion of the Holy One
and the Just. For us the scene has not only an •rtisi.^c and affecting, but also and
far more a spiritual, significance.
L OHE cross is THB symbol of DiTINB LOVB ASD of HTTMAir SALVATION. The
central figure of the three is that which draws to it every eye. 1. There is in this
cross what every spectator can discern, A Being undoubtedly innocent, holy, benevolent,
is suffering unjustly the recompense of the evil-doer. Yet he endures, all with patience
and meekness, with no complaint, but with sincere words of forgiveness for his foes. We
conceive Jesus saying, " All ye that pass by, behold, and see ; was there ever sorrow like
unto my sorrow?" 2. What did Christ's enemies see in his cross ? The fruit of their
malice, the success of their schemes, the fulfilment, as it seemed to them, of their selfish
hopes. 3. A more practical and interesting question for us is — ^What do we behold in
the cross of Christ ? To all Christ's friends, their crucified Lord is the Revelation of the
power and the wisdom of God, none the less so because bis enemies see here only an
exhibition of weakness, of foU^, and of failure. The voice that reaches us from Calvary
is the voice that speaks Divine love to all mankind. Here Christians recognize the
provision of full and everlasting salvation ; and here they come under the intluence oi
the hischest motive which appeals to the spiritual nature, and calls forth an affectionat*
and grateful devotion.
* From the erow uplifted high,
Where the Saviour deigns to dlo^
What melodious Bounds I hear,
Bursting on my ravished ear I
Love's redeeming work is done ;
Come and welcome, sinner, come.*
n. A BECOin) CBOSB IS THE BTMBOL OF lUFENITENOE ASD BEJECTION OF DiVllia
HEROT. In the blaspheming robber who hung by the side of the Lord Jesus we have
an awful example of human sin and crime ; an awful witness to human justice and to
the penalty with which transgressors are visited ; and an awful illustration of the length
to which sinners may carry their callous indifference to sin. An impenitent criminal
reviles the one Being who has the power and the disposition to deliver him from his
sin and from its worst results. Selfishness of the mirrowest and meanest kind is left :
" Save us] " <.e. from torture and the impending fatu. A degraded life is followed by a
hopeless death. Several terrible lessons are taught by this felon's character and fate.
1. How impossible it is for those to be saved who reject the means of salvation I 2.
How possible it is to be close to Christ, in body, in communication, in privilege, and
yet, because destitute of faith and love, to'be without any benefit from such proximity I
8. How foolish it is to rely upon a late repentance, seeing that sinners are Ibund to per-
severe in sin and unbelief even in the immediate prospect of death!
III. A THIRD CROSS IS THE SYMBOL OF FENITENOE AND OF PABDOK. The StOry of
the repentant malelactor shows us that, even when human justice does its work. Divine
mercy may have its way. 1. The process of seeking God, even in BK>rtal extremity.
Conscience works; conviction of sin ensues, and creates a new disposition of the soul ;
this prompts a fearless rebuke of a neighbour's sin ; faith — in the circumstances truly
amazing — is exercised ; true, simple, fervent prayer is offered. 2. The manifestation
of compassion and mercy. The dying Lord imparts to the dying penitent an assurance
of favour; free pardon is announced; bright ho]>e is inspired; immortal happiness is
secured. 3. Lessons of precious encouragement are impressed upon the spectators ol
this third cross. It is possible for the vilest to repent. It is certain that the sincere
penitent will he regarded with favotu:. Even at the eleventh hour salvation Is not to be
despaired of. There is a prospect before those who are accepted and pardoned, tl
immediate joy and Divine fellowship after this life is over. — ^T,
Vers. 26, 27.— 2%« third vmrd from the croie. "Whoever of our Lord's frtanda,
followers, and kindred were absent during the awful hours of the Crucifixion, we know-
that Us nearest relative^ bis mother, was there, and that his most intimats a&d ooit*
BH. XIX. 1—42.] THB GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 445
genial fnend and disciple, John, was a witness of the solemn scene. These, with some
others, lingered by the cross. Not unseen by the dying Redeemer, his nearest friends
were the objects of his affectionate regard ; and, as these verses relate, some of his last
thoughts were of them, and his last provision concerned their future relations.
I. We cannot but bevebentially admikb the belp-foegetfulness or the
CRUCIFIED Bbdbemeb. The absorbing nature of extreme bodily suffering is well
known. Jn the hour of agony it is hard for the sufferer to think of aught but his own
pains and torture. We know that the Lord Jesus was exquisitely sensitive to suffering.
Yet even amidst the anguish of body and of mind which he was then enduring, the
Saviour was able to turn away his thoughts from himself to her who gave him birth,
who had often shared the honours and the trials of his ministry, and who had now,
with noble fortitude and sympathy, come to witness his death.
II. We are insteucted by the eevelation op the high place which human
LOVE held m ouB Savioub's heart. Mary was now advancing in life ; her husband
Joseph was probably dead. Her long-proved affection was reciprocated by that Son
whose filial devotion had been perfect, and who had not now to remember one unfiliat
act, or word, or even thought. As he looked upon her he saw that the prediction waa_
now fulfilkd, " A sword shall pierce through thine own heart also." He had loved her
all his hie, and his love was never more grateful, more tender, more compassionate, than
now. He was be ariug the burden of a world's sin and sorrow ; yet there was room in
his sacr d heart for affectionate thoughts of his beloved mother. John, too, who
records this incident, in which he occupied a part so prominent, took pleasure in speak-
ing of himself as " the disciple whom Jesus loved." He had reclined on the Master's
breast at the Supper: right and meet it was that he should take his sration at his
Master's cross. Jesus, who had loved him in life, cherished the same affection towards
John in this his own hour of anguish. As it would have been a comfort to Jesus ha^*
his three favoured apostles watched with him in the garden, so no doubt it was a
comfort to him that the beloved disciple was standing hard by the cross of ignominy
and woe. Jesus loved his friend for his faithfulness, and rewarded him for it even in
the hour of his own dt-cease. We thus recognize with gratitude the persistence of
Tmmauuel's tender affection : " Having loved his own ... he loved them even to the
end."
III. We ABE ASTONISHED AT THB FOEBTHOUGHT AND WISDOM BXKROISED BY THB
DYING Saviour. He had already prayed for his murderers ; he had already cheered
his fellow-sufferer by words of grace and promise. He now turned his thoughtful"
regard to the mother who sti)od weeping among her friends. The arrangenient which
he proposed was one the propriety and suitableness of which are most apparent. Who
so fit to take his place — as far as that place could be taken — as the beloved disciple?
There is a pathetic grace and beauty in the language in which Jesus commended the
two to each other. He acknowledged the mother's fidelity and devotion to himself;
he foresaw the desolation which must come to her; he provided for her not only a
protector and a. home, but that solace which would come with common memories and
mutual syiJipathy. There were those, perhaps, nearer of kin, but none could be nearer
in heart, to Mary than Jesus' most intimate and trusted friend. Thus it was secured
that Mary should he removed from the distressing scene, and should be assured of
constant and affectionate tendance. Nor can we duubt that this ariangement was
a permanent one — that Mnry enjoyed the friendship and ministrations of John until
she went to see her Son in that glory which tollowed upon his bitter humiliation.
Thus love and wisdom went together in this as in preceding acts of the Son of man.
And what Jesus said and did upon this occasion was an earnest of his work for humanity
at largef. None are so happy, so safe, eo strong, as those to whom the Saviour reveals
his heart, and for whom he in his wisdom takes holy, helpful thought. — T.
Ver. 28. — Tht fifth word from the cross. This U both the shortest of all the dying
utterances of Jesus, and it is the one which is most closely related to himself. It came
from the parched lips of the Divine Victim towards the close of his agony, and after
the darkness which endured from the sixth to the ninth hour. Most touching in itself^
it has its spiritual significance for us.
L Tms OBT BimiNDB m that cub Lord Jesus shaeed oub ruuam katitbe and
44« THE GOSPEL AOCORDmO TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xix. 1—42,
rra miBHinKB. The need and desire to which expression was thus given had a
physical cause and was accompanied by a physical pain. Jesus had thirsted upon his
journey when he asked from the Samaritan woman a draught of water from Jacob's
well. Jesus seems to have taken no refreshment from the time when he supped with
the apostles in the upper room ; since then he had endured the agony in the garden,
had passed through the repeated examinations before the Jewish council and the
Boman governor, and had hung for hours upon the cross. The bodily anguish and
exhaustion of crucifixion, aggravated by his unspeakable mental distress, account for
the thirst which possessed the dying Sufferer. When the refreshment was offered,
Jesus moistened his lips with the posca, or sour wine, offered him in the sponge raised
on the stem of hyssop. This seems to have revived him, and strengthened him for the
last cries which he uttered in his humiliation.
II. This oby is an kvidencb of cub Lobd'b bxtbemb HtJMiLiATioir. When we
remember that Jesus was the Lord of nature, who could feed multitudes with bread, and
could supply a banquet with wine; when we remember that this acknowledgment of
thirst was made in the presence of his enemies and persecutors ; when we remember
■from whom Jesus deigned to accept the draught by which his thirst was relieved ; — we
cannot but be impressed by the depth of humiliation to which he stooped. He was
" obedient unto death ; " the " things which he sufifered " were unexampled. Christ
not only condescended to die ; he accepted death in a form and with accompanying
circumstances which rendered it something more than death. His death was sacrificial,
and he shrank iirom nothing that could contribute to make him "perfect through
Buffering."
III. This obt iNSTBnoTS us ab to thb pbioe by which oijb redemption was
SBOUBED. Our Lord's pain of body, his anguish of soul, the ignominious oircnmstances
attending his decease, were all foreseen and accepted. This very cry was a fullilment
of an ancient prophecy ; and the language of the evangelist forbids us to regard this as
a mere coincidence. " By his stripes we are healed ; " and we may look upon his volun-
tary endurance of thirst as a means of satisfying the deep thirst of our immortal spirit.
At all events, in his anguish he paid the price by which his people are redeemed.
IV. This cbt suggests to ns a method by which wk mat, in aooobdanob with
Christ's own directions, minister unto him. Jesus has taught us to identify his
people with himself. If love to him would find an opportunity for its display, an outlet
by which it may flow forth, this is to be found in those ministrations to Christ's " little
ones " which he enjoins upon those who recognize his authority and who love to please
him. The cup of cold water may be given to the thirsty one in the name of a disciple.
Some want may be supplied, some suffering alleviated, some wrong redressed. And
they who for Christ's sake thus minister to the thirsting, the needy, the friendless, are
justified in deeming themselves, so far, ministers to Christ himself. It is all as though,
hearing his dying cry, they raised the refreshing draught to his parched lips. He will
account the deed of charity as done unto himself. — T.
Ver. 30. — The sixth word from the cross. To this solemn, awful moment Jesus had
been looking ibrward during the whole of his ministry. As the ministry drew to a
close he felt the approach of its consummation, and again and again gave utterance to
his feelings. He knew that the hour had come, that he was about to leave the world ;
he had looked up to the Father and had said, " I come to thee." And now the reason
for living was over, and nothing remained for him but to die. The end was marked
by the brief, momentous exclamation, " It is finished 1 "
L Thb pbediotions befebbino to the Messiah were now all fuleillbd. It
had been written, " The Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head ; " " Thou
hast brought me into the dust of death ; " " It pleased the Lord to bruise him ; " " The
Messiah shall be cut off;" "I will smite the Shepherd." These predictions of the
sufferings of the Anointed of God were now verified in the experience completed by
the Son of man.
IL The obedeknok and humiliation of thb Son of CtoD webk now oomplktbd.
His humiliation had been apparent in his taking the form of a servant, and enduring
poverty and privation, anguish and coniempt. His obedience had commenced with
hii childhood, had been continued daring his ministiy, and was now parfeoted in death,
m. MX. 1—42.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST. JOHN. 447
eTen the death of the cross. His active service was one long act of obedience, and his
patient endurance now made that obedience complete. He " learned obedience by the
things which he suffered. " Nothing had been left undone which could prove Christ's
unhesitating submission to the will of Ood his Father. When he had endured the
cross, despising the shame, his offering of filial obedience, subjection, and consecration
was ready to be presented to the Father by whose will he had come, and had endured
all the consequences of coming, into this world of sin and misery.
IIL The term of Chbist's suFFBRiNa and sobrow was at an end. He had
shrunk from no trial ; he had drained the cup to the dregs. Now there was no more
humiliation, subjection, conflict. He was about to exchange the mock robes of royalty,
the reed-sceptre, the crown of thorns, for the symbols and the reality of universal
empire. The period of agony was past ; the period of triumph was at hand.
IV. The baorifioe of tee Lamb of Gtod was accomplished. The one ofTering
appointed by Divine righteousness and love was now to fulfil its purpose, to supersede
the prophetic and anticipatory sacrifices of the dispensation which was passing away.
The economy of shadows was to give place to that of substance. Reconciliation, not
merely legal, but moral, not for Israel only, but for mankind, was now brought about
by the work of the Divine Mediator. The veil of the temple was rent, the way into
the holiest was opened. Provision was made for the inflowing of mercy like a mighty
stream. The means were now introduced to secure the end dear to the Divine heart—
the everlasting salvation of sinful men.
Afflioation. 1. In this language we have an appeal to the Father's approval. It
is to us a matter of infinite importance to know that the will of Ood was fulfilled to
the very utmost by our Substitute and Representative. 2. We have also in this cry
an exclamation expressive of (Jhrist's own satisfaction and joy. To him it could not
but be a relief to feel that the experience of pain and bitter woe to which he had
submitted was now at an end. It is our privilege to suffer with him, and with him
to die unto sin. 3. The hearer of the gospel may in these words welcome an assurance
that redemption has been wrought, that the ransom has been paid, that salvation
may now be published to all mankind through the once crucified and now glorified
Redeemer. — ^T.
Yer. 38. — A disciple, hut secretly. Of the man thus described by John we know but
little. His birthplace, or family seat, was Arimathffia ; his rank among the Jews
was of the highest, for he was a member of the national council, or Sanhedrin. His
wealth is mentioned, and accounts for his possession of land, and for the provision by
him of costly spices to be used in our Lord's interment. His moral character is summed
up In the description of him as " good and just." As he comes before us in connection
with the closing scene of our Saviour's humiliation, he combines opposite elements of
disposition ; for he is represented as timid and standing in dread of the Jews, and yet
so bold as to go to Pilate and to beg of the governor the body of the crucified Jesus.
The ofSce of committing the body to the tomb was discharged by Nicodemus, also a
ruler of the Jews, and also apparently a secret disciple, and by this Joseph, who offered
for the purpose the place of sepulture which he owned, and evidently designed for the
use of himself and his family. Joseph of Arimathaea may be taken as a representative
of the secret disciple. Circumstances vary with times, but the disposition here exem-
plified still exists.
I. There are various caubes which accoukt fob beobect in Christian disoifle-
BHip, 1. It is natural and proper that the beginnings of conscious discipleship should be
hidden. Wheji the seed begins to germinate, to put forth the signs and the promise of
life, it remains hidden beneath the surface of the soil unseen by any eye. And when a
young heart in its yearnings, or a penitent heart in its mingled regrets and hopes, turns
to the Lord Jesus, as to a Divine Friend and mighty Saviour, the change is unknown,
unheeded by the observer. The time comes when the plant appears above the ground ;
and the time comes when the tokens of spiritual life in a changed character, disposi-
tion, and habits are unmistakable. But there is a time for secrecy, and there is a time
for publicity. 2. There are those who keep secret their interest in Christian truth,
their affection for Christ himself, through a trembling reverence for spiritual and Divins
things. Doubtless many «« sincere in the public shouts and songs, \tj which theix
448 THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. [ob. zxc 1—42
boliterous natures boast of new-found light and liberty. But many gentle, timid, and
refined spirits are equally sincere and devout in their reserve. Men and women there
are like her who " kept and treasured these things in her heart." A time there is in
Christian experience when feeling is too sacred to he professed. 3. Distrust of self,
and an awed sense of responsibility, account for the backwardness of many sincere dis-
ciples to avow their faith and love. What if they should profess to be Christ's, and
then afterwards should prove ashamed of him, or should discredit him by any want of
loyalty? The very fear lest this should be so leads to reticence and silence. 4. An
inferior motive has to be considered, viz. the fear of man. Some, especially among
the young, fear the opposition or the ridicule or the reproach of their fellow-men. Such
was the case with Joseph, who feared the Jews — dreaded lest he should, like Jesus, be
persecuted, or lest he should be despised and hated. A member of a distinguished and
privileged class is peculiarly sensitive to the coldness, the contempt, or the ridicule of
those whose opinion makes the public opinion which has most influence over him.
II. Thebb is mischief wrought by seobet disciplbship. When those who love
Christ, and make it their aim to serve him, conceal their attachment and their pious
resolution, whether through timidity or distrust, harm follows. 1. The disciple who
withholds or delays his open confession of the Saviour, by so doing thwarts his own
religious progress and happiness. " With the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." The very attitude of bold and
public acknowledgment of faith in the Lord Jesus is a means of spiritual confirmation
and improvement. For such an attitude is the natural expression of faith, and attracts
the countenance and sympathy of those who are like-minded. 2. The withholding of
a confession of Christ is disobedience to Christ and to his Spirit. If we learn of him,
we are bound to obey him. And be has bidden us take up our cross and follow him.
He has bidden us observe the Lord's Supper in memory of his death. It is not honour-
ing Christ to delay, without sufficient reason, such an avowal of our faith in him as his
own Word justifies, and indeed requires. 3. Secrecy of discipleship is discouraging to
the Church of Christ. That Church has many enemies; it has need of all its friends.
It weakens the forces of the spiritual host when those who should fall into the ranks
stand aloof. There is a sense in which those who are not with Christ are against him.
4. The world is confirmed in error and unbelief when there is a disinclination on the
part of Christians openly to avow themselves what they really are. It is natural
enough for the world to interpret such conduct as indicating a want of heartiness and
thoroughness in discipleship. Men ask whether those who stand outside are not in
the same position as those who go up to the door, but do not enter in.
III. There abb coNsinBRATioNS which may protect against the temptation to
CONCEAL Christian discipleship. 1. The greatness of the Master to whom we owe
allegiance. Christ is so great that none need feel any sh>ime in belonging to him ;
such a relation is the highest honour accessible to man. Christ is so great that none
need feel any fear in openly avowing loyalty to him. None is so well able as the
" Lord of all " to protect and deliver those who adhere to him. 2. It should be
remembered by those who are in doubt whether or not to confess Clirist, that a day
is coming in which the real position of all men with regard to the Divine Bedeemer
must be made manifest. Of those who are ashamed of him before men the Lord Jesus
will be ashamed in the judgment before his Father and the holy angels. — T.
Ven. Z8— 4:2.— The laii stage of the Savioui'i humiliation John, who presents to
us the most sublime views of the Divine nature and glory of the Christ, does not shrink
from relating in this passage to how deep humiliation that Christ condescended.
I. Thb historical puepobb fulfilled by Christ's burial. It is observable that
all four evangelists record, and with many details, the interment of the Son of man.
This is accounted for, not so much by any intrinsic importance belonging to burial, as
by its intermediate position between the crucifixion and the resurrection of our Lord.
1. The burial of Jesus is of moment, as establishing the fact of his actnal death. It
hM been absurdly contended by some infidel theorizers, at a loss to know how to
deal with the evidence for our Lord's subsequent appearances, that he did not really
die upon the cross, that he merely fell into a swoon, from which, under the care of his
friend, he recovered. K anch had been the case, the body could not have been laid in
OH. xa. 1—42.] THE GOSPEL AOOORDINa TO BT. JOHN. 4«
the tomb and left there. 2. The namtive is also conoluBlve aa to the rMlit; of our
Lord's resurrection. He could not have risen from the dead unless be had f/st died.
It is not possible to disconnect the several parts of the narrative from one an^ither. As
it stands, the record is consistent and credible.
IL The applicant and thb applicatioh. It is remarkable that, in the very crisis
when the professed and prominent disciples of Jesus were timid and vanished from the
•cene, two secret disciples came forward and discharged the last o£Qces of friendship for
the Lord in his humiliation. Of Joseph we know that he was from Arimathsea, that
he was rich and an honoured member of the Sanhedrin, that he did not agree to the
condemnation passed upon the Prophet of Nazareth. We also know concerning his
religious position that he was one of those who were looking for God's kingdom to be
set up, and that he was a disciple of Jesus, though secretly, for fear of the Jews.
With Joseph was associated Nicodemus, who seems to have been emboldened by the
example of Joseph to come forward, to declare his affection for Jesus, and to take part
in the interment of his Master. An illustration of the contagion of a courageous
example, which may be commended to those who are hesitating between secret and
open discipleship. With respect to Pilate, it is to be observed that, as he had no per-
sonal hostility to Jesus, and probably took a pleasure in annoying the Jewish leaders,
he was naturally willing enough, apparently without being bribed, to agree to the
request of Joseph. He satisfied himself, by the testimony of the centurion, that Jesus
was dead, and then suffered the applicant to take the body. Thus neither was the
corpse exposed during the Paschal solemnities, nor was it consigned to the indignity of
a criminal's interment.
III. The place and manneb of the btjbiau Tender care is manifested in every
line of this picture. Affectionate hands wound the body in folds of costly linen. Con-
secrated wealth placed myrrh and aloes in the folds. Generous fellowship offered the
tomb which was designed for the owner's family, but which was deemed to be honoured
and sanctified by becoming the temporary abode of the Saviour's foi;m. Strong and
willing hands rolled the great stone against the opening to the rock-hewn sepulchre.
Reverent and loving women, who had watched the Sufferer when on the cross, now
watched the lifeless body consigned to its peaceful resting-place. These are homely
incidents, bat they are hallowed and glorified by the human love which they reveal.
Fancy lingers by the garden which was the scene of these ministrations, and finds it
seemly that, as a garden had witnessed the Saviour's agony, a garden also should
witness his repose.
IV. The W0NDE0U8 fact of Christ's bttrial. That Jesus, being what he was, the
Son of God, the Lord of glory, the King of men, should consent to die and to be buried,
is amazing indeed. That such a life — a life devoted to benevolent purposes, a life
evincing the possession of irresistible power — should end in the grave, this appears
altogether anomalous. That men should slay their Saviour, that he should consent to
die, that the Father in heaven should suffer such an end to such a career, — this must
fill a thoughtful and sensitive observer with wonder akin to fear ! Earth was for some
hours the sepulchre of the Son of God I
v. The BBLIQI0D8 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BUBXAii OF Chribt. 1. We remark Jesus
sharing the whole of our lot in its utmost humiliation. He who stooped to the manger
at his birth did not disdain the grave after his death. As Son of man, he would shrink
from no human experience. It behoved him in all things to be made like his brethren.
Thus he qualified himself to be at once our Representative before God, and oar eternal
Brother — a High Priest touched with a feeling of our infirmities. 2. We remark that
the end of our Lord's humiliation was the beginning of his glory and reign. He was
made perfect through suffering. Through the grave he passed to the throne. His
"precious death and burial" were the means and the introduction to the majesty and
dominion which are his of right, and his for ever.
VI. The PRACTICAL lessons op Christ's bitbial. 1. Our obligation to giatitude
and love is brought strikingly before our hearts when we thus learn what our Saviour
bore for as. 2. Christians are spiritually to share Christ's death and sepulture. They
are buned with Christ, — by their baptism unto his death. 3. The grave loses its terron
to those who know that Jesus shares it with his people. As the tomb could not hoU
him, so th« stone which seals his people's sepulchre shall surely be rolled away.— IV
iSO THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINQ TO ST. JOHN. [oh. ziz. 1— 4&
Yen. 23, 24. — 7%e division of Mb garmmts. Notice this cirenmstanM—
I. AB ILLUSTBATIVB of certain THIKQB with BEaABD TO THK 0BnCIFIEB8 ASD THJ
Crdcifikd. 1. With regard to the crucifien, (1) Their utter want of common delicacy.
The first thing they did in executing the sentence was to strip the culprit of every rag
of clothes, and hang him on the cross in a state of nudity. This reveals on the part of
the patrons of this custom utter lack of delicacy, and grossness and barbarity of taste.
They were willing to gratify the most morbid tastes, most animal passions, and lowest
curiosity of an excited and thoughtless mob. The Komans were not the first nor the
last to manifest these qualities with regard to the execution of criminals. Till very
recently our executions were much of the same style. Thousands went to see the last
struggles of a criminal with very much the same feelings as they would go to see a
bull-fight, and TOknj of them very much worse in the sight of God than he who was
hung. But, thanks to our advanced Christian civilization, this has passed away. Our
executions are now performed in private, with as much decency, and as little pain to
the culprit as possible, thus recugaizing the sacredness of life, even that of the meanest,
most worthless and injurious. It is to be hoped that life will soon become more sacred
still in accordance with the merciful spirit of the dispensation imder which we live. (2)
Their refined eruelty. It was not enough for the Crucified to bear all the torture of tha
cross, but also he had to bear all the shame andindiguities of nakedness. To some,
doubtless, who were sunk in the deepest physical and spiritual debauchery, it was not
so painful, but by the pure soul of Jesus it must have been keenly felt. There was no
consideration shown in his case. He was not exempted from a single item in the
catalogue of indignities, nor from a single ignominy in the programme of shame; but
rather to the contrary, these were lengthened by the voluntary contributions of a
servile crowd. The crucifiers of Jesus were as refined in their cruelty as they were
coarse in their tastes, and as minute in their indignities as they were lax in their sense
of common delicacy. 2. In relation to the crucified One. It indicates : (1) The
simplicity of his dress. Only the common costume of a poor Cbliloan. Jesus did
not go in for fashion and finery in dress anymore than for luxuries in diet; but in all he
was characterized by simplicity. In one sense this was strange, too, that he who paints
the lily and rose in the richest hues, and the bird's wing in the most fantastic colours,
should be himself clothed in the simple dress of a poor artisan I But, in another sense,
this is not strange ; it is generally the case with true greatness. He was sufficiently
glorious in himself. It is not the garment, but he who wears it. (2) The poverty of
hit circumstances. When his worldly affairs were wound up they consisted in a
humble dress. When this was divided, all was divided he possessed in this world. He
had no houses, money, nor land to be confiscated by the government, and to enrich the
imperial treasury, only the robe and the tunic, and these probably the gifts of some
kind friend, the latter, perhaps, woven by the tender hands of his mother, or by Magda-
lene, as the original device and girt of love for an original and Divine kindness. This
is very afiecting and significant, that he who was in the world, and the world was made
by him, should leave without any of it. He who made the world could alone be satis-
fied to leave it thus. He was. (3) His more than hwman submissiveness in suffering.
When deprived of his garments he made no complaint, no request to be spared this
indignity. One would naturally expect that he would ask this favour, and say, " I am
willing to sufier even unto death, but let me die in my clothes." But not a word or a
murmur. "Ab a lamb he was brought to the slaughter," and all for us. He was
stripped that we may be clothed, became naked that we may be robed in spotless
white.
II. As AN ACT OF SELFISH BAFAoiTT. " The soldlers," etc. 1. They were inspired
hy the love of sordid gain. Every base principle in existence was represented on Gol-
gotha that day. All the vultures of hell hovered over the cross ready to descend on
their respective prey. And among the dark groups was the love of gain ready for his
garments. It cared for nothing else. 2. This was confirmed by habit and custom. The
clothes of the victim were their fee for the execution. It was not such a profitable job
then as it is now. But you will find people willing to do anything for a little worldly
advantage. They will hang vou for your clothes ; they will murder yon physically or
morally, which b worse still, for the attainment of a little selfish end. His own
disciple sold him fwr thirty plsoss of silver: why, then, should we wondtr »t th«M
OH. xn. 1-42.] THE GOSPEL ACOOBDIKO TO ST. JOHN. 4S1
TOUgh and ignorant loldiers oraeifying him for hi* gannents? And this demon ol
selfish gain was sanctioned by law, 8. It vhu done with great hatte. As soon as he
was crucified, before he was dead, they hastened to divide his garments under his very
eyes. In this they are typical of a good many more. The love of gain is ever in haste.
The votaries of selfishness are ever In a hurry. As soon as the victim is safe in the
grip of afSiction, they begin to search for the keys. The grave is opened before almost
he has breathed his last. 4. The division is just and fair. This is one redeeming
quality in the affair. Bather than spoil the vest, they cast lota for it. This probably
•rose from selfishness, each one hoping it would be his ; but, if selfish, it was wise, and
an example to many in dividing the spoil. It is better to cast lots or leave a thing
alone, than render it worthless. There is some honour amongst thieves, yes, more than
among many men of higher standing. " The children of this world are wiser," etc.
III. As THE FULFILMENT OF SoEiPTUKB. " That the Scripturc," etc, 1. Christ was
the great Subject of ancient Scripture. His incarnation, character, and many incidents
of his life and death were foretold centuries before he made his appearance. Many of
the prophets described him as if he were really present to them, David, the great anti-
type of the Messiah, was often so inspired that he personified him, and related facts as
if they had actually happened in his own experience, whereas they related entirely to
the coming King. Such was his reference to the parting of his garment. 2. In the life
and death of Christ the ancient Scripture was literally fuljilled. Even in the division
of his garment. (1) In this the soldiers were unconscious agents. Nothing could be
remoter from their knowledge and consciousness than that they fulfilled any Scripture,
(2) In this they only carried out their own contract, and fulfilled their own designs.
There was no secret and supernatural influence brought to bear upon them, so that their
actions may fit with ancient prophecy ; but' ancient prophecy was a true reading of
future events, and was proved by these events as they occurred. (3) Through these
unconscious agents the Scripture was fuljilled. 3. This literal fulfilment of ancient
Scripture was a remarkable proof of the Messiahship of Jesus — that he was the Divine
One promised of old, and with whom the old dispensation was in travail. Even the
division of his garment testified to bis identity and the Divinity of his mission ; and
these soldiers bore unconscious testimony to his Messiahship,
Lessons. 1. Everything connected with true greatness becomes interesting. The
birthplace of a great man, the house in which he afterwards lived, the chair in which
he sat, and the staff he carried. The garments of Jesus are fall of interest, especially
the seamless vest. The disposal of even his garments is not passed unnoticed. 2. The
garments (f Jesus fell into thouyhtless liands. One is almost curious as to who had the
pieces of the robe, and who had the seamless tunic. What an exchange I The vest once
worn by the Son of God was afterwards worn by a thoughtless soldier. It was well
that none of his garments fell to his friends ; if so, there would be a danger of idolatry.
3. ITie garments of Jesus lost their virtue when he ceased to wear them. The outer robe,
the hem of which was so healing to faith, was so no more. The virtue was not in the
garment, but in the wearer. He gave greatness and virtue to everything connected
with him. 4. Let us arrange our affairs as far as we can ere we die, aind leave the
rest to the lottery of events, which is ever under Divine control. It matters but little to
us what will become of our garments after we finish with them. If we have them as
long as we require them, we should feel thankful. — ^B, T.
Ver. 25. — Clinging to the cross. Earth, hell, and heaven were represented at
the cross of Jesus, These representatives naturally formed themselves into groups.
Notice —
I. This interesting geoitp at the oboss. Who composed it ? 1, The toother of
Jesus. She is mentioned first. She stands prominent among the rest, as well she may.
Of all mothers, she is the most popular and interesting. She stands alone in the
maternal roll of the «rorld. Never a mother had such a Son, and never a son had such
a mother. She has been made too much of on the one hand, and too little on the
other. From her the Son of God inherited his humanity and his human breeding.
Humanly ipeaking, he owed much to his mother for his fine human nature and
sympathieB, That Mary was his mother was not an accident. Never a mother had
■uch Joy nor inch sorrow ; and she was now overwhelmed with the latter. She was
tftl THE GOSPEL ACOOBDINO TO BT. JOHN. [ch. zix. 1—42.
there : and what could keep her away ? 2. Eer sister. Who was she ? Not the wife
of Cleophas. She was also a Mary; and two Bisters of the same name was not •
likely thing. She was doubtlesH Salome, the wife of Zebedee, and the mother of Jamea
and John. John was Christ's first cousin, which accounts for the likeness, the attach-
ment, and the trust. Her name is not mentioned, which is characteristic of John'i
modesty. He would not mention his own name, neither that of his mother. 3. Mary
the wife of Cleophas. The mother of James the Less, Joses, and Judas. Whether this
Cleophas was the same as that who met Jesus on the way to Etnmaus, it is difScult to
decide. He was, doubtless, a good man and a disciple of Jesus; but is brougbt into
prominence in the sacred history in connection with his more heroic wife, who out-
stripped him in the race, left him on the outskirts of the crowd, and pressed on with
her comrades to the cross of the Lord. 4. Mary Magdalene. A well-known character
of tills period. Jesus healed her of many infirmities, at least from her seven unclean
spirits, and ever afterwards she was specially attached to her griat Benefactor, and was
one of the many good women who followed Jesus from Galilee, and administered to
him of their substance, according to the custom cf the Jews; anil she was now among
that little group of sympathetic souls who attended his last moments.
II. Thbib position. " By the cross of Jesus." In this position they manifested : 1.
Cheat fortitvde. To realize this : (1) Think of the sufferings they had to witness, and
the spectacle they had to see. They had to witness the agonizing death, the shame,
and the untold indignities of their best Friend. Many a stout heart has failed at the
death-bed of a loved one ; but they stood at the death-cross of their Lord. (2) Think
©f the public scorn and ridicule to which they were exposed. They were, doubtless,
known to many of the Saviour's toes as his adherents, and it was not at all fashionable
for women to appear at such a scene ; but what cared they for social propriety or public
scorn ? Their courage towered far above this in the performance of a sacred duty. (3)
Think of their personal danger. As the friends of the crucified One, in the very teeth
of his cruel foes, their lives were in jeopardy; but they counted not these dear unto
them, but stood there face to face with death. 2. Strong affection. This accounts for
their courage. Their heroism was that of love, and their courage that of affection.
Their affection maybe looked at as: (1) Maternal affection. What love so faithful
and heroic as that of a mother ? And it was never stronger than in her heart who was
the mother of our Lord ; and it drew her now near to his cross. (2) Social affection.
(3) Pious affection. It was more than the ordinary affection of human kindred and
friendship. It was love arising Irom pious attachment, from Christian hope, and faith
in him as the Messiah and Saviour. Mary Magdalene was still on fire with gratitude
and faith, which blazed all the more near the cross. 3. Strong and genuine sympathy.
They were ready to render him any help, and would, if possible, have taken some of his
agonies upon themselves. They were helpless, but did what they could and went as
far as possible. 4. Oreat self-control. We have read of mothers becoming frantic
and losing their lives to save loved ones ; but here there was a wonderful calm main-
tained, which makes the mother's love more heroic, and her heroism more sublime.
There were emotions deep and stirring in their breastx, with but little or no demonstra-
tion ; but there was wonderful self-control manifested, as if their souls had caught the
calm spirit of the crucified One.
III. Theib conduct as an exauplb for thb imitation of all. 1. TJiey stood 6y
him in his hour of greatest trial and sufferings. It was one thing to stand by him in
his hour of joy and triumph, in the day of his power and the exploits of bis loving
strength, when the heaven opened and streamed upon him its glory ; when Divinity
encircled his brow, and made his word omnipotent and his very gaze or touch almighty ;
when at his bidding diseases fled, and demons quitted their dark haunts ; when the
storm was hushed, and the waves crouched at his voice ; when food increased under ttis
hands, and even Death gave up his prey when he spoke. But it was another thing to
stand by him on a cross, when hell besieged him with its torments, heaven seemed closed
to his breathings, and Divinity itself seemed to have deserted him. 2. They stood by
kim when others had left him. It is one thinj; to stand by Jesus, one of many ; but
it is another to stand by him, one of four. It is one thing to follow him with faithful
iisciples aud a jubilant crowd ; but it is another to stand alone by his cross. Where
were lealous and good-hearted Peter, James, Andrew, and Philip, and others ? They had
OH. XIX. 1—42.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDDJa TO ST. JOHN. 463
all left, with the exception of the disciple of love and these loving women. Others may
be among the crowd, or on the outskirts, beholding from afar ; but they stood by hii
cross when all had left bim. As others leave Christ, let us stand by him and dran
to him all the closer. 3. They did all they could. They were helpless, and could
render no assistance. They could make no progress ; still they stood their ground, and
manifested their undying and unconquerable attachment. They clung to Jesus for his
own sake apart from circumstances. Like them, let us do what we can, and advance
as far as possible, and, when we cannot go any further, let us stand ; and, indeed, in the
hour of direst temptation the utmost we can do is to stand our ground.
Lessons. 1. Jesus has not been at any time wholly deserted. 2. It it worthy of
notice that the faithful ones at the cross were women. Surely " he givatb power to the
faint." In the weaker vessels was the greatest strength. 3. Those who stood by the
cross of Jesus unconsciously stood near a rich treasury. The outward scone was that
of shame, poverty, and untold agony and misery; but the inward was that of untold
peace, joy, riches, and glory. There was the atonement made, the fountain opened,
and the work of redemption finished. They stumbled on a rich fortune. This did not
occur to them then, but flashed upon them afterwards. The cross did more good to
them than they to him who hung upon it. 4. Thoae who stand by Jesus in his hour of
trial, he will stand by. We all have our crosses, affliction, and death in our turn. Let
us stand by the cross of Jesus, and he will stand by ours, and will not leave us in the
hour of our greatest trial. — B. T.
Vers. 26, 27. — Filial love strong in death. Notice —
I. The inferioritt of human belationships. Our Lord addresses his mother as
" woman " — a term of tenderness and respect ; still suggesting at once the inf riority of
human relationships when compared with spiritual ones. 1. Human relationships
belong to this world. They belong to the natural, physical, and visible order of things.
They are the outcome of our existence, the arrangements of wise Providence, and
important for the government of the human race, their social order, progress, and
happiness, and capable of serving our highest interests. 2. Christ spoke of and treated
them at inferior to spiritual relationships. Although he was the most obedient, affec-
tionate, and exemplary of sons, yet he ever spoke of his spiritual and Divine relati< >n-
ships as being superior and more important — those arising from a Divine and spiritual
birth, from the will of Q-od, as superior to those arising from physical birth, or the will
of the flesh. The former had ever his preference, and he was fonder of his relations
after the spirit than of those after the flesh. Once, when told that his mother and
his brethren were outside, seeking him, he said, " He that doeth the will of my Father,"
etc. 3. At death human relationships are merged into those of a higher life. He saith,
"woman," not "mother;" and, pointing to John, and not to himself, "Behold thy
son!" As much as to say, in the old sense of the term, " Henceforth I cease to be thy
Sun, and thou ceasest to be my mother." She had to think ot him, not as her Son, but
as her Lord and Saviour. By the regenerative influence of Christianity and the tran-
sition of death, the rhaterial is lost in the spiritual, the human in the Divine, and the
temporal in the Eternal.
IL The pebfoemancb of filial dutt. "When he saw his mother," etc This
duty involved provisions for the future support and comfort of his mother. 1. 27ns
duty is felt and admitted by Christ. This implies : (1) That human relationships
involve special duties. Brothers have special duties to brothers, parents to children,
and children to parents. Clirist felt that his widowed mother was dependent upon him
for support and comfort, and he feels it his sacred duty to provide for her. (2) These
duties are incumbent, although the relationships whence they arise are about to cease.
Jesus was about to cease to be Mary's Sod, in the old sense ; he was about to enter
into a higher life. Still he felt it is duty to provide for her. The spiritual does not
atone for the material. The obligations of every state of existence should be performed
in that staae. Our oblis;ations survive the relationships which gave rise to them. (3)
Christianity makes all under its influence more alive to the duties of human relation-
thips. It is not Christ-Uke to leave the world as thieves and those who loved and wers
dependent upon us as absconders. The higher life of Christ inspired him to perform
tbt dntiM of this, Ohristianity ennobles eveiy relationship, and oonsecratoa mvrj dut;
464 THE GOSPEL ACCORDINO TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xn. 1—42.
of life. The Christian ion will be the most affectionate and careful of his rorviTiog
mother. 2. Thii duty wat performed hy Christ under the most trying circumstancet.
Tiiis duty was done amidst the most excruciating sufferings, physical, mental, and
spiritual. It was done in the very act of dying. When uttering these words of
tenderness, he was in the grip of the most painful death. It was done when per-
forming the most important work of his life. When providing for the spiritual wants
of the world, he provided for the temporal wants of bis mother. These facts prove :
(1) His uttar self-obliviousness. " He made himself of no reputation." Not himself, but
others. Not his own agonies, but the comfort of his surviving and stricken mother.
(2) His wond&rfvl sovereignty over the most adverse ovreumstancei of life. In the
midst of sufferiugs and indignities he was perfectly calm and 8elf-p':'?essed. He had
full control over his feelings, actions, sufferings, and even death. H '/kept death at bay
tiU he performed the last duty of love pertaining to this life. (3) The strength of hit
filial affection. (4) His continued inherent interest in those he loved. In his beloved
mother and disciple. And this interest, which blazed so brightly in the gloom of death,
was not likely to be extinguished in the happiness and effulgence of the life beyond.
(5) The minuteness and tenderness of his loving care. While we contemplate this, his
last act of filial love, under the circumstances in which it was performed, we are ready to
exclaim, " How human ! how Divine ! how comprehensive 1 how minute I how God-like !
How like the Father of all 1 " While he governs and sustains the vast universe, he
forgets not a single object — not even the smallest. He lights the sun and guides the
stars, but forgets not the glow-worm — ^nor to smile on the rose and the lily. And so
the Divine Son now on the cross, while he made an atonement for sin, satisfied
justice, and honoared the Law ; still, at the very time, his mother is not forgotten. 3.
This duty was performed in the lest way. (1) In the most efficient way. He entrusted
her to the care of his best earthly friend, one with the means and the heart, the will
and the way. He could do nothing else. He had no means to bequeath to her ; but
he had a loving heart at his command, which would ever be kind to her. (2) In the
most natural way. What could comfort the bereaved mother as much as another son,
and so loved by and so like the lost one? John would remind her of Jesus, and their
society would be congenial, and their conversation sweet as to the past and the future.
(3) In the most suitable time. Up to this time he was with her ; there was no need
of any one else. But now his life is past hope ; his mother was in the suppressed
agonies of grief and sorrow — the sword was through her heart Then another son was
introduced who would never cease to care for her — a very present help.
UI. The exercise of loving obedience. This is illustrated in the mother and in
the disciple. 1. The new relationship is most naturally felt a/nd realized. It jars not
on the feelings of either ; but a flush of a new kinship passes over their countenance.
2. The sacred charge was most cheerfully accepted. There was no need of a long lecture ;
only the brief introduction, " Behold," etc. 1 By his Spirit and providence he had pre*
pared both for the new relationship. 3. It was practically accepted. He took her to his
own home. Loving obedience is ever practical and full. To his own home, which was
the home of love. 4. It was immediately practical. There was no delay. " Prom
that hour." The obedience of love is hearty and prompt. Probably that very minute
he took her away. (1) For her otvn sake. She could scarcely stand the heart-rending
scene any longer. Her motherly instincts would cling to the cross till the last ; but
the tender instincts of her newly adopted son would considerately lead her away. It
was enough. (2) For Ohriafs sake. His human eyes should see the obedience of love.
The sacred charge would be taken at once, and his will immediately executed. This
should not press a moment on him. A weeping mother should not hold him back
from death. Would not sven Christ die more happily after seeing his mother cared for?
Lessons. 1. There are some whom Jesus loves more than others. John was such. He
specially loved him on account of his specially loving qualities and his likeness to him.
2. Those whom Jesus specially loves he specially honours — honours with his confidence,
friendship, mind, and treasures, 3. The greatest honour which Christ can confer upon
us i$ to employ us in his special service, 4. Jesus has many poor relations stiU in need
of care. Those who befriend the orphan and the widow are doing Jesus special
service. We hear still from the cross the words, " Son, behold thy mother 1 " etft
-B.T.
CH. zix. 1-42.] THE GOSPEL ACCOBDma TO ST. JOHN. 468
Vers. 38 — 42. — Secret disdpleship. Notice—
L That Jebus in eveht aqe has some seobet siscifleb. There are two mentioned
here — Joseph and Nicodemus. Why were they seci'et ? 1. Beoauv of the danger imth
which they were surrounded. " For fear of the Jews." What were the influences which
excited their fear ? (1) The influence of position. They were in a high worldly
position, members of the chief council of the nation, and to confess Jesus meant the
loss of this. (2) The influence of caste. Caste feelings were very strong among the
Jews; as they are, indeed, specially strong among all nations, Christian as well as
heathen. These councilmen would be outcasts from society if they accepted Jesus as
their Teacher. (3) The influence of wealth. They were wealthy men, and their public
confession of Jesus would mean the loss of this. 2. Their natural timidity of disposi-
tion. We may well assume that the natural disposition of Joseph and Nicodemus was
modest, thoughtful, cautious, timid, and retiring; and this naturally influenced their
public conduct. Their disposition was the very reverse to Peter's, and their temptation
would lie in an opposite direction. On account of natural disposition it is no effort,
and consequently no virtue, in one to be brave and heroic ; while in the other it is the
difficult task of life. 3. 2^ essential incompleteness of their faith. Faith in Christ at
this time, in the best, was weak and imperfect. It was so in the disciples, who had all
the advantages of Christ's ministry and miracles. What must it have been in these
more distant and secret disciples? They bad not enjoyed the advantages of religious
education, and therefore their faith was naturally incomplete. 4. Nevertheless, they
were genuine disciples. The fear of the Jews, although it had some influence with them,
was not really predominant. Publicity of profession is not a gtiarantee for sincerity ;
neither is secrecy a barrier to it. Every true discipleship commences in secret, and
hag much that is secret throughout its career. The true moral force of man is in th«
secrecy of his heart.
n. That oenuine sisoifles, although seobet, only beqitire suitable oibouu-
BTANOES TO DRAW THEM OUT. These Were drawn out; and what drew them? 1,
AdditioncU evidence to faith. (1) The evidence of Chrisfs conduct. His meek, patient,
submissive, and dignified conduct in the most tried circumstances, and the most excru-
ciating sufferings and provocation, was highly calculated to inspire faith in him. (2) Th«
false and mad conduct of his enemies. Their perjury, their extreme and mad cruelty
in relation to such a character, would naturally tell in his favour, and would recoil upon
themselves. (3) The evidence of Pilate. Whatever the character of that remarkable
governor, he most decidedly pronounced judgment against the Jews and for Jesus. He
only delivered him up to them at last under a protest. This, to any reflective and
well-disposed person, must have been very significant and even convincing. (4) The
evidence of nature. The rending of the veil and rocks, the quakings of the earth, the
opening of graves, and the darkening of the sun at noontide when Jesus hung on
the cross, spoke mightily to faith in his favour. There was such a concurrence of
evidence from beginning to end which would naturally bring faith out wherever it
was, and even produce it where it was not. 2. The death of Christ, in itself, was cal-
culated to draw out latent love and eowage. Death is a circumstance which has a
tendency to lessen man's faults and magnify his virtues. Of the former Jesus had none,
and through the gloom of death the latter shone with Divine brilliancy. In the timid
breast they would naturally inspire conscience with regret, and with a desire to make
amends, and would fan the smoking flax of love into flame. Only at the death of a
dear one we and others come to know how much we loved him in life. Joseph and
Nicodemus never knew that they loved Jesus so much till he was crucified and had
passed away. 3, Latent love and courage were brought out by example. Joseph came
out first, and his example was inspiring. Nicodemus caught the contagion, being the
most timid of the two, and he came also ; probably he watched the movements of
Joseph. He was almost dying to show his respect and love to the crucified One, but
felt too weak till he saw the decided action of his stronger brother. This at once
decided his course, and he came also. Joseph and Nicodemus doubtless held toauj •
secret converse on the object of their common love, and one encouraged and inspirad
the other.
ni. That seobict but osnuinb DisoiPLEa, dbawn out bt sititablk oibochrtaxoi^
ABM orncM TXBT HSBOio AXD txsMvouBStT. These qualities v* manifested kna tet L
466 THE GOSPEL AOCOBDma TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xn. 1-42.
A eourageotu reque$t. Joseph came to Pilate to ask permiisloii to take away the body
of Jesus to be buried. This was a bold venture, as expressed by Mark, involving con-
siderable personal risk, and so contrary to his natural temper and past conduct. But
he is now his new self and not his old, or bis old and real self in its true garb. 2. A
eourageotu and loving deed. Permission was given. His inspired venture proved
successful. His eloquent request was granted, and he took away the body. This was
a public act, in which he shared and for which he was responsible. His fear of losing
position, caste, and wealth is now gone. He is under the sway of the opposite principle
of love. It is not the fear of the Jews, but the love of Jesus, sways him now, and he
is soon joined by a timid brother. 3. Benevolent gifts. (1) The gift of Nicodemiu.
A hundred pounds of costly spices. He came to the Mineral neither empty-hearted nor
empty-handed, but with a princely gift — abundance of spices to embalm the dead but
sacred corpse. (2) The gift of Joseph. The linen and the grave. He was determined
that the body of Jesus should not share the fate of ordinary criminals, but that it
should have a grave — a new grave in his garden, probably intended for himself. Jesui
should sleep in his bed. But there would be no inconvenience, as Jesus would leave it
early enough ; so there was no danger of its being needed by Joseph before it would be
left by Jesus. And he left it much improved. A garden was never the depository of
such a seed ; and a grave was never the resting-place of such a tenant. (3) These
were gifts and acts of devotional love. Theirs was the heroism of nnconquerable
affection, which could no longer be repressed. The river overflowed its banks and
swept all before it. The living Christ was in Joseph's heart, and his dead body was
now in his sacred grave. The hundred pounds of costly spices were the devotions of
Nicodemus's love to the Saviour. 4. All this was manifested at the darkest how. (1)
When his enemies had completed their work. They had accomplished thnir purposes,
and realized their fondest hopes in the crucifixion and death of Jesus. But while the
council had crucified him, two of its members buried his body. When hatred had
reached its highest mark of triumph, latent and secret love reached a higher mark of
public courage. (2) When his friends had deserted him. Only the women and the
beloved disciple were in attendance at his last hour. None of his public followers came
to bury him, nor follow his body te the tumb. Then these secret disciples came forward
as the reserve force of the King, and courageously and lovingly performed his sacred
obsequies. (3) When his cause was appwrently at an end. Nicodemus never came
to him on such a dark night as this. The common faith was eclipsed, and hope all but
extinguished ; but then the faith, hope, and love of these private disciples glowed and
shone in the gloom of death.
Lessons. 1. That general sincerity of character ii advantageous to the reception of
Jesus. Joseph was a just and honourable man. This was his general character, and
to such Jesus must recommend himself. 2. In the most wicked councils generally there
are some good men. In the very nest of his murderers Jesus had at least two genuine
friends. 3. Oenuine principle, however weak, will triumph in the end. Life ultimately
will make itself seen and felt. Those who sincerely come to Jesus by night will come
to him at last by day, and in the day of greatest need. 4. Jesus has ever some secret
disciples, who will do for him what others wUl or can not. It was intended that he
should have a princely buriaL If in life he was with the poor, he was with the rich in
his death. No one could foresee how this could come to pass ; but Jesus had secret
friends among the rich, and they buried his body in a rich fashion, very befitting.
Others buried him ; he rose himself. 5. Christ was more influential in death than in
life. In life he had failed to draw Joseph and Nicodemus out publicly ; but in death
they could not resist the attraction. He said, " If 1 die, I will draw; " and here is a
striking illustration, but not the only one. — B. T.
Ver. 6. — " Ecce Bbmo!" I. Pilatb'b HSANDia. • He meant that a very little thing
frightened the priests and elders and their sympathizers. He invited them to look at
Jesus, with the thorny crowu encircling his brows, and the purple robe — doubtless some
tattered and outworn piece of costume thrown over his shoulders. Surely if Jesus were
indeed a King, if his royalty was in power as well as in word, all this mockery wotild
have brought the reality out.
IL Tbs actual xumjt or lau tbkatmkiit. FSl«t« nuut that J«ui ihoold
CB. xn. 1— 42.] THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. 457
appear utterly contemptible. Little did he dream how in eoune of time a Tast mviltl-
tude of all nalions, and kindred, and people, and tongues, would respond to this summons,
and count Jesus King all the more, just because of the crown of thorns and the purple
robe. It was Pilate, not Jesus, who was to become ultimately contemptible. The very
Jews themselves could not look on things with Pilate's eyes, and Pilate even could not
keep straight'on in the tone of scom and contempt. A few verses later we read of him
being afraid. And we, as we look back on this scene, with all its manifestation of
beautiful character, m,ay almost feel as if we owed Pilate's memory a debt of gratitude.
The soldiers did something which no disciple of Jesus would wish to have been done ;
but, being done, every disciple of Jesus is glad for what it showed. The work of
coronation, if looked at in the proper light, was a most real one.
III. We must behold, not Jesus only, but the men who tkbatbd him so. The
men into whose hands Jesus was delivered up were to have their own way without
let or hindrance. Men had full opportunity to show how bad they could be. Pilate
points to Jesus and says, "Behold the Man!" God points to Pilate and the priests, and
says, " Behold mankind! " These men were not specially bad specimens of humanity,
but just average expressions of the spirit of the world. But in the very contrast
between Jesus and his tormentors there is hope and joy. For if the tormentors are of
the same flesh and blood as we are, so also is Jesus. Jesus, the thorn-crowned, always
gentle, always harmless, always beneficent, always far above everything that is selfish
and resentfid, is of our race. We should never look at any of the degrading specimens
of humanity without looking also at Jesus. For then we keep the just mean between
saying too much and too little. We shall both remember how much better Jesus is
than the best, and how patient and pitiful he is with the worst.
IV. We must behold the Man in all his manifestations. On the cross. After
his resurrection. To Paul on his way to Damascus. To John in Patmos. In glory,
as in humiliation, the man is still evident. With whatever brightness the Divinity
may shine, it cannot conceal the humanity. Here is the man we ought to be; here is
the man we shall be. Tliere can be no true knowledge of human nature without the
knowledge of Jesus ; and the more we know of him, the more shall we know of
ourselves. — Y.
Vers. 10, 11. — Human power Seaven-bestowed. Human judges see all sorti of people
brought before them to be dealt with. Some prisoners, in the most critical situations,
betray the utmost coolness and indifference ; others are beside themselves in the agonies
of despair. And Pilate doubtless had had a large experience of all sorts of prisoners.
But now at last Jesus makes his appearance, and Pilate is profoundly perplexed how to
deal with him. If Pilate had been a perfectly just man, and dealing with Jesus under
a perfectly definite code of laws, he would have had no difficulty. But because the
man thought of his own interests first, and was left to perfectly arbitrary methods,
he found himself in the utmost difBculties. Every additional question he asks only
lands him in greater puzzlement. " Whence art thou ? " he says to Jesus ; and what
use was it for Jesus to reply? Pilaie would have understood no explanation; he
was too far from the kinudom of heaven for that. Canaan cannot be seen from
Egypt; one must reach Mount Pisgah first. And so Jesus stood in gentle, patient
silence.
I. Pilate's assertion op authority. It was very natural for Pilate to speak so
He mistook the spirit of Jesus ; but he made no vain boast in speaking of his prwe)
to cruelly and to release. He had troops of obedient soldiers at his disposal, to effec
whatever he decided. This exhibition of Pilate's power had its good side. Bad as
Pilate may have been, he held a necessary and a beneficial office. Brutal as the sole ierf
were, they made the last barrier against anarchy and lawlessness. The office of Klate
is ever honoured in all true Christian teaching. A strong executive is a thing ti be
thankful for. Judges and magistrates have to be watched, for the mere wrapping ol
a man in scarlet and ermine cannot take away his frailties, prejudices, and antipathic
But the office is good, and the man that fills it is often good. We are not wild beasts.
There must be something to restrain the violent and predatory hand. If the lion in
the desert sees the antelope, he springs on him at once ; no after-power will come in to
demand of the Uon wherefore he slew the helpless beast. But if a man in • civilized
458 THE GOSPEL ACCOEDmO TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xtx. 1—42.
eommunity ponden an evil deed, he has to ponder aim all the possible resultt. He
cannot get past the risk of punishment.
II. Jesits and the obioin of atjthoritt. Pilate was not a man caring to seek anft
tViink under the surface of things, or he would have asked himself the question, " Why
are these soldiers so ready to obey me ? Why is it that I, one man, have all these
dwellers in Jerusalem under my control?" Man recognizes the need 'of authority.
Jesus did not mean to dispute the right of Pilate to do what he liked with him. Pilate
would have traced the origin of his authority to Eome, but that only threw the question
a little further back. When we get to the very highest seen thing, we feel that, as it
were, an invisible hand is stretching down and making it what it is. Jesus wanred to
make Pilate feel that, whatever power he had, he would be called to accoimt for the use
of it. Judas had the greater blame, but Pilate could not escape. — ^T.
Ver. 15. — The Mng aeknowlec/ged by the high priests. I. The gToororo of mnr
WHEN THET HAVE AN END TO GAIN. " We have no king but Caesar." Assuredly the
high priests would never have said anything like this except in the way they actually
said it. They had no love to Bome and Home's ruler, and Pilate knew it, and must
have despised them as they professed to be influenced by loyalty to Caisar in all their
enmity to Jesus. They were ready to say anything and do anything, however incon-
sistent, however mendacious, if only it helped them to their end. Thus we have clear
evidence from their own conduct of what bad men they were. We cannot give them
the credit of being mistaken patriots, fieal lovers of their country, however exaspe-
rated, however driven into a comer, would never have made a lying confession of
allegiance to the hated foreigner.
II. Even rr the statement had been teub, the action belied the word.
Suppose there had been a real fidelity to Csesar, rejection of Jesus was the very way to
injure Caesar's government. The more subjects of Jesus there are in any kingdom, the
better for that kingdom. Christians can struggle bravely agaiost all that is tyracnous
and^ overbearing without forgetting that human authority of some sort is an ardinance
of Heaven, and must be maintained and honoured. All oppo4tion to Christianity tends
toward anarchy, and none the less so because the tendency may be denied. — Y.
Ver. 18. — " t7es«» in the midst." It can hardly have been by chance that Jesus was
placed in the midst. If three men were crucified together, surely he who was reckoned
the chief offender would be put in the central position. The details of punishment
would be left to the subordinates charged with carrying it out, and perhaps the feeling
on the part of the soldiers was that one who claimed to be a King should have some
sort of honour on the cross. But whoever ordered the position, and from whatever
motive, we cannot but feel that the position was the right one. If intended as an insult,
it has turned into an honour. The soldiers put Jesus just in the proper place. It was
his place before, and has been his place since. It was right that, if others were to suffer
with Jesus, he who suffered for all mankind should be able to look on a sufferer on either
hand.
I. Sombthino in harmony with the position Jesus naturally takes. Jesus
never put himself officiously in a position of eminence. He never needed to say,
*' Leave the central place for me." Wherever he sat naturally became the central place.
We cannot help putting Jesus in the midst. He acted in such a way that he could not
help being the central character in every assembly. And this is the glorious thing about
Jesus that, being the first, he has never lost his position in the midst. He is not so
much above men as among them. Wheresoever two or three are gathered together he
desires to be in their midst. Jesns, we may be sure, is interested in everything that
ought to interest mankind. And in the same way we ought not to be interested in
anything unless we can have Jesus in the enterprise.
II. An example foe us. There is not anything else in which we should follow the
example of these soldiers, but we may well do it by always putting Jesus in the midst.
And especially when we have to deal with sufferers of any sort, we should try to make
them feel, by a remembrance of his position on the cross, that Jesus himself as a Sufferer
was in the very midst of sufferers. And may it not be hoped that all evil-doers, all
law-breakers, aU suffering punishment for crime, will be particularly susceptible to the
1—42.] THE GOSPEL ACCOKDmG TO ST. JOHN. 469
claims of Jeans, wlien it Ib made clear to them that in this emphatic way Jesus was
'• numbered with the transgressors " ? — ^Y.
Vers. 26, 27. — The great Model of filial duty. The last hours of Jesus, as might he
expected, were marked by a very deep feeling of the tie that bound him to his Fathei
in heaven. The ruling motive was strong in death. But the human mother was
equally lamembered according to her claims and needs. Even in the midst of intense
pain, and on the verge of death, Jesus thinks of everybody who ought to be thought of.
The pain, intense as it is, will soon be over, but the Father in heaven will remain, with
whom Jesus has to dwell in power and glory, and the mother on earth will remain,
provided for through the ministry of a trusted friend. Jesus seems to have had a trying
time with his relatives ; well is it that this last glimpse is so beautiful.
I. Contrast with the way in which the relatives or Jestjb treated him.
This is the only transaction of Jesus with his kinsfolk in which he takes the initiative.
Jesus had to guard himself from the plausible suggestions of those who felt they had
a claim to shape or at least to modify his course. His difficulties in this way would
begin long before he emerged into public life. We may be sure Jesus did not love
opposition or contradiction for opposition's or contradiction's sake. But when his natural
kinsfolk pointed one way, and his heavenly Father another, there could be no doubt in
his own mind which way to take. And we must learn, as Jesus did, to make little of
kindred as advisers, and yet remain loving and helpful to them as kindred. That a
man is your father does not make him more competent to advise youj it may only
make him more powerful to mislead and ruin you, if his advice is bad.
II. Kinsfolk must ever be treated as kinsfolk. The time comes when the
claim of nature is recognized, and met all the better because other claims had to be
refused before. If Jesus had listened to the expostulations of his kindred, he himself
might have supported the old age of his mother, and soothed her dying pillow. But
he did something far better. Whatever Mary may have lost in the natural, she had
the chance of gaining far more in the spiritual. Mary was among the praying band in
the upper room, waiting for Pentecost, and doubtless, when the Spirit of power came
down, she would rejoice with exceeding gladness that her Son had gone on In single-
hearted devotion to his Father's vrill. Jesus, therefore, is a great Example and Guide
to us in all dealings with kinsfolk. In such dealings we peculiarly need an example
and guide. He would not let his kinsfolk go beyond their rights, but all the time he
was keenly observant of their claims. As we read of him providing a protector and son
for his mother, we cannot but remember his indignant exposure of those who kept back
helpful gifts from father and mother under pretence that they were dedicated to God.
To please Christ we must both attend to the legitimate claim of natural kinship, and
also we must be ready for the claim that comes upon the human friend. — ^Y.
Ver. 28. — Suffering, yet not ascetic. Each of the seven words from the cross, if they
•re to be appreciated at their full value, must be looked at in the light of the other six.
Especially is this the case here. This word comes the fifth in order. The first three
words show Jesus thinking of the needs and sufierings of others rather than of his
own. The fourth word shows him feeling mental sufiTering far more than bodily.
While Jesus felt forsaken of the Father, the needs of the body would almost lie
dormant. But when the gladdening sense of the Father's presence returned, then for
the first time would Jesus feel fully conscious of physical pain. Fain of body is
forgotten in pain of mind. But, after all, bodily thirst is a reality, rising to one of the
in tensest, most intolerable pains that the physical frame can suffer ; and thus, when
Jesus became fully free to feel that he had a body, he naturally gave expression to the
keen want. What a curious correspondence there is with the experience of Jesus in
the wilderness at the beginning ! Then he hungered ; now he thirsts. There he was
in solitude, and needed to say nothing ; now there are people round him, able to allay
his thirst, if they are so disposed.
I. The feelino itself. To know that Jesus thirsted in this way is to know that
he must have suffered a great deal of physical pain. The pain is suggested rather than
described, which is a great deal better ; for who wants minute descriptions of physical
pun? Aad yet there must be some particular hint to piodufie on oar minds a most
460 THE GOSPEL AOCOBDma TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xo. 1— 4&
distinct impreision aa to the reality and intensity of the suffering through which Jesna
passed. Jesus, while a calm Sufferer, must be also a great Sufferer, otherwise it cannot
be fully true that "he tasted death for every man." Painless death — euthanasia, an easy
exit from the world — such is the portion of some ; they seem to dissolve out of natural
existence with hardly an ache. But what a scene of suffering other deaths present !
what groaninga I what clenched hands ! what unendurable misery revealed in the face I
And because of this, Jesus also had to know the greatest intensity of physical pain.
His comforts in pain are the comforts of one who has been through pain. The very
fact that he suffered so much physically shows that physical suffering is far from the
worst of evils. It is a thing to be escaped, if possible, and relieved as much as possible ;
but there are things far worse. A suffering Jesus with no feeling of forgiveness for
those who had so treated him, with no sympathy for his fellow-sufferer, with no
solicitude for his mother about to be bereft, absorbed in his own suffering, — a Jesus
such as that would have suggested experiences more deplorable than any physical pain,
II. Thk utteeanoe of the rEELQto. The thirst might have been felt, yet the
feeling not expressed. Why, then, was it expressed? The mere fulfilment of a
prophecy does not explain, for then the prophecy itself has to be explained. Surely
the great lesson of the utterance is that, when suffering has done its work, it may cease.
In suffering merely as suffering there is no merit, I'he merit of suffering is measured
by the remedial and purifying agencies it brings into play. Jesus was no ascetic, even
on the cross. He never went an inch out of his way to seek privation and pain. What
came in the way of duty he faced and accepted ; but to the notion that Crod can be
pleased with suffering as suffering, with austerity as austerity, he never lent the
slightest sanction. And so, when the mental pain was over, he took the first oppor-
tunity to relieve the physical pain. But we must not stop with the mere literal
interpretation of the cry. It was not enough for Jesus to escape from suffering. Bodily
thirst was soon allaye^ but there remained a thirst of the heart to be satisfied. We
have to think of the aims, desires, and achievements that lay beyond all this suffering.
There is the intense desire in the heart of Jesus to win the world to himself. The
longings of prophets and apostles for a better world are but faint types of the longing
that abides in the heart of the Saviour. He knew from experience the delight of a
draught of cold spring water in a dry and thirsty land. Pleasant to him such a draught
must often have been. But pleasanter far is it, because refreshment to his loving heart,
when each latest one among the children of men comes to him in fulness of trust and
obedience. — ^Y.
Ver. 30. — The finished work. From the nature of the case this could not be more
than a mere ejaculation ; but the meaning is plain enough to those who will put their
minds into a state to perceive it. Suppose you have a friend who is building a house.
You had been present when the foundation was laid, and from time to time you had
watched the progress of the building. At last your friend breaks in on you some
morning with the cry, " It is finished I " You would know at once what he meant — that
the house was finished. And your friend would presume on your part a real and lively
interest in hearing the news. So too we must know a good deal of what Jesus said
and did during life, or we shall fail in understanding what he said and did in the hour
of death. He who said, " It is finished 1 " must also have had seasons in which he could
say, " It is begun," " It is going on."
I. We must illustrate how Jestjb looked forward to a time fob tjtterino this
WORD. Becollect what he said to the disciples by the well : " My meat is to do the will
of bim that sent me, and to finish his work." Becollect also his word to the Jews after
he had healed the impotent man on the sabbath day. He speaks there concerning the
works which the Father had given him to finish. Here are specimens of the peculiar
and testifying works of Jesus. Here are declarations by Jesus himself of the uniting
and definite purpose with which his life was bound up. What he talked of now and
then he must have thought of continually. To the superficial eye, indeed, the life of
Jesus did not look as if it had any definite purpose. How would he have been put
down in the " occupation " column in a census record? Yet the life of Jesus was full
of purpose — purpose never absent, never forgotten. The parable of the man who weui
•way from home, leaving his money as a trust in the hands of his servants, ia aniely
OH. XX. 1—31.] THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN.
461
a parable out of the very depths of the Saviour's own experience. To him there was
given a stewardship of inestimable value. How the servant with the five taleuts would
look forward to the surrender and accomplishment of his trust 1 And just in this spirit
Jesus must have looked forward to the hour when he should be able to say, " It ia
finished 1 "
II. Thus IN THE INOAENATB LH^ OF JeSTIS WB HAVE SOMETHINa COMPLETB FOB
tjs TO PROFIT BY. Something complete 1 The life of Jesus was complete, just as the
life of a seed becomes complete when it has gone through all the cycle of its changes —
germination, bndding, blossoming, formation of fruit, ripening of fruit. The very life
of Jesus was a finished work. It was like a book on the last page of which " Finis "
could be truly written. Here is the book of a really complete human life. What a
difference between Jesus and many authors and makers of finished things I Many
complete things, things that the world is agreed in calling complete and precious in
their own order, were achieved by very incomplete men. Read the words of Gibbon
the historian, in which he records his emotions on completing his monumental work.
He has succeeded, and yet in the bottom of his heart he has somehow failed. Thousands
are finishing many things, but never touching the one thing needful. We, from our
life's incompleteness, should look on the completeness of the life of Jesus, and, while
we look, rise into that hope and confidence which his manifested completeness is meant
to give. Here is One who lived out the life of humanity according to the ideal of him
who made humanity. He never needed to pray, " Forgive me my debts ; " for he never
owed a debt he did not pay, never closed a day of life which was not as full of service
as of opportunities of service. And he finished that we might begin and also finish
something which, but for the finishing of his own work, we never should have had the
disposition to touch.— Y.
EXPOSITION.
OHAPTEB XX.
Vers. 1 — 81. — % The eompleU glorifica-
tion of Jesua in his resurrection. The record
pauses for the awful day of tliat great sab-
bath, and resumes the marvellous recital
when the greatest event in the history of
the world is assumed and asserted to have
taken place. Heathen and foes admit the
fact of the death of Jesus ; the evidence is
overwhelming, multiform, sufiScient to es-
tablish itself to the ordinary reason of man-
kind. It is a matter of indubitable history.
The proof was given to all the world ; but
it is otherwise with the fact of the anastasis
of Jesus. That stupendous event was re-
vealed to the eye and mind of faith by a
series of communications, which afford to
different classes, groups, kinds, and states of
mind specimens of the manner and quality
of the resurrection-life. "Many infallible
proofs " wrought (as St. Luke says, Acts
i.) irresistible conviction as to the reality of
the Resurrection. The Church of Christ
was originated by » faith in this new and
transcendental mode of existence. A gene-
ration of men passed, scores of communities
were called into being thronghont Palestine,
Phoenicia, Syria, Lybia, Asia Minor, Achaia,
Macedonia, Cyprus, Crete, and even in Italy
and the capital of the Boman empire, all of
them held together by the life-giving con-
viction of the reality of a world of spiritual
body, into which the redeemed enter. Of
this reality the resurrection-life of Christ
was the type, the proof, the flrstfrnit, and
the earnest. This most astounding fact was
preached in Galatia and Macedonia, in
Corinth and Home, in Babylon and Alex-
andria, before one word of the Gospels had
been put on parchment. When the preach-
ing of the apostles was reduced to written
form, it was not with the idea of recording a
fully detailed or easily harmonizable account
of the Easter Day, or of providing rational,
orjuridical,or historic evidence of the method
or order of the great events, but rather to
provide five independent series of evidences
to the revelations which the apostles and
apostolic company received of the nature
and quality of the new life for humanity
which had now begun. Several details of
profound interest occur in the synoptic nar-
rative, concerning which John Is silent —
such e.g. aa th« rolling of a stone to th«
<62
THE GOSPEL ACOOEDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. hx. 1—31
door of the lepnlohie, the sealing of the
stone by the Soman guard, the resurrection-
appearances of the saints, the special pre-
paration made by the women for further
embalmment on the following day, the great
earthquake, the two companies of women
that resorted to the sepnlcbie at snccessive
intervals of time, and the different signs
and eyen appearances by which their timor-
ous hope was quickened into an adoring
homage and world-compelling faith. Though
John does not recite these well-known
uarratives, he presupposes some of them.
Thus (1) although, unlike the synpptists,
he says nothing of the stone that was rolled
to the door of the sepulchre, yet (ver. 1)
he refers to the fact that (rhy tUBov) the
itone was taken up or away. (2) Although
\e says nothing of the two groups of women,
yet he implies that Mary Magdalene was
not alone at the sepulchre (ouk otSanev):
" We know not where they have laid him."
With far greater particularity than St. Luke
(xxiy. 12), he describes Peter's visit to the
sepulchre, and gives further details of facts
which occurred at more than one interview
between our Lord and his apostles, of which
Luke and Mark had given a more shadowy
outline (of. here vers. 19 — 25 with Luke
xxiv. 36, etc. ; Mark xvi. 14). But we are
not intending here to produce a history or
harmony of these records, but to follow
throughout the impressions produced by the
Lord's self-manifestation upon the mind of
the beloved dieciple; not passing over the
difficulties which his peculiar experiences
have occasioned, when brought side by side
with the synoptic and Pauline narratives.
John first of all (vers. 1 — 10) describes how
he caine to believe personally in the resur-
rection of Jesus ; then (vers. 11 — 18) the way
in which the first manifestation was made
to Mary of Magdala (vers. 19 — 23) ; how ten
of the apostles, including himself, received
a full and satisfying assurance of the stu-
pendous fact (vers. 24 — 29) ; how once more,
after an interval of eight days, not only
Thomas, the most anxious, doubting, and
incredulous of the eleven, but the entire
group, came into full persuasion, not only of
Christ's resurrection, but of his Divinenature
and claims, his Messiahship and Bonship,
and of their own personal possession of life
in him and through bim.
Vers. 1— 10.— <1) Th« proeeu of Jdhn't
oum personal conviction, by the ditcovery that
the lepulchre was deserted.
Ver. 1. — Nov on the first day of the week
(rav iraP$dTav ; (ra8$dra, in the plural, is
used for the whole of the week, labbaton in-
cluding in itself the various days that inter-
vened between sabbath and sabbath, the first,
second, third, etc. Mii^ here and in Luke
xxiv. 1 and Matt, xxviii. 1 corresponds
with the vpiiTji of Mark xvi. 9). All the
evangelists agree about the day of the week,
which thenceforward became the new be-
ginning of weeks, " the Lord's day." Cometh
Uary ' the Magdalene. Here all the evan-
gelists are at one, although, judging from
the synoptists, she must have been accom-
panied by other women. This is implied
in the oUa/iev of ver. 2, though Meyer re-
pudiates such a hint by the remark that, in
addressing the angels, she uses the singular,
olSa; but this difference rather confirms,
than otherwise, the significance of the
plural, when she first breaks on the ear of
the astonished disciples the wondrous news.
But when she is confronted by the angels
■he is manifestly alone, and speaks for her-
self. It is probable that Mary Magdalene
had preceded the other women, driven by the
intensity of her adoring love and abounding
grief, and hence some slight divergency
appears as to the time at which she started
on her pilgrimage. While it was yet dark,
early, in the depth of the dawn (Luke xxiv.
1); before the breaking of full day, and
Mav irpat, " exceeding early " of Mark, al-
though, as he adds, after sunrise (avaTelKcw-
Tos ToO ^x(ou). This latter expression is
difficult to reconcile as a statement of iden-
tical time. But many simple suppositions
would explain the discrepancy. The Mag-
dalene's home may have been at a greater
distance from the sepulchre, down in the
shadows of the eastern hills, while the home
of the other Marys may have been readily
accessible to the sepulchre. After the great
earthquake described by Matthew (xxviii.
2), and the supernatural darkness of the
day but one before, there is no incom-
patibility in the twofold statement that it
was yet dark (not night), although the sun
had risen. A deep pall may yet be hang-
ing over the world and place which had held
in its bosom the body of the murdered Lord
of glory. (iS%e) oometh to the sepnlohre, ob-
viously ■mih the purpose stated by all the
synoptics. Bhe was bringing the spices
which she, with others, had bought on the
Friday evening. They would not be behind
Nicodemus and Joseph in the expression
> Tischendorf (8th edit.), B&le Bevisen,
with K, A, L, 1, 33, spell Mary's nam*
Kaptif/
OB. XX. 1—31.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BT. JOHN.
46S
of their boundless love. The oriticB make
merry over the superfluousuess of these
women purchasing fresh spices when they
must have known the lavish expenditure of
the two rich men upon the same design.
But the combination of the two statements
is absolutely true to nature ; it is exactly
what women would do all the world over,
and an evidence of the authenticity of both
narratives. And seeth the stone taken away
out of the sepulchre. This is all the infor-
mation that St. John gives us, as antecedent
to Mary's flight to Simon Peter and himself.
We liave to decide between three hypo-
tliesos : either (o) John's narrative entirely
differs from the synoptic account of what
Mary saw and heard, and what she brought
as her contribution to the apostles' ears, and
therefore discredits one or the other or both
narratives ; or (b) Mary of Magdala, having
preceded the other women, found the empty
sepulchre, and, without waiting for them,
rushed to tlie home of Peter and John with
this preliminary intelligence and nothing
else, then, returning with them to the tomb,
joined the other women who had airived
after John and Peter had withdrawn; or
(o) that (Hengstenberg) Mary said more
than she is reported by John to have ut-
tered,— that she told them not merely that
they (the Jews) had taken away the body,
but that she had seen a vision of angels,
who affirmed that the Lord had risen, and
gave certain commissions. From Luke's
account of the first effect of the news from
the tomb, the apostles thought them idle
tales, but they went to the sepulchre, and
found it even as the women had said, but
him they saw not. What were the " idle
tales " ? Not that the tomb was empty, for
that was a simple matter of fact, which
the two chief apostles verified, but the story
of angels who afSrmed tliat Jesus was
alive. Still, such a report is very likely to
have roused the apostles to the eagerness of
their first visit to the tomb, and the effect
of it to reappear in the conversation of
the disciples on their way to Emmaus. If
the third of these hypotheses be followed,
then tiie narrative of John simply records
with brevity what the otlier evangelists had
reported at greater len;;th, distinctly omit-
ting the story of the angelic visitors, given
in all three syuoptists. Tliis seems to me
the fairest and best interpretation of the
four narratives. On this hypothesis tbe
account which Mary Magdalene brought to
Peter and John corresponds with Matthew
(xxviii. 6—8), where the women generally
ran with the news, blending fear with great
joy, excited beyond all parallel with the
strange wonderful assurance which they had
received, that they should meet their risen
Lord in Galilee. Aooording to Mark (xvi.
1 — 8), we hear of angels, the light of tbe
vacated tomb, and the angelic message to the
apostles, specifying Peter as one especially
singled out to hear the commission. Trem-
bling, ecstasy, fear, shut their mouths as
they hurried to the abode of the eleven;
they spake nothing to any man, but the in-
telligence was conveyed "to the eleven and
all the rest " (Luke xxiv. 9). St. Luke after-
wards sums up in one statement all the
various messages that were brought, and
mentions by name, not only the Magdalene,
but Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and
says, " the remaining ones with them " (oi
\onral avii airais). The effect was so far fruit-
less ; the apostles did not believe the words
(Luke xxiv. 10). The fact stands in the
synoptics that the first communication which
was carried by women to the apostles, and
was not confined to them, consisted not only
of the fact of the empty tomb, but of the
language of angels. The first thing might
easily have been set to rest by direct in-
spection ; the other part of the -narrative
might easily be disregarded as the voice of
wild enthusiasm and excited imagination.
It should be distinctly perceived that the
women must have scattered in diffusing
their intelligence, and John positively
asserts that the main strain of Mary's report
was as to the opening of the tomb and dis-
appearance of the body, and that it was
delivered personally to himself and Peter.
This solution of tbe first difficulty was
thiown into confusion by the T.E. form of
Matthew's account, which says (xxviii. 9),
" As they went to bring his disciples word,
behold Jesus met them." If that were the
true text of Matthew, it is in irreconcilable
antagonism with John's Gospel, i.e. if Mary
Magdalene must be regarded as one of the
party who were advised to tell the apostles
that the tnmb was opened and rifled, and
that the Lord was risen. It would also be
opposed to the statements of both Luke
and Mark concerning the first message they
brought to the apostles and to the rest, as
well as the manner of their departure from
the sepulchre. If, however, Matthew is
here referring to a second party (called by
harmonists the Joanna group), then they
must, in their passage to the apostles, have
missed Peter and John on their way U
and from the sepulchre, and it would con-
tradict the assertion of all four evangelists,
that Mary Magdalene was the first to see
the Lord. This most difficult clause in
Matthew's account has, however, been re-
jected by modem critics,' and consequently
• By Griesbach, Tisohendorf (8th edit.),
Tregelleg, Westcott and Eort, B.T., on the
authority of K, A, B, D, 33, 69, 435, nnmeront
versions, and special quotations bom Origei
464
THE GOSPEL AOCOEDING TO ST, JOHN. [oh. xx. 1—31.
the narrative of Matthew is delivered from
its greatest perplexity. The fact that Jetu*
met them muet be identical with the ap-
pearance deacribed with far greater detail
in John's own statement (vers. 11 — 18).
Matthew's Gospel throughout is singularly
devoid of notices of tima, and we find
grouped here, as elsewhere, events or teach-
ings without chronological perspective.
Ver. 2. — ^Ihen she runneth in advance of
the other women, who are each intent on
oommunioating what she had seen and
heard, and oometh to Simon Peter — why
not, if, as Hark says, Peter had been spe-
cially mentioned by the angel ? — and to the
other disciple, whom Jesus loved. The form
of the expression suggests that they were
living in difl'erent houses. [There were two
disciples on whom Jesui poured out the
abundance of his luve. The word here used
is not iiyiirtx, that which is used in ch. xiii.
23 and xxL 7 — 20, and which denotes
the love of high regard, but iiplxu, the
love of personal affection, the kind of love
showered on Lazarus and his sisters (ch.
xi. 5). So far, then, from John especially
I xaltino; himself at the expense of Peter,
he gives to Peter the first place in the affec-
tion of his Master.] And she saith to them,
They have taken away the Lord — even the
corpse of Jesus was the Lord to this urgent
and impassioned disciple — out of the se-
pulchre, and we know not where they —
Joseph and Nicodemus, or the chief prii sts,
or Roman soldiers, or Jews — have laid him.
We know not what other burying-place
" they " have chosen I The anti-harmonistie
commentators, with ponderous literalism,
insist that Mary could have said nothing
more. A gushing woman like Mary of
Magdala uttered one sentence, and that was
all I It is, however, entirely evident that
she must have said enough to excite great
wonderment, haste, and activity in the
breasts of these two disciples (see above on
the three hypotheses).
Vers. 3, 4. — Peter therefore went forth
(i{S\9ei', Borist). This is a fact afSrmed also
by Luke (xxiv. 12), " But Peter arose aiid ran
to the sepulchre." John adds, and the other
disciple joined Peter, filled with a common
amazement, and Q/ipxoi'ro, imperfect) they
went on their way toward the sepulchre.
Now they were running (^Tpex""' imperfect)
both of them together : and the other disciple
did outrun— or, literally, ran in advance,
more quickly than — Peter, and came first to
the sepulchre. The opponents of this Gospel
supply numerous suggestions, with the view
of obliterating this natural and lifelike
touch. (Eij is used instead of the ir^Iii of
and Cyprian, who eommenoed the verse with
leal fSou,
ver. 2 or the M of Luke xxIt. 1; bnt it is
clear from the form of the following sen-
tence, that ^\9ey eis ia different in mean-
ing from ciV?\fl6i» «is, and does not mean
" light into," but " towar<ls.") John, as the
younger man, would soon outstrip the elderly
disciple; and he simply records what in one
sense is an insignificant detail, but one that
could never be forgotten by him. There is
no disposition to magnify himself, as Peter's
part is obviously the more conspicuous. John
runs more rapidly from his youth, the fervoui-
of his nature, and the warmth of his affec-
tion ; the reflection that he miglit have
directly to convey the strange news to the
mother of his Lord assisted to hurry him.
Ver 5. — And having stooped down. Hapa-
KiiTTie is the verb used in Luke xxiv. 12 to
describe Peter's conduct and gesture. It
was a necessary preliminary of the subse-
quent act of Peter, though Luke does not
rufer to it. Peter himself uses the same
word (1 Pet. i. 12). It means literally
" bending on one side," with a desire to
gaze intently on an object (Ecclus. xiv. 23 ;
xxi. 23; Jas. i. 25). He seeth the linen
clothes lying (see ch. xix. 40), untenanted
and unused, those very cerecloths which
he had helped to wind round the sacred,
wounded body, with their affluence of sweet
spices. Yet entered he not within. Awe,
reverence, mystery, fear, nascent hope, the
thought most possibly, " Not here, but
risen," began to dawn faintly on his mind.
There was ringing in his ears," Your soitow
shall be turned into joy." The touch of the
eye-witness, and the personal part of one
who is describing his own activity. Wett-
stein, on oi n4vTot fi<r^\9ei', adds, "ne pol-
lueretur," and quotes numerous Talmudioal
authorities to show how the corpse and the
grave and gravestone would pollute the
living (of. Numb. xix. 16). If so, then
Peter, before he came to the conclusion that
there was no death in the sepulchre, broke a
ritual law which John respected. There
seems also rabbinical authority for the fact
that disciples might carry " the just " to
their grave without such fear of pollution.
But at this moment they were both lifted
above the region of ritual altogether.
Vers. 6, 7. — John stood gazing, waiting,
wondering, and, while doing this, then
oometh Simon Peter following him across
the very garden which must have borne
many marks of the dreadful tragedy that
had been hurriedly terminated before the
eomniencemeiit of the sabbath. The ex-
pression, " following him," may refer to
what Luke (xxiv. 12) says that Peter did,
viz. that he too stooped down and looked as
John had done.' Westcott says, " without a
■ Westcott and Hort bracket the vers*
OB. XX. 1—31.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDlNa TO ST. JOHN.
4&i
look or panie." But why need we twppott
• point-blank contradiction of Lnke 7 Such
a mode of entrance is almost unthinkable.
But he did more: And entered into the
■epnlohre. How strangely impulsive this
man I how characteristic of every other re-
corded action of Peter I There must have
been a Peter who corresponded to the four- or
five-fold portraiture of the erangelistio his-
tory. The last time that Peter saw his Lord
was when a "look" of his cruelly insulted
Friend and Master had broken his own heart;
yet now he was rushing impulsively to gaze
again upon that face with, so far as he knew,
all the marks of infernal insult yet upon it.
The contrast of character between John and
Peter is every where maintained. John, in
ch. xxi. 7, first recognizes the Lord ; Peter
hurries through the waters to fall once more
at his feet. John is lost in silent medita-
tions ; Peter exclaims, and wonders. And
he heholdeth (fiimpti, with a closer and more
careful, vivid, and instructive gaze, not
merely $\4wet, the word used by John of his
own conduct) the linen cloths lying, and the
napkin (^sudarium, ichweisditeh) which was
(had been) upon his head. He does not say
whose head. How full the writer's mind
was of (Jhristl Not lying with the linen
cloths, but separately in one place, rolled up,
as if it had been folded up or wrapped to-
gether (see for this use of xwp's. .^schylus,
'Agarn.,' ti-23; Homer, 'Iliad,' ij. 470— this
is tlie only time that x^P^s ib thus adver-
bially used in the New Testament — and
see for kvTeTuMyiiemy, present participle,
Luke zxiii. 53). It was clear, then, that
the body had not been carried away for
another burial, nor had it been hastily
removed, seeing that there were signs
of deliberation, choice, and care. All that
was suggested by this wonderful appear-
ance of the grave, all that it means to us,
we cannot fathom. The new life has
raiment of its own, belonging to a higher
region of existence, woven in spiritual
looms; yet the hands that unwound these
bandages and head-cloth, and laid them as
Peter and John saw them, were capable of
physical exertions and activity. What dog-
matic hints are involved in this recitall
He is a living Person, not an abstract prin-
ciple or vague force. There are evident
proofs that, however great the change which
had passed over him, the Living One was
the same man that he had ever been.
Ver. 8. — Then, emboldened by the obser-
vation of Peter, with a courage reviving
from his awe-struck stupefaction, entered in,
The authorities for it are very numerous,
but differ in details. Some authorities omit
Luke xziT. 12: Tischendorf (8tb edit.X but
Bot B.T.
wax.— iL
therefora, the other disciple also, he wha
oame first to the sepulchre. Surely th»
charge that this writer, under the teaching
of second-century tendencies, was systemati-
cally endeavourin:; to lower the common
estimate of Peter in favour of John, breaks
to pieces on the self-condemnation which is
here recorded. The writer, whoever he was,
emphasizes his own smaller courage, bis
tardy recognition of the fact ; but he adds.
And he saw, and believed. According to
Augustine, Erasmus, and Luther, he beliered
what Mary had said. He saw now that the
tomb was empty, and believed her report,
whether it went on to describe the first
angelic message or not ; but Liicke, Lange,
Meyer, and Moulton, following Chrysostom,
etc., rightly interpret "he believed" tliat
Jesus had not been taken by others from
the grave. He saw there were no signs of
haste or confusion, or of a rifled tomb. He
believed that be had risen, that this death
of his had been done away, that he was
living, as he said. This is one of the most
vivid indications that the writer assumes
acqu tintance with the most inward expe-
rience of that disciple whom Jesus loved.
Luke says that " Peter wondered in himself
at that which had Imppened." John tells
us that, from that moment, the whole thing
flashed upon himself. There was something
for him to see which shed a burning Uf<ht
upon Holy Scripture, upon the promises and
acts of Jesus; and he "believed" in the
triumph which had been achieved. Godet
thinks more— he believed in the Messiah-
ship aud Souship in a sense which had not
dawned upon him before. The apostle
seems to link himself with those who had
the smaller and less perfect benediction
subsequently pronounced upon Thomas.
Ver. 9. — For not as yet did they know
(^Seia-av has an imperfict, not pluperfect
tense) the Scripture, which, if rightly inter-
preted, ought to have made them t j iumphant
in the hour of the Lord's deepest humilia-
tion, and ought to have convinced them that
the ideal Sufferer of Ps. xxii. would prove to
be Lord of all ; and that the Lamb of God of
Isa. liii. must see his seed, and prolong his
days ; that God's " Holy One " of Ps. xvi.
could not see corruption ; that the Messiah
of a hundred prophetic hopes must conquer
all his foes. The words of Jesus himself, in
the memory of John and that of the synop-
tists, had been dark and confused, and they
had not put all together into one glorious
conviction that he must (Sei, by a Divine
necessity) rise from among the dead; nor
had they grasped the fact that it was net
possible that he should be holden in the
travail-pangs of death. The signs wMok
John saw now brought all his hopes together.
Ver. 10.— Tlw diid^ei then again departel
2 B
4M
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST, JOHN. [oh. ix. 1—31.
to their own homes. Xlphs aurovs* corre-
■pondi with Luke xiiv. 12, to the irphs lourd*
to which Peter returned. Here, again, there
ia a viTid touch of individuality.' John's
own home oontaiaed the mother of the Lord.
Around Peter were gathered the other
apostles, and they were shortly to he joined
by John himself. To them the more detailed
report of the language of the angel would
be repeated a hundred times. The "other
Mary," Salome, Joanna, all press the
wondrous assurance upon the eleven, as they
mourned and wept, and for the most part
were either bewildered or unbelieving. The
two disciples start for Emmaus, and all that
these knew as yet was that " certain women
affirmed the tomb to be empty, that they
had seen a vision of angels, which declared
him to be alive," and " that certain of our
company had visited the sepulchre, and
found it even as the women had said, but
him they saw not "(Luke xxiv. 22 — 24).
Vers. 11 — 18. — (2) The revelation made to
adoring love, antwering to the firit portion of
the high-prieetly prayer.
Vers. 1 1, 12.— But Mary, who had followed
Peter and John to the grave, and witnessed
their amazement, and the gleam of hope in
the face of John, was standing at the se-
pulohie without — ^not within it — weeping.
She had not overcome her fears. She had not
grasped the idea of resurrection or life. One
crushing overmastering grief was still weigh-
ing heavily upon her, obscuring her vision,
and breaking her heart. While she was
continuously weeping, she, as Peter and John
had done before her, stooped down (see ver.
5, note) to look into the sepulchre, and be-
holdeth two angels in white (Xevkois) or
glittering garments — the adjective so often
used for the precious heavenly things, for
the garments of the glorified (Bev. iii. 4, 5,
18 ; Acts i. 10 ; Eev. vii. 9, 13, etc.)— sitting,
the one at the head, and the (other) one at
the feet, where the body of Jesus had lam.
Here rationalism has come with various ex-
planations. Some have said two white-robed
Essenes like those who are also supposed to
have appeared to our Lord on the Mount of
TrauBflguration, his secret friends, who had
really spirited the body ot Jesus away, lin-
gered yet in the tomb, and duped Mary by
a lying story. Booming this hypothesis,
have said — Here we see the
' Alford, T.R., and E.T. give iavrois;
Tischendorf (8th edit.), TrcgelKs, and BWe
Eevisers read outo^s; Westuott and Hort,
atiToiSf
' Tills usage of irphs occurs in Jos^hus
('Ant.,' viii. 4. 6), in the olassics (Plat,
•Phad.,'iv. 21; Polybins, v. 93) ; but these
are the only places where it ooours in the
New Teetament
subjective creation of the terrified and weep-
ing women, who took white clothes for men
or angels, and whose fancies were readily
believed; while mythical hypotheses have
suggested that a glamour of love, many
years after the event, created a pathetic and
beautiful fiction of what may have happened
on that memorable dawn. Every one of
these interpretations vanishes before the
authenticity of John's Gospel. The discijJe
whom Jesus loved, the author of the
Apocalypse, was personally acquainted with
M ary of Magdala, and had much communion
with her, and could heartily believe her
story. If there be no spiritual world, no
kind nor modes of existence beyond what we
call the seen and temporal, and no thought
higher than man's thought; if every testi-
mony to this spiritual world right through
the ages is a delusion, and can be explained
away ; if it be an irrational or impossible
supposition; — why, then this vision must pass
away with the rest. But the entire teaching
of the Bible from end to end reveals and
bears witness to a world ordinarily unseen by
human eyes, but none the less real. To some
the door thus opened into heaven is closed
and sealed by the seven seals of materialism,
agnosticism, dogmatism, scientism, worldlir
ness, indifference, and unspirituality. How
much do men forget that all human life is
but a very temporary, ever-vanishing robe
around a permanent and abiding spiiit I that
it is entirely conceivable that even pure spirit
can come for our advantage into still more
evanescent forms than those we now possess,
which yet make appeal to what we call our
senses of sight and hearing I Objective as
such manifestations are, tliey are no more
visible to all eyes or ears than the mysteries
of art are open to all human sensibility. The
harmonies of heaven are not heard by those
who are muffled up with venture of decay,
and there is nothing lying beyond or behind
the veil of sense to the unspiiitual. The
whole critical school might have rambled
about the garden, with hammer and spec-
tacles, and would never have seen an angel
or the risen Christ ; but, thank God, all eyes
were not so dim. Some were there who saw
and believed ; and they have revolutionized
the world's thought. Their vision is the
key of time; their voice, the word that
wakes the dead. This manifestation of the
unseen world does not contradict the state-
ment of Matthew that an angel of the Lord
had been seen sitting on the displaced stone,
and terrified the Roman guard ; nor Mark*!
assurance that the women had seen a yoonc
man clothed in a white robe, who gave thft
Divine assurance which perplexed the eleven;
nor Luke's description of two men clothed
In flittering apparel, who told them that
the Laitd mm ]xmg. Snrel; it ie imfosriUa
OH. XX. 1—31.] THE GOSPEL ACOOBDING TO ST. JOHN.
467
to represent Mary of Magdala'g present
vision as identical with that which had
occurred at an earlier hour ; but it is clear
that, if she shared in the earlier vision at all,
■he had not been convinced by it, for still
she wept in utter despair. The fact that
these angelic appearances should take dif-
ferent forms to different witnesses belongs
to their very nature. Buch visions, trans-
lated into words, would naturally differ. If
there had been rigid uniformity in the
statements of the three evangelists, and of
the fourth with them, grave suspicion would
have been attached to the entire recital.
The experiences of several different women
would be repeated a thousand times. They
would be questioned separately and together
in every possible way ; and it appears from
all four narratives that three forms of the
ultimate traditions aUke declare that hope
and fear arising from the empty grave were
quickened and stimulated by angelic ambas-
sadors, who variously prepared their mind
to receive the grand objective fact.
Ver. 13. — And they say unto her, Woman,
why weepest thoul "'EKtivoi here," says
Westcott, "like the name inserted in ver.
15, marks the pause during which Hary
regarded those before her without speak-
ing." Here we witness angelic wonder at
human incredulity. AngeUo ministry to
human sorrow ; for the mystery of our tears
does not arrest the sympathy of these trium-
pliant spirits. Often, if we are compelled to
put into words the supposed cause of our
bitterest agony, we deliver ourselves from our
fears. She saith unto them, as if she were
speaking simply and naturally to human
beings. However, Mary of Magdala alone
of the women knows them to be " angels,"
but is so overpowered with the loss of her
Lord that she does not quail or flee, but
wails forth anew the language she had
already uttered to the disciples. I weep
because they have taken away my Lord.
That " my " makes a characteristic difference
from "the Lord" of whom sbe had spoken
to Peter and John. She did not at the
instant know that her Lord was the Lord of
angels. The " I know," rather than " we
know," shows unquestionably that now she
is alone, and the other women have left
her and are electrifying the city with their
strange tales. I know not where they (who
have taken his sacred body) have laid him.
Ver. 14. — Then follows the simple record
of the most wonderful event in the history of
the world. There and then a flash of light
broke on one human loul, and on human life
at large, which has been brightening and
broadening in its lustre till this very hour.
With what awful and tender simplicity is it
related I When she had Mid this, ihe turned
kwnolf back (ci> T<k w*ir<t) to what was behind
her, away from the angels, and from their
apparent but fruitless offer of sympathy,
still weeping passionately in the utter deso-
lation of a broken heart. But why did she
turn? Was she not conscious of a presence
near her which she had not seen? The
blind are often aware of the presence of un-
seen persons, when no footfall is heard and
no word spoken. And beholdeth (SEu/ie?)
Jesus standing (^o-tSto, perfect participle),
as though for some time he had been stand-
ing there, watching her (of. that which he
had said to the eleven (ch. xvi. 22), " I will
see you "). But strange, mysterious, unutter-
ably wonderful, entirely and absolutely in-
consistent with the hypothesis, to which we
have often referred, that this book is a
theological romance, John, on Mary's own
authority, adds. She knew not that it was
Jesus. This is one of those remarkably vivid
and autoptic touches that carry conviction
of truth, whatever may be the explanation
or the conclusion to be drawn from it. How
far was this lack of recognition due to her, and
how far to this the first manifestation made
of "spiritual body" to human ken? Some
have frigidly taken a oommonplaoe explana-
tion. Her eyes were blinded with continuous
weeping ; or the darkness of the morning ; or
Jesus may have stood in the shadows of the
city wall, as the glare of the first beam of sun-
rise broke out of the purple mists on the Moab
hills ; or Christ's appearance was so changed
by the agony through which he had passed,
and by the recovery and reconstitution of his
humanity, that the signs of his identity were
obscured. He could not have clothed him-
self with the glittering garment! of the
Transfiguration, or vrtth the dazzling robes
of angels ; for she mistook him for the keeper
of the garden, either for Joseph of Arimathssa
himself or his steward. " She knew not that
it was Jesus." Human eyes are often holden
BO that they do not see the Lord, even when
by some objective manifestation he makes it
possible to do this thing. Thus (Judg. xiii.
16), "Manoah knew not that it was the
angel of the Lord." And several other of
the theophanies of the Old Testament, en-
countering the blindness of human vision,
slowly dawn upon even prophetic intelligence.
Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Gideon,
Samuel, are all instances. And we find that
in Matt, xxviii, 16, 17, "some doubted" the
Resurrection, even when the vision led others
to adore (Luke ixiv. 16). The eyes of
Oleophas and his friend were holden, even
though their hearts were burning. Those
who travelled with Paul to Damascus saw
a light and heard a sound, but they did not
see nor did they hear what the apostle saw
and heard. The m<>p4>4 °^ ^^^ risen Jesua
was not, according to Mark (xtL 12), always
the lama. Vat tha viaion and perception of
t6S
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xi. 1— SI
thii mode of being, the eye needs special
training and preparation. Though the eyes
of love are the quickest to discern these
wondrous realities, yet the vision tarries, and
is for an appointed time, and even they who
ultimately see have to wait for it.
Ver 15. — Jesus saith to her, in the words
of the angels, 'Woman, why weepest thou t
These are the first words of the risen Jesus,
for Mark tells us, " He appeared iirst of all
to Mary of Magdala." And Matthew's
summation of the entire narrative makes
it clear that she was at least one of the first
group who saw the risen Lord. He recalls
her to herself. He seeks to assuage the
grief of desolation, the bitterness of de-
spairing love. As his first great Beatitudes
had been " Blessed are the poor in spirit,"
" Blessed are thobc who mourn and weep,"
and "Blessed are the meek," so the first
words he uttered after he rose from the
dead were intended to console human weep-
ing over the most irremediable of human
sorrows. They are the beginning of a
fulfilment of the Divine promise " to wipe
away tears from off all faces." But the
Lord adds, Whom seekest thou 1 ' She has
lost some one, not some thing. Questions
these which he has lieen asking the souls of
men and women evt r since, when their grief
and tears, their unconscious and unsatisfied
yearnings after himself, have confused their
perceptions and riven their hearts. She,
supposing him to be the gardener, a friend,
not a stranger, a disciple, not a Boman
toldier or a hostile priest, perhaps some
man who had been with Joseph of Arimathsea
on the Friday evening, or even the senator
himself, said to him, Lord, (Sir,) if thou hast
borne him hence, tell me where thou hast
laid him, and I will ta.ke him away. Tliis
passionate burst reveals the blinding domi-
nance of a fixed idea. She had no notion
of the Kesurreotion. She was utterly over-
whelmed with one bitter, cruel thought.
The sacred body was to be embalmed with
the precious spices which she had spent
her all to buy. Others have forestalled her.
Perhaps unsympathizing hands have been
doing their worst. She does not know, in
her terrified grief, if some wicked hands
have not cast out his body into the Valley
of Hinnom. She seems to imply that the
K7lirovp6s has heard the words of the angels,
and her previous reply to them. She is so
filled with one thought, that the him, not it,
explains itself. She is reckless of herbelf,
and does not stay to count the cost. Had
she not poured the precious ointment on
his feet, in happier days, and washed them
with her tears ? Of whom can she speak
but of him who said, " Thy sins, which are
many, are forgiven ; " " She loved much ; "
"Thy faith hath saved thee"? So far all
is preparation for the great revelation.
" The Lord has risen indeed ; " but, unlike
what poetry or theology might have pictured,
or the mythopoeio faculty have woven out
of its strong persuasion of the Lord's in-
dissoluble life, he has chosen first of all
to present this signal manifestation of spi-
ritual corporeity to a loving heart crushed
with grief, to one groaning over irreparable
wrong, without a spark of hope, that death was
indeed vanquished. But she who received
the objective presentation was too much
preoccupied to feel her footing; and her home
in two worlds. It was not " an enthusiast
(une hdUuciiife, Kenan) who gave the world
(un Dieu ressuscit^) a resnscitated God,"
but a doubter, a despairing, broken-hearted
sufferer, who did not know him when she
saw him.
Ver. 16.— Jesus saith unto her, Mary, The
more general expression, "woman" (ver. 15),
makes her seem to us the representative of the
whole of suffering humanity, weeping over
the inability to find any link of fellowship
between itself and the invisible God, feeling
unconsciously after the Christ and haply
not finding him, weeping because hostility
had obliterated him or superstition had
concealed him, while all the while he is
near at hand. But now Jesus stirred the
affection of the living, weeping person at
his side by uttering her own name in tones
that thrilled her to the heart, and created
the new sublime conviction that he had
risen, as he said. She turned herself, as
though the previous glance had been
momentary and partial, and now the vision
and voice blended, and she knew him. And
saith unto him in Hebrew, Kabbouni ('E3po-
iari is here introduced by modern editors.
This word only occurs in this Gospel and the
Apocalypse), a word (the evangelist adds)
which is to say, Master. The Hebrew term
— probably preserved in its Galilsean form,
'3121, rahbouni, rather than in the ordinary
form (see Authorized Version) '}i3Ti ^oh-
boni — if strictly translated, would be " my
Teacher," or " mj/ Master," yet the personal
pronoun must not be pressed. It doubtless
had lost its specialty as we find in many
other languages (monsieur, mein herr, " my
Lord," are familiar iustanoes). Even if the
full force of the pronoun were urged, Mary's
faith had not gone beyond the ideal of her
devotedly loved Teacher, Friend, Master,
and full far short of the insiglit wliich even
the incredulous Thomas would soon exhibi t,
that the Lord had put on Divine glory, and
filled all things. She apparently fell ia
speechless, passionate affection at his fee t,
as the other women did shortly afterwards
(see Mutt, xxviii. 9); but with the ide«
that now the old relations between Teaohel
and loving disciples would b« resumed
OH. XX. 1—31.] THE GOSPEL ACOOKBINQ TO BT. JOHN.
46%
She was in no mood answering to the doubt-
fulness of the disciples who desired proof
of his identity, of the fact of his corporeity,
before they could understand his claim to
be their perpetual Guide, and his promise
to be with them " unto the end of the world ; "
but she thought at once of the old life in
Galilee. Her joy knew no bounds, but her
conception of the reality of that which was
revealed to her was most imperfect. It was
the realization of love rather than the per-
ception of intellect. She rushed hastily
to a very limited conclusion ; and she suf-
fered an obvious correction, if not repulse,
which has been interpreted in many ways.
Ver. 17. — Jesus saith unto her, Touch me
not J for, etc. (1) Some, Bengel and others,
make the yip govern the whole clause that
follows, and go give the meaning, " Stay not to
touch me, but haste to my disciples, and say,"
etc.; but this would render tiie first clause
very obscure, unless the further supposition
be made, as by Baur. Bush, Sears, and many
others, that our Lord was just on the point
of ascending to heaven, i.e. of one (nay, the
first) of his many ascensions to the Father,
after which the touching, in the sense either
of worship or of verification, would be pos-
sible and rightful, and also the supposition
that an "ascension" intervened between
the appearance to the Magdalene and the
other women, or at all events before tlie
revelation to the disciples at Emmaus, to
Simon Peter, or to the eleven, at all of
which both verification of his personality, if
not worship at his feet, was permitted or
encouraged. This hypothesis is perilously
near to an assumption of a succession of
illusive visions of that which had nothing
but subjective reality. (2) Olshausen and
Schleiermacher give the utterly naturalistic
view, that the Lord's spiritual body was so
tender that he could not bear a vigorous
grasp or physical touch. Still worse, (3)
Faulus supposed that he was still suffering
from his cruel wounds, which, of course,
would only imply an apparent death on the
cross, and is a denial of the Besurrection
altogether. (4) Meyer's view seems to imply
that Miiry wondered whether he had only
a glorified spirit without bodily form, and
she wished to verify the latter by handling
his Person, and "Jesus gives her by his
verbal assurance the certainty she seeks,
adding, For I am not yet ascended to the
(my) ' Father ; therefore as yet I am not a
glorified spirit who has again come down
from heaven, whither he had ascended."
• This fwv is wanting in B, D, X, and is
rejected by Tischendorf (8tli edit.), Meyer,
Westcott and Hort, and K.T., as the correc-
tion from the omission to the insertion ia
more probable than the reverse process.
This is vary subtle, and is equivalent to
our Lord's saying, " Do not you, Mary, seek
that kind of bodily tangible proof ; " " I am
not yet a glorified spirit, and have not yet
tlie glorified body which you imagined."
The difficulty of this interpretation is not
what Godet says, " Jesus glorified does not
become pure spirit," but that Mary is
credited with a breadth and depth of appre-
hension so far in advance of her apparent
despondency and her small amount of faith
in the dignity of her Lord. (5) Many take
the fiii iiou aitTov, " Hold me not fast," as
though aTTTOjuai were equal to Kpaniy, " to
hold fast," or to hold for purposes of en-
joyment, and imply that Mary rushed to
"embrace" our Lord (Hengstenberg and
Bruckner), to clasp him by the knees or
feet ; that Jesus warned and repulsed the
effort, implying that he repressed thn
exuberance of the joy which she manifested,
pointing to a much higher and holier con-
tact that would be possible when his glorifica-
tion would be complete. Augustine (' Tract.
in I6.,' cxxi. 3), " ' Touch me not,' thnt is, Be-
lieve not thus on me according to thy pre-
sent notions. For how could it be otherwise
than camidly that she still believed on
him whom she was weeping over as a man ?
' For I am not yet ascended to my Father. '
There ih.ilt tliou touch me when thou be-
lievest me to be God in no wise unequal to
the Father." Leo the Great (' Sermo,' 74.
c. 4, quoted by P. Schaff ) : " I am unwilling
that you should approach me (carnaliter) by
any mere physical touch, that yon should re-
cognize me by the physical senses (jsemu ear-
rih). I am drawing you to sublimer things ;
I am preparing greater things for you.
When I shall have ascended to the Father,
then you will handle me mure perfectly and
truly, being ready, as you then will be, to
apprehend wliat you do not touch, and to
believe that which you do not perceive."
Many of the most able of modern expositors
adopt this view or some modification of it
(Calvin, Melancthon, Lampe, De Wette, and
Tholuok) ; Lnthardt now sees a difficulty in
this interpretation, from the twofold sense
thus attributed to the word SirreirSai, and
falls back on the earlier view, " Cling uol
to me, hut go and tell my disciples," etc.
Godet, however, puts it thus : " I have not
yet reached the state by means of which I
shall be able to live with you in the com-
munion which I promised you ; " and many
of the ecclesiastical divines discover in the
words an allusion to sacramental commu-
nion which will be possible in the future,
when the dispensation of the Holy Spirit
shall have been inangurated. The ascension
of which he speaks is not of one definitivt
•ct. but of a continual state (ivajSe'^SiiKa, no|
iyePriv), and 10 the idea of the repeated
m
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xx. 1—31
Mceniions ii precluded. The difficulty
arisei from the permission the Lonl gave to
the eleven to prove by tangible evidence,
by visible signs, the reality of his resurrec-
tion, showing them by way of identification
the marks upon his person of the great
agony. But there is no need to suppose
that Mary was refused one touch when she
seemed wishful to cling to his feet, and
tlius redouble the conviction already wrought
in her by sight and hearing of his new
mode of being. 'AirreirSai has this double
meaning, " to handle " and " to hold fast."
The key of the passage is in the oSita,
"not yet have I ascended to the Father;"
and the reasonable, nay, the imperative, in-
ference is that when he shall have ascended
to the Father, there wiU be ample oppor-
tunity for that spiritual communion with
him which will make him for ever present
with his Ohuroh. The goal of all Christ's
teaching (as recorded by John) is his return
to the Father, and the consequent fulness
of his disciples' joy. Because he will be
glorified straightway in Gh>d himself, he
will henceforth be as near to them, as
competent to teach and guide and protect
them, as in the days of his flesh ; nay, more
10, for they will do greater works than he
wrought before them, because he goes to
the Father, ascending up to where he was
before (ch. xiv. 18—21, 23, 28 ; xvi. 14, 17).
Ha will be "seated at the right hand of
the majesty in tiie heavens," he will pass
"through these heavens, that he may fill
all things." Because he is " the Lamb in
the midst of the throne," he will lead them
to the living fountains of water. Because
he is on the eternal throne, he can dwell in
them and manifest himself to them. But
go to my brethren. The new name, dearer
than " slaves," than " servants," than " dis-
ciples," than " ministers," than " apostles,"
than " friends ; " one that involves in itself
an eternal inheritance. Observe that,
though our Lord (Matt. xii. 48, eto.) had
prepared the way for this unspeakable
privilege, it is not until he has put on the
life eternal, the life of victory over death,
that he freely confers this lofty designation
upon that timid and dispirited band of
special followers who had forsaken him
and fled in his great humiliation. Peter
especially (Mark xvi. 7) receives this sig-
nificant assurance and (Luke xxiv. 34)
confirms its realization together with Paul
(1 Cor. XV. 5). These eleven men are hence-
forth his brethren. And say to tham, I am
ascending; the process of ascension has
begun ; 1 am beginning to assume all the
prerogatives of spiritual corporeity; I am
clothing myself with my eternal form ; I
have laid down my life, that I might take
it again, and use it for the highest blessed-
ness of my brethren. I am Moending to m)
Father, and to yonr Tather. Let it be ol>
served that he does not say, ''to our Father."
" He who is Father of Christ and Father of
men, is so in cliflerent ways. He is Father
of Christ by nature and of men by grace "
(Westoott). "He saith not 'our Father;'
in one sense, therefore, is he mine, in
another sense yours; by nature mine, by
grace yours " (Augustine). To my Qod, and
your God. The same remark may be made
here. Christ does speak of " my God " from
the throne of glory (Bev. iii. 2, 12). His
human consciousness of God has throngh-
out been unique ; his eternal consciousness
of the Father's love dignified all his human
relations with the Father, and became the
true inspiration of all consciousness of God
possessed by his disciples. "He appears in
the presence [before the face] of God for us,"
and so we have access unto one Father
and draw near to God. Nevertheless, he
did not say to ** onr God," any more than
to " our Father."
Ver. 18. — Mary the ITagdalene eometh and
telleth the disoiples. She rushes at once
with speed and zeal, and the word is on her
tongue, I have seen (she does not say, I
have grasped him by the hand, or kissed his
feet) the lord,' and hoa that he said these
things to her. Tliis special message, not
recorded in Matt, xxviii. 10, was clearly not
given to the women who held his feet. Some
harmonists endeavour to identify the narra-
tive in Matthew with this passage and others
to make Matthew's narrative identical with
the account of the revelations made to
Joanna's party at a later hour, and therefore
entiiely distinct from this (see Commen-
taries on Matthew, Luke, and Mark). John's
account is free &om ambigpiity in itself,
whereas the rapid summary given in Luke
and the general impression produced by
the whole group of events, as recorded by
Matthew, suggest the need of supplementary
intelligence. The narratives of the synoptists,
then, record that in the course of this Easter
Bay a company of women,who may reasonably
be supposed to be those who bore the names
of Joanna, Susanna, and others, . and who
had gone to the tomb with their spices, had
been met by the Lord himself, either going
' 'Edpttxa is the reading of K, B, X, and four
ancient versions ; 33 reads iaipaKa/iei/, point-
ing to the harmony between this and Matt
xxviii. 9, 10, and the other synoptists, who do
not clearly discriminate the special message
brought by Magdalene, 'idpaxe is the read-
ing of the great majority of uncials, of Lach-
mann, Tregelles (margin); but the first
person is the reading preferred by Alford,
Tregelles, Tisohendorf (8th edit.), ud Wm^i
oott and Hort, and B.T.
m. K. 1—31.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO St. JOHN.
4?1
or letniniii^, and had receired the Bummoni
to tell the disciples that he would see them
in Gralilee. The two disciples nn their way
to Emmaus had at length discovered that the
mysterious stranger who accosted them and
discoursed so fully was the Lord himself.
They retnmed to Jerusalem to affirm the
fact, and found the eleven rejoicing that the
Lord had risen indeed, and that " he had ap-
peared to Simon Peter." It would certainly
seem, and is at length admitted by all, that
the narrative given in the following verses
of events occurring on the late evening of
the Easter Day could be none other than
that which Luke describes (xxiv. 36). This
is rendered somewhat perplexing by the
record of Mark xvi. 12, that the language
of the two disciples was not accepted by
TO(s \onroa, "the rest." But it is obvious
&om every one of the narratives how slow of
heart even the apostles 'themselves were to
accept the assurance of such unexpected and
wonderful phenomena. The extreme dejec-
tion of the disciples, followed by their vigor-
ous and invincible faith, la testified by each
evangelist ; but from the nature of the case
the resurrection of Jesus was, during the
course of the entire day, doubted by some.
The nature of the doubt, and the method in
which it was put to rest, is portrayed in some
detail by John (see note on ver. 1).
Vers. 19, 20. — (3) Tlw manifettation to the
ten ditdples, correeponding with the second
portion of the prayer, and followed hy special
eor^erence of privilege,
Ver, 19. — When therefore it was evening,
on that day, being the first day of the week ;
f «. the close of the day on which the Lord
had risen; on "that day" which became
so memorable in the history of the Church.
Consequently, after most astounding and
independent revelations had been made to
several individuals, about 8 p.m. there
occurred that which John now proceeds to
describe. The note of time identifies it
with the scene and event described by Luke
(xxiv. 36 — 43) ; consequently John had the
former account before him in the record of
his own reminiscences. To understand the
full force of the passage we must bring to it
the statements of Luke, Mark, and Paul,
The disciples had been prepared, (1) by the
Mports of the women, that the grave had
been opened ami was empty, and that angelic
■appearances had asserted tlie resurrection of
Jesus. (2) By the impression made on Peter
and John when they found it as Mary and the
other women had said. The disappearance
of the body of Jesus, confirmed by the four
independent lines of testimony, is strangely
difficult to account for on any hypothesis
except that of the Besnrrection. The dis-
eiplei were evidently confounded by the
not Tha PhuiMM and priestly party were
quite aware that such an event would check-
mate their supposed victory over a hated
rival. Tlie Boman soldiers were pledged in
honour and by pride and passion not to allow
themselves thus to be reduced to impotence.
Hence there is no explanation of the rise or
beginning of such a legend (see B. Weiss,
' Life of Jesus,' iii. pp. 390 — 395), except th»
historical fact. (3) By an assrrtion of tha
Magdalene that she had seen the Lord, and
that he had sent a special message to his
brethren as to the completion of his glorifi-
cation in his ascent to the Father. (4) By
the announcement, the details of whioli are
not recited, concerning an appearance to
Peter : this fact stands on remarkably strong
evidence of Mark, Luke, and Paul. (5) By
the immense excitement of tlie appearance
and disappearance of the Lord at Emmaus.
Tins was evinced by the return of the two
disciples to Jerusalem, charged with new
ideas of the meaning of the Scriptures and
of the will and power of God, and with fun-
damentally new notions of the very nature
of spiritual body — ^body entirely and abso-
lutely under the power of the spirit. The
apostles were prepared for the wonderful
manifestation of a new mode of being ; but
they needed something more convincing than
they had yet received. They were still suf-
fering from intellectual blindness and slow-
ness of spirit, and were apparently incapable
of accepting mere testimony. Mark's state-
ment (xvi. 14) embraces the special seen*
which John describes in much more vivid
and instructive manner (vers. 26 — 29). But
Luke expressly implies that far more than
the eleven had gaUiered together, either in
the room where the Paschal supper had been
celebrated, or where the election of Matthias
subsequently took place. Joseph and Nioo-
demus, the women, and some of the seventy
disciples were there; nor can we conceive
excluded from their fellowship Mary of
Bethany, or Lazarus, or Simon the Cyrenian,
or the " brothers of the Lord " so desig-
nated. We are told that after the arrival
of the Emmaus disciples, the doors having
been locked (shut) where the disciples were
[assembled ' ] because of the (tbetr) fear of the
Jews. This expres^iion is once again repeated
(ver. 26), showing that, after the lapse of
seven days, fear and precautions against sur-
prise still prevailed. They were on both
occasions in ignorance of the purpose or
meaning of the Sanhedrin, nor could they
tell whether the malice of the world would
' ivpTfy/iivos is not found in K, B, I, A, D,
44, 95 ; and several versions and most modem
editors omit, with R.T. The T.R. and B*I«
Revisers (margin) give it, with a iatga
number of later uncials, inolnding K, Ls I^
and veniona.
«72
THE GOSPEL ACCOBDING TO ST. JOHN. lam. xx. 1— SI.
at onoe compel them to fullow their Loid'i
•xampls, dnnk of his oup, and be baptized
with Ma baptism. The dnora were closed,
when JesuB oame, and stood in the midst — a
phrase which la here identical with that in
Luke's narrative. Now, John, who, con-
sonantly with Luke, has recorded his eTi-
dence that the body of Christ was not a
phantasmal imagination, but a veritable,
visible, and tangible reality (see Luke xxiv.
37—43), identifiable with the very body
which had been so cruelly wounded and
bruised for them, takes special pains to hint,
by a single clause, that tlie body of Christ
was a new creation, and was submitted to
laws profoundly different from those which
we have generalized from the intimations of
the five senses only. Jolm does not say
that the doora were opened by some magic
process, nor that Christ simply passed
tiirough the closed doors, nor that they
were miraculously removeJ ; but that he
had taken up his position before them by a
piocLSs which, to the body made of the dust
of the earth, would be supremely miraculous.
Here we have a revelation made to prepared
minds of a new order of existence (see Weat-
cott's ' Bevelations of the Risen Lord,' and
MiUigan's ♦Resurrection of Christ,' on the
likeness and on the unlikeness of the risen
body with that which had died). It is more
than possible — nay, it is entirely presumable
^that the spiritual body becomes possessed
of additional senses, of which we have no
ounception or experience ; and, therefore, the
spirit clothed with such body is alive to
properties of matter and dimensions of space
and active forces all of which would be
supernatural to ua, "cribbed, cabined, and
confined " as we are now and here. Our
Lord, before his Passion, gave numerous
proofs of the dominance of his spirit over
the body : his repeated escapes from his
enemies, the power of his voice and glance,
his transfiguration-glory, his superiority to
gravitation in walking upon the sea and
hushing its storms. So that he, on tbis
occasion, is revealing to the world some of
the functions of spiritual corporeity.' He
is manifesting the kind of life which will
eventually be the condition of all the re-
deemed— visible and tangible at will to those
who are limited to our present condition
and stage of being, but also in ita normal
state invisible, impalpable, to eye and touch
of mortal sense. There can be little doubt
that John deeply recognized what Paul
described as " the spiritual body." Jeiui
ttood suddenly in their midat, not a phan-
' See R. I. Wilberforce, ' The Doctrine of
the Incarnation ; ' laaao Taylor, ' Physical
Theory of Another Life;' Sears, 'The Heart
ofOhriai'
taam,iui the diacipIeB(or some of them) wer<
ready to suggest. His first word, though
consisting in form of the common salutation
of the East, must have meant immeasurably
more to them than it does in ordinary par-
lance. And Jesus saith nnto them, Feaot
be to you! which, uttered in well-remem-
bered tones, reminded them of how he had
discriminated his "peace," and his manner
of giving it from the world's " peace," and
the world's manner of giving (ch. xiv. 27).
It meant the hushing of their fear, the
expulsion of terrible alarm (see Luke xxiv.
37, 38). This ia John's summary of all
that he said. Luke, with much detail,
records how the Lord proved that he was,
not a mere subjective vision, but a veritable
man, with flesh, and bones, and voice, and
power to take food. Consequently the evan-
gelists labour to make evident the fact that
the spiritual resurrection-body, though a
continuation of the old life, with signs of its
identity, is, nevertheless, emancipated from
the or(flnary conditions of our material cor-
poreity. This is one of the places where
the narrative transcends experience and
imagination, and appeals to faith in a
higher order of being than crosses the field
of scientific vision.
Ver. 20.— When he had aaid thia — ».«.
when he had uttered all that was involved
in his Divine salutation — ^he showed them
his hands and his side. Luke says "his
handt and his feet ; " John calls attention to
the special wound in his sacred side, tho
making of which he had so closely described
and verified (ch. six. 33 — 35). Nor w as this
vision of the Lord restricted to tlie ocular
testimony, to the bare fact of the Resurrec-
tion, but it was a solemn assurance that he,
though risen, bad died for them. He is the
Living One that was dead, and is alive for
evermore. He is in the midst of the throne,
a Lamb as it had been slain. In his greatest
glory neither does he nor can his people
forget his sacrificial death. "He showed
them his hands and his side." Some have
argued, from John's silence about his " feet,"
that he intended to correct a general im-
pression which the synoptic narrative had
produced, viz. that our Lord'a feet had
been nailed to the cross. There ia no reason
whatever for any such hypothesis. The
evangelist simply emphasizes the ghastly
proof of his Lord's actual death, with its
supernatural accompaniments, as » more
vivid evidence of identity than the piercing
of the feet : moreover, it was a fact to which
he had borne special testimony. Some con-
ception is given in both the Gospels of the
marks and vestiges of the earthly pilgrimage
which will survive death and paaa on into the
eternal world. The disciples, therefore, wer«
glad when they saw the Lord. InLukezxiT
CH. XX. 1— «1.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST. JOHN.
473
41 we read thftt they were increduloas &om
the excels of their joy, and f uroharged with
wonder. In the bewilderment of their rap-
ture he added to their assurance, and trans-
formed their joy into faith by publicly and
before them all participating in food. Ex-
treme dejection is transformed into trium-
phant couvictiou of the truth. A new
revelation had been made to them of the
very nature of life, while the veil that had
from the beginning of time concealed the
abode of the blessed dead, had at length
been rent in twain. They heard, they saw,
tliey handled, the Word of life. They felt
that in their Lord tliey too were now at
home in both worlds. Their fellowship was
with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.
Vera. 21 — 23.— (4) Peace, ipiration of th»
Holy Spirit, and conference of power to remit
or retain sin.
Yer, 21. — Therefore [Jesos'] said unto
them again. Peace be unto yon. With added
emphasis, and in obvious reference to his
valedictory discourse, he gave to them the
essence of his own sublime repose, the
blending of an infinite joy with a measure-
less sorrow; the equilibrium that springs
from the spirit mastering the flesh. Not an
ecstatic rapture, nor a joy that would make
their life on earth insupportable by its con-
trast with their abiding frame of mind ; but
peace — "the peace of God, which passeth
understanding." The Jiret " peace " gave
to all who were assembled a new revelation ;
the lecond " peace," a summons to service.
The Lord added the memorable words, As
the Father hath sent me ' (aireVroAKc, hath
sent nK on a special commission), I also send
you (Tejtirai, charge you to go forth and
accomplish this commission of mine); see
Westcott's excursus on the Kew Testament
usage of the two verbs, which does much
to justify these shades of meaning. Both
verbs are used of both the mission of the
Son and the mission of believers, but in the
two senses, (1) that sometimes the special
service on which he or they are sent is
emphasized by the use of airoiTTtWu ; and
(2) that at other times the simple mission
or sending forth is the dominant idea when
Tre/iTm is employed. Thus in eh. iv. 38 the
Lord says, " I sent ( oir^(rTe£A.o) you to reap
that on which ye bestowed no labour ; " and
eh. xvii. 18 (see note) the^ same word is
• N, D, L, and numerous versions omit i
'IvoSs; 80 Tisohendorf (8th edit.), Tregelles,
Bftle Bevisers. T.B., B.T., and Lachmann
retain it. Alford, Westcott and Hort, and
Tregelles put it in the margin. Wey-
mouth brackets, with A, B, I, T, A, and
numerous cuisires.
■ 8e* notei, eh. xvii. 18, where the word
for " sent " ii the same in both elausei.
appropriately used twice — for the Lord's own
commission, and also for the commission ol
the disciples. Then it seems to point back
to an event in their history and the work
done already and before Christ's death for
the world. Now the disciples have a new
conception of Christ and of his work, and
they must go forth to fulfil it. This usage
of airofl-TeWiw is more or less conspicuous in
ch. i. 6; iii. 28; v. 33; xviii. 24. ne/iTra
is used often to describe the Father's mission
of the Son, the mission of the Comforter,
and the mission of the disciples (ch. xiii.
20 ; liv. 26 ; xvi. 7). Moulton says, " 'Atto-
oreKKa means 'commission' and vinTna
' mission.' With the first word our thoughts
turn to the ' special embassy ; ' with the
second, to the authority of the 'ambassador'
and the obedience of the sent." Another
peculiarity of this passage is that the Lord
uses the perfect teuse, dir4irra\Kf, rather than
the aorist used elsewhere, suggesting a
complete commission on his own side, whose
meaning and effects are still in operation.
Those who hare received this revelation are
to become at once witnesses to tlie fact of
his resurrection, agents and organs of his
Spirit. Moulton suggests that irlinra. is
used in order to enforce the physical separa-
tion between the Lord and his disciples;
and that we cannot overlook in the similarity
of the ideas the difierence in the manner of
the sending, by the Saviour of the disciples,
firom the manner in which the Son had bean
sent by the Father. Christ came forth from
the eternal companionship of the Father, in
the fact of his incarnation, taking humanity
up into his eternal substance. The disciples
were sent forth by the risen Lord, who
had called them by grace into fellowship
with himself, and who equipped them tor
his service. The difference in these two
methods of sending is as conspicuous as the
resemblance.
Vers. 22, 23. — And when he had said this,
he breathed upon them, and saith to them, '
Eeoeive ye (the) Holy Spirit. The word
iv«p6aT](Tfv is not elsewhere used in the
New Testament, but is used by the LXX. in
Gen. ii, 7 to describe the essential distinction
between the living soul of Adam and the
living soul of all other animals. Man's life
was no evolution of the life in other creatures,
or consequence of pre-existent properties in
the dust of the ground. A direct volition
of the Almighty conferred upon humanity
the life of the flesh. So here the second
Adam, the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. xv. 45),
was represented as visibly and sensibly
conferring ou those whom he now sends
forth to complete the mission of his grace
the Divine lifewhioh would make them new
ereatures, and bestow on them power te
generate the same spirit in others. They
474
THE GOSPEL ACXX)BDINO TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xx. 1—31
will have power to do this by bearing
testimony to that which they see and know
to be the fact of the case. The celebrated
passage (ch. vii. 39) which asserts the
" glorification " of Jesus to be the condition
of the mission of the Comforter (cf. oh. xvi.
7) makes the bestowment of the Spirit on
this occasion a proof that the glorification
had already begun. Has he not already
said to Mary, " I am ascending to my Father" ?
So now he implies that the time will come
when, though he is sending his disciples
forth from his immediate corporeal pre-
sence, they will touch him by other faculties
than eye, or ear, or hand. He is about to
leare them for leven days ; they are to learn
the reality of hia spiritual presence by an
earnest of Pentecost, by such a gift of the
Spirit that they will recognize, in the rush-
ing mighty wind, the presence of the same
uplifting, revealing, supernatural Energy.
It is urged by Hofmann, Luihardt, Oess,
Moulton, and -to some extent Westcott and
Gpdet, that the absence of the article must
be represented in the translation, that we
have here either "o holy spirit," or an
energy, an impersonal force of Spirit, or " a
gift of the Holy Spirit," an effusion of Holy
Spirit, and not " the Spirit of the Father and
Son," not the fulness of the Holy Ohost,
not the realization of the Divine indwelling,
only an earnest of the sublime reality, a
symbolic expression of the promise of the
Father, Godet says, " This communication
is to the Resurrection what Pentecost will be
to the Ascension. As by Pentecost he will
initiate them into his ascension, so now he
associates them with the life of the Eesur-
rection." This last may be perfectly true ;
yet Tli/evfia "Ayiov, with or without article,
is " the Holy Spirit" (cf. Eom. viii. 4; Gal.
V. 16). Meyer says, " The idea of an inter-
mediate Holy Spirit, distinct from the Holy
Spirit, lies outside of Scripture." Nor can
we minimize the fuU force of \d$eTe, which
emphasizes the special action of Christ, by
which he communicated to this first gather-
ing of the Church the sense of his Divine
presence, the gift of spiritual insight, the
God-consoiouennss, the experience of two
worlds, the unity and community of life
with himself, which has been augmenting
in positive realization. In vivid proofs, in
mighty powers, from that hour to this.
Whosoever enters into the sphere of that
Divine breath becomes "alive unto God;"
bis faith is invincible ; he comes to know that
which passes current experience. This was
tlie beginning of the supernatural life which
makes Christian consciousness unique among
religions experiences. From that hour tho
holy world and kingdom in which Christ
rules has been an objective fact. It lies
tkr beyond the ken of science, and cannot
find ttay^ plaea in • sensational philosophy,
because it is not a universal experience. It
will become so. The further revelations of
the Lord all contributed to create the con-
viction, and Pentecost sealed it to the world.
It is desirable to remember (of. Luke xxiv.
.33, etc.) that not merely the eleven apostles
received this Divine gift, but all the others
who had gathered together with them.
This circumstance must be held to govern
to some extent the solemn and mysterious
privilege wliich appears to follow the Divine
bestowment of the Holy Spirit. We cannot
divide the company into two parts, one of
which received the Holy Spirit, and the
other which did not receive him; one of
which became conscious of the Divine reality,
and the other not. The women who had
been the first witnesses and proolaimers of
the resurrection-life of the Lord could not
have been deprived of this sublime privilege.
To the little society of believers, before long
to swell to a company of a hundred and
twenty, was this great grace given, and to
the new fellowship of faith was the high
privilege vouchsafed; for he continued.
Whosesoever sins ye (remit) forgive, they
are forgiven ' unto them — absolutely forgiven
by Gk)d ; for who can forgive sins bnt God
only, and the Son of man who had and
exercised the power on earth to forgive sins ?
— and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are
retained. The history of the interpretation
of this remarkable passage is given at
length in Herzog's ' Real Enoycl.,' art.
" Sohlusselgewelt," by Stein. The patristic,
scholastic, Tridentine, Reformation doctrines
are very oarefuUy treated. The decrees of
the Council of Trent, session xvi. co. i. — vi.,
show that every form in which apostolio
custom, reformed theology, and modern
exegesis have solved the problem of their
meaning, was repudiated and anathematized
by the iChurch of Bome, and that the func-
tion of forgiving or retaining sin was re-
served for the priesthood alone, whether
in respect of venial or mortal sin (see
'Ecclesia: Chureh Problems considered in
a Series of Essays,' article by the present
writer " On Forgiveness and Absolution of
Sins "). It is impossible to sever this passage
from those passages in Matt. xvi. 19 where
Peter's confession of the Messiahship draws
forth from the Lord the extraordinary bene-
' 'ki^iavTai is read by X°, A, D, L, 1, 13,
124, and Fathers ; and is preferred by Tre-
gelles, Tischendorf (8th edit.), and Westcott
and Hort. 'hipiiVTat is read by T.R., R.T.,
with B», E, G, I, K, and many Fathers. N«
reads wpeB^fferai, with versions. 'A^fovrai if
placed Ijy Westcott and Hort in the margin.
Moulton translates, "They have been re-
mitted."
OH. XX. 1—31.] THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN.
470
diction and priTlIege, "Whatioerer thov
•halt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
and wliatgoeTei thon ahalt looie on earth
■hall be loosed in heaven." Lightfoot and
Schottgen have shown, by nnmeious quota-
tions from the Talmud, that the phrases
"bind" and "loose" are repeatedly used
by the rabbis to denote the declavation of
what is binding and what is immaterial in
ethic and religious life. Thus say they,
" The school of Hillel binds, the school of
Schammai looses or declares indifferent, this
or that regulation." We know that it was
given to Peter, by the conference upon him
of the powers of the Holy Ghost, to declare
the terms of admission and exclusion from
the kingdom of God. Thus Acts ii. 37—39 ;
iii. 19; v. 1—11; viu. 20—24 ; x. 34—48;
xi. 17 ; XV. 8, etc. Xow, we find James in
the same assembly proceeding still further
than Simon Peter (James, who was not even
one of the twelve disciples) ; and Paul re-
peatedly, in the Acts and in his Epistles,
declaring by Divine inspiration the duties,
the prinleges, the ideas, the redeeming
principles, of the kingdom of Ood, " binding
and loosing," in the full confidence that he
was the minister and mouthpiece of Jesus
Ciirist. This is not remarkable, because we
find that the identical privilege which was
in Matt. xvi. described as a privilege of
Peter is in Matt xviii. 15 — 19 conferred, not
merely on Peter, but on the whole Church,
and still more explicitly upon any two who
should agree as touching the forgiveness of
a brother, to ask the Father in heaven for
this great boon. This privilege is based on
the ground that " where two or three are
gathered together" in Ohrist's Name, there,
says he, " am I in the midst of them." If
the ofiending brother had refused all re-
pentance, uid neglected to hear the judgment
of the Church, this prayer cannot be urged.
Peter then seeks for further information,
" How oft shall my brother sin against ma,
and I forgive him? until, seven times?"
In answer to this question Christ reminded
Peter of the Father's boundless love, and
made it the pattern of buman forgiveness ;
and the whole question of the forgiveness
of injuries is shown to be closely associated
with tills binding and loosing power, this
anticipation, this discovery of the will of the
Father, this acquisition of the truth in
answer to earnest prayer. Prayer is, as we
have seen in numberless places, the rising
up of human desires into the very purposes
»nd grace of God, not a change wrought
by us in the mind and will of God — God
forbid that we should ever, to our confusion,
secure such a result as that t — but it is in
essence • change wrought by Gk>d in us,
helping us to say, " Thy will be done ! "
Let it be borne in mind that this privilege
of learning and uttering in enr prayers the
forgiving love of God, upon the conditioni
of repentance and faith and a forgiving
ipirit, is not confined to Peter, but con-
ferred on all the disciplet, nay, upon any ttet
of them who shoiUd agree to pray with the
•inning brother for forgiveness. This great
law of love, prayer, and forgiveness was doubt-
less given for all time. Our Lord, in this
repetition of a promise made on an earlier
occasion, omits all reference to the binding
in heaven of what ii bound on earth. Yet
he does not repeal the promise, but rather
specifies the occasions on which the disciples
would find that most frequently they would
have to exercise it. WhoBesoever tint ye, etc.
It is as much as to say — Announce boldly
remission of sins on conditions of faith and
repentance (Luke xxiv. 47) " to all nations, .
beginning at Jerusalem." Tour forgiveness
even of my murderers, your forgiveness of
Samaritans and publicans, of chief priests
and Pharisees, of Greeks and Jews, of those
that stone you and persecute you ; as well
as your announcement of the infinite com-
passion of God, shall be justified and rati-
fied in heaven. This has been the divinest
function of the Church and of the dis-
ciples of Christ ever since. There is no
case that we can find in the New Testament
in which the apostles as an order of men, or
the ministers of the Church as such, assumed
in any other way tlie power of personally
forgiving, in the stead of Gtod, the specific
sins of any individuals. We cannot here
trace the matter into the controversies that
have arisen as to the power of a specially
ordered ministry to absolve personally in-
dividual sinners from the consequences of
their sin against God. Spiritual communion
with Christ, personal reception from Christ
himself of his own Spirit, is the highest
guarantee of power to proclaim with emanci-
pating efiect the amnesty of love, or to utter
with subduing might the terrors of the
Lord.
Vers. 24— 29.— (5) The manifestation mad*
to anxioui tcepticism, with the blessing on
those wlio have not seen and yet have believed.
Ver. 24. — This revelation was of supreme
importance, and is the climax of the entire
Gospel. It is peculiar to John's narrative,
and throws light upon the very construc-
tion of the Gospel. It reveals the charac-
teristics of honest doubt, and indicates the
abundance of the evidence which was offered
to specific classes and conditions of mind
to help them believe that the Lord had
risen. The confession drawn from the heart
of this apostle is not only valuable ia
itself, but it reflects a new lustre on the
previous manifestation. Moreover, it it
cumulative in its argumentative force. The
must sceptical is the most enthusiastic of the
47«
THE GOSPEL ACCOKDINa TO ST. JOHN, [oh- »^»- 1—31.
twelre. Int Thomas, one of th« twelr* (•
t«i'm of deBignation foi the first group of the
tpostleB, and one which was not renounced,
although two of them w(-re absent. The
number "twelve" liad a symbolic and
historic Talue from its relation to the twelve
tribes, and we find (Acts i.) that the eleven
were anxious to fill up the vacant place left
by Judas), called Didymus (Greek for " twin,"
repeated here from cli. zi. 16, not simply to
imply that 'I'hoinas was best known by his
Greek name, but that there was a blending
in him of intense love and a fear whicli had
torment, a great ambition and yet exposure
to moods of despondency, a desire to treat
the whole manilestation of Christ as com-
plete, to believe that the words of the Lord
were all sublimely true, — coupled with a
ghastly doubt that all was a delusion, a
faculty of constructive faith and speculation,
of transcendental intuition side by side
witli an intense desire for sensible manifes-
tation, a grt ater belief in the Master than in
the disciples, but no unwillingness to accept
that which was sufflciently established).
Thomas was not vnth them when Jesus came.
We can never know why he was absent. He
was given to moody fear, and shrank into
solitude ; and doubtless in many ways and
words, as well as those recorded, had implied
the wreck of his hopes. Separated from the
fellowship of kindred spirits, he augmented
his gloom; he was fast tending to unbelief.
The state of his mind throughout the Pass-
over week may have been one reason why
the apostles delayed their return to Galilee.
They may have come frequently to him with
their sublime announcement, not once nor
twice only.
Ver. 25. — The other diioiples therefore said
unto him, We have seen the Lord. Mary,
Cleopas, Peter, John, had all tried to animate
his drooping spirit. But he said unto them,
Except I shall see in his hands (as I presume
you have) the print of the nails, and (yet
more than you huve done — touch as well as
see) put my finger into the print' of the
naila, and put my hand into his side, I will
by no means believe — not merely in the
Resurrection, which you attest, but in the
grand reality I was fain to admit so recently,
the supposed fact that he came from the
Father, that he is the Way to the Father,
that he is in the Father, that he is all he
said be wai. If Thomas could grasp the
■ Lachmann, Tischendoif (8th editX
TregL'lles (in margin), on the autnority of
A, I, Italic, Vulgate, Byriao, and Origen, read
nfiraK instead of Tivov. K actually reads
El's t})» x*'?"" outow. Tregelles, Westcott
&nd Hort, Alford, and the Revisers read
T uiro !>, wi^ T.B., Godet, etc. The alteration
r'ither wty ii equally probable.
new life, the new and hitherto tinievealed
order of being, if he could ipiritnally see the
realization of all the mystery of love iu the
Resurrection, then all that he was doubting
would flash forth at once from its hiding-
place. Perhaps, if he had been preienl
with the rest, he would have accepted it ;
but how can he " believe through theii
word " ? The extent of his doubt is further
seen La this : he did not say, " If I see the
print of the nails, ... I will believe;"
but, " Except I see, ... I will by no
means believe." The first manifestation of
our Lord seemed tooorrespDud with the first
portion of the Saviour's high-priestly prayer,
viz. that he might himself be glorified ; the
second manifestation of the day corre-
sponded with the prayer for the disciples ;
and now the third manifestation is to meet
the difiSculties of the third and more
numerous class, who must gather all their
conviction from the evidence of others. This
subtle relation between parts of the Gospel
shows how profound is the principle of its
construction.
Ver. 26.— And after eight days — i.e. after
the Passover week was over, during which
the disciples were pondering the new revela-
tions of the Easter Day, and becoming more
able to understand the meaning of a spiritual
presence — to understand what the real
" touching " of the risen Iiord meant — again
his disciples were within the same or a
similar abode referred to in ver. 19. Some
have urged that this manifestation occurred
in Galilee, whither the -disciples had been
directed to journey to receive the most con-
vincing proofs of his power and presence.
There is no evidence of this at all, and the
form of expression corresponds so closely
with the description of the conditions of tho
first meeting, that we cannot accept the sug-
gestion of Olshausen and others. Some
have urged that this is the beginning of
the celebration of the Resurrection-day—
the sanctifioation of the first day of the
week. Such a conplusion cannot be posi-
tively asserted. " Eight days " having fully
elapsed might bring them to the even-
ing of the second day of the second
week. The expression, "seven days," is
unquestionably used for a week in tlie Old
Testament, though Luke (ix. 28) seems to
use the expression, " about eight tlays," for
a well-known division of time, probably
" from sabbath to sabbath ; " and from the
Jewish way of reckoning the beginning of
a day on tlie sunset of the preceding day, ws
might reckon that, from the middle of the
first Sunday to the evening of the second,
the period would include parts of eight
days. There is nothing, therefore, to prevent
the calculation of parts of eight days from
the great events of Eaater Day a* a wholt
oa.xz.1— ai.] THE GOSPEL AOOORDINa TO ST. JOHK.
477
to the evening of the seeond Bnnday. And
though, w Meyer layt, there i« nothing
indicative of any consecration of the first
day of the week, it is obviously calculated
to explain the custom which so rapidly
sprang up in the Christian commnnity. Nor
ii it without interest that John, in the
Apocalypse, described himself as receiving
his first great vision on " the Lord's day,"
And Thomas was with them. He had not
broken with the disoiplei, even if he conid
not accept their unanimous testimony. He
was now, at least, sharing their excitement,
and perhaps their hope, and many in addi-
tion to the eleven disciples were striving to
realize with them the newcondition of things,
even their common relation to an invisible
and triumphant Lord. The Gtospel of
Matthew and the undisputed portion of
Mark xvi. describe no appearance to the
apoitla in Jerusalem, and consequently the
opponents of the Fourth Gospel have com-
mented on the apostles' cowardly flight from
Jerusalem, and on the unhistorio character
of the two appearances to ihem in the metro-
polis. The fact is that there is no indication
of flight in the synoptists, and the Fourth
Gospel throws light on the return to Galilee
in ch. xxi. (see Weiss, * Life of Jesus,' vol. iii.
403, 404). Matthew gives rather a summary
of the appearances of forty days (Acts i. 8),
in an event to which probably St. Paul refers
(1 Cor. XV. 6). When the doors had been shnt
(observe here and in ver. 19 the perfect pas-
sive participle), Jesus oometh, and stood in
the midst, and said (once more, as he saw
their natural perturbation ; for do not men
always shrink from manifestation of pure
spirit or spiritual body 7), Peace be unto yon
(see notes oh vers. 19, 20). . The repetition
of the appearance at a similar hour and
place confirmed and intensified their pre-
vious experience. If duubts had crept into
any minds, the rectification of the first
impreesion would be secured, and a Divine
joy once more surcharge their minds.
Ver. 27.— Then (tiro, not oiv, detTufs, Vul-
gate ; damaeh, Luther) laith he to Thomas,
as though he had read his heart and sounded
the depth of his complicated conflict between
hope and fear, despair and love, and more-
over intimating the fact that he had heard
his disciple's protestations, as well as mer-
cifully appreciated his genuine difScuIties,
and not unnatural hesitation. Beach hither
thy finger, that organ with which then
wouldest test the reality of my being. Do
what thou wilt Seel my hands; and as the
word was spoken he spread before his doubt-
ing, loving disciple those hands which were
Duled to the cursed tree, with all thfe signs
of his great agony upon them still. Thomas
had said that he must '* see," and that he
innst touoh — "lay his finger in the print of
the naili.*' Hera waa the Divine opportunity
for him, with more than one lenie, to assure
himself of the reality. And reach hither thy
hand (again the Lord quoted the very words
in which the incrednloosness of Thomaa had
been expressed), and put it into my ride.
He lays nothing of the print of the nails,
but ofien the lacred privilege to tlie doubt-
ful disciple. Thomas shall have the precise
evidence he craved. The most liesitating
of the entire gronp shall have the aid to his
faith which he fitncied indispensable in his
particular case. How often has the nn-
oeliever said, " If snoh or such evidence be
not granted to me, I cannot, I will not, I by
no means will believe " I Thus Gideon proved
the Lord's willingness to utilize his feeble
strength in delivering Israel from the
Midianites; and even Ahaz was sununoned
by Isaiah to choose any rign whatsoever in
heaven above or in the earth to prove the
indestractible vitality of the true seed of
Israel and real house of David. Conse-
quently, we cannot say with Bengel, " Si
Phariseeus ita dixisset, * nisi viiiero, eta.' nil
impetrasset sed disoipulo pridem probato nil
non datur." The Lord does sometimes offer
exactly what we ask by way of proof; but we
cannot know the precise effect it will pro-
duce, even when it is bestowed or when
something still more explicit is actually
provided for our weakness. Just as the
cruel taunts which malice heaped or hurled
on the name and work of our Divine Lord
became wreaths of glory far his brow, so the
cruel wounds which unbelief and bigoted
hatred of goodness had inflicted on Immanuel
became from that veiy hour the high, main,
indelible evidence of his supreme victory.
And becgme not (/lii yivov) what thou art in
danger of becoming — the Lord does not say
that Thomas i» — faithless, but that he runs
the risk of ultimately becoming so through
the dependence of his spirit upon the out-
ward (so Meyer, Lange, Westcott, eta) ; hut
be believing, faithful. It is impossible fully
to express the play upon these two words.
"Amr-ras is not 80 much a worthless, untrust-
worthy person, as one who lias settled down
into an abiding condition of unbelief; and
■xiaTos is not simply " believing," but " trust-
worthy," « trusty,''' and » trustful."
Ver. 28. — ' Iliomas answered and said to
him. Before, so far as we know, any ges-
ture or effort was made on his part to accept
the tests which had been so rashly demanded,
but so graciously offered. He already found
' The Kai is omitted, on the authority of
K, B, C, D, and other manuscripts, Vulgate,
and numerous patristic authorities, by Ti-
schendorf (8th edit.), Westcott and Hort,
B.T., etc., greatly to th* vividness aad diai*
matio force of the passaga.
473
THE GOSPEL ACOOEDHirO TO ST. JOHN. [<m. xx 1—31.
evidence which was for more effloacioni
than that which he in gross and sensuoua
fashion had thought indispensable for his
peculiarly constituted mind. Before doing
more than fill his hungry eyes with these
identifying signs of the Lord's actual ob-
jective presence, he did in reality touch his
Lord by other powers than finger or hand.
] le bounded from the depths of despondency
to the very top of faith, and he " answered "
— ^he responded to the proof he had already
received of the Lord's triumph over death,
and to the seal that had now been set upon
the Lord's own supreme and majestic claims,
by an adoring cry. Thomas " said to him."
Observe it is not hinted that he uttered a
vague and ejaculatory cry to the eternal
Father (as Theodore of Mupsuestia, modem
rationalists and Unitarians have repeatedly
urged — a epeculation which is wrecked on
the elirev airrtf). Thomas said to him, Uy
Lord and my God. This is the first time
that any of the disciples had ever drawn
this lofty conclusion of love and reason.
They had called him "the Son of God,"
" the Lord," as a Being of quite immeasur-
able claims ; and John, in the prologue, after
years of meditation, declared that " the
Logos which was God " and " with God,"
and the Creator of all things, and "the
Light and Life," had " become flesh," and
flashed forth " the glory of the only begotten
Son," even in his earthly life ; but it was re-
served for the most depressed and sceptical
mind of them all, the honest doubter, the
man who needed immediate and irresistible
evidence, infallible proofs, triumphant, in-
vincible demonstrations — it was reserved for
Thomas to say to hui, and to say unrebuked,
nncondemned, by the risen Lord, " My Lobd
AND MY God 1 " Herein is condensed into
one burning utterance from the worried
heart of humanity the slowly gathering con-
elusion which had been steaiUly inwrought
in the mind of his disciples by all the
teachings of tlie Saviour. It was at last
spontaneous and exultant. These words
are the climax of the entire Gospel. Every
narrative points on to this unchallenged
utterance. From the wedding at Cana to
the raising of Lazarus, from the testimony
of the Baptist to the awful tones of inter-
cessory prayer, every discourse, every miracle,
points on to this superlative conclusion, not
breathed in loving accents by the enthusi-
astic Mary, not sounded forth by the rook-
like apostle, not whispered in awestruck
alTeetion by the beloved disciple, bat wrung
from the broken heart of the man who had
said, "Let us go, that we may die with
kin;" of him who cried, "We know not
whither thou goest: how can we know the
way?" of him who had said, "Unless 1 see
the print of the nails, I will not believe."
It la not long before it Is aotorions that St.
Paul spoke of him as " God blessed for ever,"
called him the " Image of the invisible God,"
as endowed with " Oie Name that is above
every name," as " set down on the light hand
of the majesty on high ; " that the author of
the Epistle to the Hebrews called him the
" express Image of the Father's substance,"
and " the Efiulgience of the Father's glory."
The earliest testimonies of heathendom con-
fess that Christians sang hymns to Christ
as to God (Pliny, ' Letter to Trajan ') 1 but
this was the hour of the great confession;
this was the birth-cry of Christendom;
this was the epoch-making scene, which
guided the pen of John &om the prologue
to the close of the Gospel. Thus Thomas
doubted that the Church might believe.
Thomas did indeed die with his Master,
that he might lead a multitude of the dead
&om their hopelessness and unrest to the
resurrection-life. He received a full and
all-sufScing evidence of the supernatural
and Divine life, and eighteen hundred year*
of faith have blessed God for the victory
which Thomas gained over his despond-
ency, and for the climacteric force with
which Bt. John tells us of it.
Yer. 29. — Jesus saith to him, Beoause thou
hast seen me thou hast believed.' Our Lord
does not bid him rise, nor say, as the angel
did to John in the Apocalypse, " Worship
God ; " nor did he reject the homage which
is here so grandly paid ; but he describes
this very state of mind which induced the
disciple to say, " My Lord and my God 1 " aj
that high, holy acquisition which through-
out his ministry he had treated as the main,
prime condition of aU spiritual blessings.
"Thou hast believed," said he, "and be-
cause thou hast seen me ; thou hast become
a believer in all that I am, beoause then
hast received this crowning proof of the
reality of my victory over death." There
are critics or scholars (Lachmann, Meyer,
Ewald, etc.), who treat the expression as an
interrogative: Because thou hast teen me,
hast thou heilieved (art thou now a believing
manf); and the Bevisers have placed this
punctuation in tt,eir margin. A few cur-
sives thus point the words, but it is impro-
bable, for it would seem, even still, to have
suggested a doubt or question in the mind
of Gie Lord touching the reality of the
apostle's faith. Moreover, the obvious con-
trast between those who have seen and those
who saw not would be obscured by the
punctuation. Observe that Christ did not
' All the uncials and a hundred and fiity
cursive manuscripts omit the eu/ia of T.B.
and numerous versions and quotations. It
is rejected by most of the modem editoif
since Griubach and Sobolf.
. XX. 1— 8L] THE OOSFKL ACCOBDINa TO ST. JOHN.
471
ny, " Became thoa hut touched me, thou
hast believed." The vision alone brought
the apostle back to that high tension of
faith which he, with others, had reached on
the night of the Passion (see ch. xvi. 30 —
32, and notes). All the tide of overmaster-
ing love surged up within him. But the
condition of multitudes was even then less
privileged than that of Thomas. It could
not be a part of the conduct of the kingdom
of God that each separate soul should have
■11 the elements of conviction which the
apostles had enjoyed, all the vision and all
the inspiration of the chosen prophets of the
Lord. There may and loill come a time
when " every eye shall see him " as Thomas
taw him, when all shall have the function
and powers, equal faculties and opportunity,
of seeing him. In the Apocalypse the
evangelist, at the very commencement of
his visions, saw for himself all the mystery
and the certainty of this crowning victory.
Meanwhile faith apon testimony, faith in
reality through the power of truth, is declared
to be the law of tlie kingdom, and the
great beatitude which Christ left as his latest
legacy is. Blessed (are) they who saw not,
and believed. Of whom is he speaking?
Clearly not of those who had already re-
ceived the same advantage which Thomas
had now enjoyed so tardily I The apostles,
at first, did not accept the testimony of the
women, nor the voices and mesBages of
angels, nor the objective fact of the deserted
grave. John rebuked himself for not know-
ing that the Christ must rise from the dead,
whether he should have personal ocular
evidence of it or not ; and he blamed him-
self for not believing throughout the earthly
ministry of Christ tliat " the Holy One could
not see corruption." Still, the fact was
patent, that not until the disciples saw the
Lord were they glad. Even in their glad-
ness there was the mingling of surprise and
incredulousness. To whom, then, did the
blessedness apply? Surely, first of all to
the multitudes of loving, waiting souls, who
were prepared by their reverence and the
new life given to them, and by the bewilder-
ing rumours of the Easter week, to bellove
in the Divine necessity of the Resurrection.
Christ told the disciples, on their way to
Emmaus, that they were foolish and dull of
heart in not accepting all that the prophets
had spoken. Before the final assurance
Kiven by their identification of his Person,
ne persuaded them to accept his statements,
and believe in all that he uat, including
the fact of his resuireotion. Whether they
should ever have more convincing evidence
or not, they were bound to believe that the
suffering Messiah was, in the very nature
of things, and by Divine necessity, Victor
»f death, i^d must see the travail of his
BouL This does bnt repeat the same id**,
" Blessed are they who saw not as Thomas
and the other disciples were at this moment
doing, and yet believed." But the beati-
tude includes the whole future of the
Church. " Whom having not seen, ye love ;
in whom, though now ye see him not, yet be-
lieving, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and
full of glory." So said St. Peter to the
widely scattered Church. The Lord does not
sever the link between external facts and
spiiitual principles, and thug propound a
group of subjective conceptions for a series of
objective realities (as Baur and others have
urged) ; but he does pronounce a great be-
nediction on those who can rise to faith in
himself through the word which he has
spoken, and which his apostles would con-
tinue to proclaim without intervention of
physical contact or visible manifestation.
" If Christ be not risen, then is your faith
vain; ye are yet in your sins." These
words are charged with the grounds of
conviction for others. Instead of the first
disciples being disposed to transform hallu-
oinatiims of spiritual manifestation into
tangible and visible objective facts, they
appear to have been more prone and tempted
to transform some utterly indisputable facts
into spiritual phenomena. There were objec-
tive facts, but every attempt which has been
made to discredit the Besurrection while
admitting these facts has utterly broken
down. Even if the narratives of the four
Gospels, with their divergent representation,
be left out of sight, nothing can be more cer-
tain than that, in the space of a quarter of a
century, the Churches of Christ in Antioch,
Corinth, Philippi, Borne, Ephesus, and An-
cyra were existing, and held, without doubt
or question, the objective fact. Paul (I Cor.
XV. 1 — 11) simply recounts, not for the
first time, but as a reswmf of long-since-
delivered instruction, the indubitable fact
of the Besurrection. It was not an incredi-
ble thing, even to Agrippa, that God should
laiae the dead; noi need it be so now to
any one who accepts as true Christ's account
of the Father. The creation of tlie Church
unquestionably turns on the settled convic-
tion of the first disciples that Jesus rose
from the dead. That conviction cannot be
accounted for independently of the fact.
Every attempt to explain it apart from the
fact itself has hitherto been wrecked.
Vers. 30, 31.— (6) The eotuHusion of the
argument of the Oospd. Controversy hat
prevailed from the days of Chrysostom to
our own, as to whether these verses are the
summary and conclusion of the Gospel as a
whole, or have special reference to the record
only of the appearances of Jesus after hi;
MO
THE GOSPEL AOOOBDING TO ST. JOHN, [oh, xx. 1— 8L
tMnrrectioii. It cannot be doubted that ai
St. John Bnmg up in oh. xii. the general
teaching of OhriBt and its effect upon the
people, to the teimination of hia public
ministry, eo at the close of this chapter,
before recording the special bearing of the
resurrection-life and spiritual power of Christ
on the subsequent condition of the Church
— a narrative of peculiar interest in itself,
corresponding with the prologue of the
entire narrative — ^he gathers up the general
lignificance of his Gospel and its relation
to other books.
Ver. 30.— Many other signs therefore did
Jesus also in the presence of the ' disciples,
which are not written in this book. The
"many "and "other" refer to those signs
with which his readers may be familiar
from other sources, and, as it seems to us,
in other (iSi|8A/a) books. We have seen
throughout how thoroughly alive the
evangelist is to the minutest details of the
synoptic narrative. The word "many"
seems most accurately to include more than
the few appearances after his resurrection
wliich are not mentioned by John, but
whioli are recorded by the synoptists, and
the "other" refers most probably to signs of
a different class from those which he has
selected. The "signs" written in this
book are those central facts which formed
the theme and starting-points of his dis-
courses. "Signs" do not necessarily mean
miraculous works (epya), but all "indica-
tions" or "tokens" of his higher nature
and Divine commission, such as his appear-
ance in the synagogue of Nazareth; the
cleansing of the temple, which had so
powerfully affected the mind of Nicodemug;
the repeated assertion of his pre-existence
and eternal glory; the feeling of ilie
ofttcers of the Sanhedrin, that " never man
spake like this Man ; " the effect produced
by his lofty claims to be "Lord of the
sabbath " and " greater than the temple ; "
the arrogation of power V forgive sins;
' The auToC of the T.B. is rejected here
by Tische^dirf (8th edit.) and R.T., on the
authority of N, B, E, K, S, A, Syriac, etc.,
though venr formidable authorities are
quoted on the side of its retention — X*, 0,
D, G, H, etc., Yulgate, Coptic, Armenian,
2Sthiopic, and numerous quotations. West-
oott and Hort place it in the margin.
the discomfiture of the depntation firom
chief priests and elders; the collapse of the
Roman soldiers; and all other proofs of
his supreme authority. All these oij/tcTa
were not indispensably connected with
corresponding Tipdra. "Before the dis-
ciples" suggests a special limitation and
condition which took powerful hold upon
the mind of the evangelist We hear in
one passage that " he could do no mighty
works, because of their unbelief." To pre-
pared minds he came with his spiritual
revelations and special suggestions of
heavenly origin. John sees the memories
passing before him, which have already
formed the heritage of the Church, and is
reminded of "many others" which have
never found a chronicler.
Ver. 31. — But, says he, these are written
with a special purpose. The author did
not intend to write a full history or a
detailed biography; he avowed having made
a unique and well-considered selection of
"signs," which formed the theme of great
discourse, of "words" which revealed the
inner depths of that wondrous nature, and
which, far from exhausting the theme, only
touched its fringes ; and he did this with a
distinct aim, in order that ye (he here
addresses the Churches already founded
and waiting for his legacy) might believe.
Believe what? simply in the fact of the
Besurrection ? Certaiidy not ; but that Jesus,
the Man whose life has been enacted on
this human stage, is the Christ, has fulfilled
the entire idea of the Messiah and is now the
realization of the grandest theocratic hope;
and further, that he is the " Christ," because
he is none other than the Son of God, the
Revelation of the Divine nature, the Image
of the Father's substance, the Effluence of
his glory, seeing that his is the glory of the
Only Begotten of the Father. Nor is this all.
He adds. And that believing in this glory,
in this reality, in this Christhood, in this
Sonship, ye might have life, the blessedness
of true being, the sacred fellowship with the
Eternal, the hold upon for eveb, the sanctity
of " the life " that is " light," the everlasting
life of the sons of God. The prologue here
finds its true and efficient complement.
The purpose now betrayed expounds the
structure of the Gospel as a whole. Tlie
apostle claims kinship with the central
apostolate. The Hebrew prophet does not
disdain his true kindred. The evangelist
does not disclaim his predecessors. The
lover of souls discloses his lofty passiou.
H0MILETIC8.
V«n. 1 — 10. — 3%« Seturrection : Peter and JoKn at the ttpvilchre. We approach an
erent which bespe«k» a new life for Christ and a new life for man.
OH. rs. 1— 31.> THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING] TO ST. JOHN, 481
L It 18 A WOMAN WHO IB FIB8T AT THE TOMB ON THE ReBUEBECTION MOBN. " The
first day of the week oometh Mary Magdalene early, wlien it was yet dark, unto the
sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre." 1. She evidently tuas
not alone during the whole scene, but she seems to have reached the sepulchre before
the other women of her compaay (Matt, xxviii. 1). " Certain women of our company
were early at the sepulchre " (Luke xxiv. 22, 23). 2. Mari/'s purpose was to embalm
the hody of Jesus. This implied that she had no more expectation than the apostles of
his approaching resurrection. 3. It was an act of great courage to go in the darkness
and to confront, if necessary, the ntde watchmen, i. It is suggestive of the loyalty of
women to Jesus that " woman was last at the cross, and first at the tomb." 5. Her
discovery of the empty tomb was the first indication of a fact which is the most fundor-
mxnUd in Christianity.
n. The visit of Pxteb and John to the SEPDiiOHBE. 1. Mary ran in breathless
haste to acquaint the two disciples with her discovery. " So they both ran together : and
the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And he stooping
down, and lookifig in, saw the linen clothes lying ; yet went he not in." 2. John, as the
younger man, outran Peter, but the eager haste of both disciples indicated their amaze-
ment, their curiosity, their expectation. 3. The hesitating look of John, as he stooped
down but did not enter the tomb, bespeaks the awe of his deeply contemplative spirit.
4. ITie alacrity with which Peter entered the tomb wOhout a pause, and descried the
empty dothes, is characteristic of the impulsive and eager son of Jonas. 6. Both disciples
believed, as the effect of their visit to the sepulchre. Tet there was an evident unreadiness
on their part to believe in Christ's resurrection. "For as yet they knew not the
Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead." The condition in which they found
the clothes would suggest that the body had not been taken away by enemies. It was
still less probable that friends had carried it away. 6. The two (jostles left the tomb
convinced that the Lord had risen, but still, no doubt, unable to fathom the mystery that
underlay the transaction. " Then the disciples went away agtun unto their own home ''
— one at least believing, the other meditating deeply, but awaiting the first personal
Interview with Jesus which dissipates all his doubts.
Vers. 11 — 18. — Mary Magdalene the first herald of the risen Lord. The two apostles
withdrew, but Mary remained at the tomb. " A stronger affection riveted to the spot
one of a weaker nature " (Augustine).
I. Mart's love to hbb Lobd. It was manifested : 1. By her persistent watching
of the tomb. 2. By her passionate weeping. 3. By her anxiety to discover some tract
of her Lord. " She stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre." Her love is as
strong as death.
II. The succEssFDii besult of heb love. 1. She first comes into communication
with the two angels in the sepulchre. They may have suggested by the direction of
their looks that Jesus was near- at hand. 2. She next sees Jesus, but does not know him.
(1) Death had wrought a change upon him : he appeared iy Mp^ /"ip^Vt " ^^ ^ different
shape " (Mark xvi. 12). Yet the voice was altogether unchanged, as we infer from her
instant recognition of her Lord after he had addressed her by name. " Woman, why
weepestthou? whom seekest thou ? " (2) Her persistent love through all her uncer-
tainties. She asks "the gardener" to say where he has laid him, that she may take
liim away. 3. Her glad recognition of her loving Lord, /' She turned herself, and saith
to him, Rabboni ; which is to say, Master." The sound of her name repeated by those
loving lips ended all doubt better than the words of a more common interest, " Woman."
III. Our Lobd's check to heb passionate abdoub. " Touch me not ; for I am
not yet ascended to my Father." 1. Perhaps she had thrown herself down at his feet,
and had attempted to clasp them in her enthusiastic devotion. 2. His words imply that
the old forms of familiar intercourse were past. He had entered upon a new mode of
existence. 3. They imply that he could not renew the He that death had severed till h»
had aecended on high. His ascension would be the condition of a new union fraught
with all blessing and consolation. 4. It is better to know Jesus in his glorified hummniig
than (• " know him after the flesh." The Roman theology sees him as a babe in his
mother'e arms or as the Crucified One ; but true theology must behold him ta the Hgkt
of hte KBorreotion ae w«U m hit death.
ll
482 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xx. 1—31.
IV. OuB Lord's message to thb apostles. "Go to my brethren, and say to
them, I ascend to my Father, and your Father ; to my God, and your God." 1. A
woman is honowed as making the first communication between Jesus and his apostles.
2. ITie name hy which omr Lord describes them. "My brethren" marks the new
relationship into which they are introduced by his resurrection. (1) They were his
servants, his friends, his children, before his death ; they are now his brethren, according
to ancient prophecy : " I will declare thy Name unto my brethren." (2) His exaltation
has wrought no change in his affection to them. They are still the objects of hia
unchangeable love. 3. His ascension to heaven was Just at hand. (1) The apostles
were to understand that his resurrection was the beginning of his ascension. (2) The
Ascension was to place the apostles before God exactly in the same position as he was
himself, (a) Jesus marks the distinction that existed between himself and his apostlea
in their relation to God. God is Father of Christ by nature, of men by grace. His
Sonship is not their sonship. (b) Jesus, in calling God " his God," does not disclaim
Deity, for it is in his perfect humanity that he sees the Father as his God.
V. Maby ruLFiLS HEE OLAD ERRAND. "Mary Magdalene came and told the
disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her."
Her story would cause (1) surprise, (2) gladness, and (3) hope in the mifida of th«
disciples.
Vers. 19 — 23. — The first appearance of Jesus to his disciples. He meets with them
oil the evening of the day on which he rose from the dead.
L The disciples were oathbrbd toqbther tor the memobabu! ihtebview.
1. Mary's message had evidently brought them together. 2. Their new hopefulness must
have inclined them to resume their old collective life. 3. The meeting-place may have
been in " the upper room." (Acts i. 13.) 4. It was a secret assembly, for the doors were
shut " for fear of the Jews." The rumours of our Lord's resurrection, going abroad
among the Jews on that eventful day, suggested the possibility or the fear of an attack
upon the disciples.
II. The appeabance of Jesus to his disciples. " Jesus came and stood in the
midst, and saith to them. Peace be unto you!" 1. Eis appearance, while the doors were
shut, showed that he was not now subject to ihe old conditions of material existence.
J. His first words are the blessedly familiar words of his last address on the night pre-
ceding his death. They suggest (1) more than the usual mode of Jewish salutation ;
(2) that he had by his death secured peace for them ; and (3) was now come to breathe
it into their souls. " He came and preached peace." 3. He gave them visible evidence of
his identity. "And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side."
(1) He satisfies their senses. It was essentially necessary that the first disciples should
be convinced of the fact of his resurrection. (2) His act implies that we are not
entitled to disregard the evidence of our senses. Therefore we are justified in rejecting
the Romish doctrine of transubstantiation : it is quite opposed to the evidence of the
senses. 4. The effect of this evidence. " Then were the disciples glad, when they saw
the Lord." (1) Their terror is changed into joy. (2) At first " they believed not for joy "
(Luke xxiv. 41). But now it is the joy of settled conviction. (3) There was in thair
joy all the latitude of the largest hopes that could gather round the Person of their Lord.
III. OuB Lord's renewal to his disciples op his original commission. " Peace
be unto you : as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." 1. He assures them oj
peace in connection with their future apostolic labours. The peace of reconciliation which
they -are to carry to the world must have its reflex in their own hearts. 2. He confers
on them the office of ministry as the effect of his death. 3. After conferring the office, he
tonveys the gift. " And when be had said this, he breathed on them, and saith to them,
Receive ye the Holy Spirit. Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them ;
and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." (1) This bestowal of the Holy Spirit
was an earnest of the fuller Pentecostal effusion. (2) The gifts of the Spirit emanate
from the Son as well as the Father. (3) The powers of remission and retaining sin do
not warrant the Roman claim of absolution in the hands of a priesthood, for the follow-
ing reasons, (a) The powers here given are not given to the apostles only, but to the
whole body of the disomies (Luke xxiv. 33), (6) The Old Testament priests had no
povw of absolution. They made atonement for sin through sacrifice, but they never
oa. XX. 1—31] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 4^3
absolTed. (e) The powers here given are similar to those glTen to Peter (Matt ztL U)t
which refer to absoiution from Church censure*.
Vera. 24 — 29. — The itcond appearatice to the diidplt*. There was one member of
the apostolic band still in doubt and darkness.
L ThB ABSENOB of ThOUAB FROU TBE FtBST INTEBVIEW WITH THX LOBD. "But
Thomas, one of the twelve, caUed Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came."
1. The character of this disciple, as already made krunim, left him open to profound dis-
couragement at the death of Christ. " Let us also go, that we may die with him " (oh.
xi. 16). 2. His temperament would incline him to Uwait in solitude the solution of the
mystery of the Passion of Christ. 3. His absence from the first meeting might have cost
him dear, evt» the loss of his faith, hut for Ohrisfs mercy. We know not what we lose
by absenting ourselves from the fellowship of Christ's friends.
11. Thomas's obstinate cnbelibf. "When therefore the other disciples said to
him. We have seen the Lord, he said unto them. Except I shall see in his hands^the print
of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." 1. Mark the deep
interest of the disciples in their scy>tical colleague. They were eager to impart to him
the gladness of their own satisfied faith. 2. Thomas carries his faith at his fingers'
ends, as if he could not believe in a fact amply established by the testimony of worthy
brethren. The death of Christ in all its details had made an impression upon his mind
so deep that he could not entertain the possibility of life returning to his Lord's body.
IIL OuB Lobd's cokdescensioh to Thomas's unbelief. "Then saith he to
Thomas, Beach hither thy fingers, and behold my hands ; and reach hither thy hand,
and thrust it into my side : and be not faithless, but believing." 1. This interview
occurred a week after the first. The disciples did not leave Jerusalem for Galilee till
Thomas's scruples were overcome. They could not think of abandoning him to his
unreasonable unbelief. 2. It was the urgency of the disciples which, no doubt, secured
the pretence of Thomas on this occasion. 3. Our Lord offered to Thomas ail the evidence
lie has been demanding for eight days. (1) How wonderfully Jesus bears with oiu:
weakness 1 (2) How ready he is to minister to our strength I
IV. The conviction op Thomas. " Thomas answered aiid said unto him, My Lord
and my God I " This exclamation implied : 1. The instant dispersion of all his doubts.
2. The rapture of a holy admiration. 3. An act of sincere adoration. Thomas saw in
Jesus supreme Deity. It cannot be maintained that it was a mere exclamation addressed
to God rather than Christ. (1) Because it was spoken to Jesus. " He said to him."
(2) The words, " my Lord," undoubtedly restrict the cry to Jesus. (&) Our Lord does
not censure or repress the exclamation, like the apocalyptic angel, who says to John,
" Worship God." He answers, on the contrary, " Thou hast believed."
V. OuE Lord's peoclamation of the hiohbr blessedness. " Jesus saith to him.
Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed ; blessed are they that have not seen,
and yet have believed." 1. It is natural for us to suppose that it would have been an
advantage to us to have seen Christ in the flesh. It was not so, however, to the Jews,
who saw him in the circumstances of his earthly humiliation. 2. Even those believers
who saw him in the flesh had to get beyond the evidence of the senses to see his Godhead
and authority. It was not this evidence that convinced Thomas. Eyesight showed
him only a wounded man, but something more was needed to enable him to see Christ
as Lord and God. 3. Our Lord's rebuke of Thomas marks his consideration for the
Church of all ages. He seems to say to him, " Ton think you were doing a right thing
in remaining unconvinced till you could receive the fullest evidence of the senses ; but
what is to become of future generations if the same evidence is to be demandeid by
them ? AH future believers must accept the fact of my resurrection upon your testi-
mony." 4. The higher blessedness is ours ; for we can act in the terms of that fitith
which " is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen " (Heb.
rL 1). We are to « walk by faith, not by sight " (2 Cor. v. 7).
Ters. 80, 31. — The dose of the evangelisi^s narrative. It has an abrupt termination.
The Gkispel began with an assertion of Clirist's Deity ; it ends with a confession of Um
same blessed doctrine.
I. Ths ■TAxaKiiifi'B method or wbitino his xABBATnra. "And man/ other
434 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN, [oh.xx.1— 31
signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this
book." 1. These words imply the existence of the other Gospels, with their fuller nar-
ratives of miracle. He thus ratifies the contents of those Gospels. 2. The miradet
were wrought in presence of the discipUe, because they were to be our Lord's witnesses
to the world.
II. The aim or the kvanoblist. " But these are written, that ye might believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through
his Name." 1. It is a blessed secwrityfor the faith of the Ohwrch of all ages that the
gospel was written, and' not left to the tmcertainties of traditional recollection. 2. The
object of Scripture is to minister to faith. " Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by
the Word of God." This faith has : (1) As its immediate object the proposition that
" Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God." (2) As its ultimate design salvation : " That
believing ye might have life through his Name." (a) Faith is a fundamental necessity
In Christianity. (6) It brings life to the soul. " The life I now live in the flesh, I live
by the faith of the Son of God " (Gal. iL 20). This life is " through his Name." He
is our Life, and he gives life.
HOMILIBS BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Ver. 9. — The ignorance which evidence dispelled. I. It was thb Dtvinb fdbfoss
THAT Jesus should bisb fkom the dead. Nothing in the ministry of our Lord was
unforeseen and accidental. The closing scenes of that ministry were evidently fore-
appointed. The expressions " must " and " must needs " occur frequently in connection
with these marvellous and memorable events. They are parts of the plan arranged by
Infinite Wisdom.
IL The Divine purpose that the Christ should rise raoM the dead had been
HINTED IN Old Testament Sobiptubb. The text seems to refer to one passage of
Holy Writ especially. This may be Ps. xvi. 10 — a passage quoted by St. Peter (Acts iL
24) and by St. Paul (Acts xiii. 35) as finding fulfilment in the raising of the Redeemer
from the grave. There are other passages in the Old Testament which have their full
meaning brought out in the light of the same glorious event. But the light of fulfil-
ment is in these cases needed, in order that we may read the predictive meaning in the
words of psalmist and of prophet. It is not to be wondered at that disciples of Christ
failed to understand the reference of some Old Testament passages to. the Messiah. But
the reference was there — after the event itself to be brought out in clearness and beauty.
III. Jesus had on several ocoasionb roBETOLD his ebsubbbction in the EEASiNa
OF HIS disciples. Early in his ministry he had spoken of the temple of his body, as
to be taken down and to be reared again in three days. He had predicted his resur-
rection by representing Jonah's history as a type of what should happen to himself^
Towards the close of his ministry, before and after his transfiguration, Jesus had, on
three several occasions, declared beforehand to his apostles what was about to occur —
how he was to be betrayed, condemned, and crucified, and on the third day to rise
again fi-om the dead. It is surprising that so faint an impression should have been
made upon their minds by these communications. They seem to have been so absorbed
by their own expectations that they did not really receive his express teaching.
IV. OuB Lobd's resurrection was not expected by his own disciples. We can-
not but admire the candour with which the apostles acknowledged their own failings.
There is in this language a confession of ignorance and of a lack of sympathy with the
purposes of their Lord. John, the most likely of all to seize the spiritual meaning of
Christ's words, admits that he had not until this time had any expectation that his
Master would die and then rise again. Mary wept because she regarded her Lord as
for ever lost to her. The two who walked to Emmaus were distressed and downcast
because of Jesus' death. Thomas would not believe that Jesus had risen. It if.
remarkable that, whilst the disciples forgot, or failed to believe, what their Lord had
said, the priests and rulers who had put him to death remembered the words attributed
to him, mi guarded, m they thought, against any attempt on the part of his followers
to remove hi* body, and so to give colour to a report of his resurrection. They looked
•eolly at the facts ; the friends of Jesus were blinded by overwhelming emotion I
T. Tax BELixT which ths dibciflbb OAitB TO ohkbibh m THB Lobd's bbbubbbotioi
ea. XX. 1— SI.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 485
WAS THEREFOBK ALL THK UOBB AN EVIDENOB OF ITS BEALITT. It is Certain that the
twelve were not predisposed to believe in the rising from the deftd ; they could not
have invented such a story as some attribute to them because it was in harmony with
their expectations, for they expected nothing of the kind. Yet they did believe ; they
became heralds of the Resurrection. Every reader of the Book of the Acts knows that
it was upon this that they based all their teaching, all their appeals and admonitions.
They preached a risen Saviour. What plain and powerful evidence there must have
been to overcome their doubts, to reverse the current of their thoughts and feelings !
John began to believe, even on the morning of the Resurrection, when he saw the grave
empty ; and all he heard that day, and the appearance he witnessed in the evening,
confirmed his faith. If the doubts of the disciples were gloomy and depressing, those
doubts were certainly dispelled. Their faith was all the stronger because of the unbelief
it contended with and vanquished. Hence the life they led, the labours they under-
took, the persecution they braved, the martyrdom they accepted. To account for these
facts — aijiong the most wonderful in the world's history — we must receive the teaching
of our Gospels, that Jesus rose from the dead, turned his disciples' sorrow into joy, and
gave a new impulse to their life.
VI. This change of belief, on the past of the disciples, is full of spibitual
INBTKUOTION AND HELPFULNESS TO ALL WHO HEAB THE OOSPEL. 1. It COUflnnS OUr
faith in the veracity of Scripture. 2. And in the Deity of our Lord. 3. And in his
mediation. 4. It yields us a ground of acceptance with God, who gave his Son to die
for us, and who raised him from the dead that our faith and hope might be in God.
5. It encourages us to trust that it is well with our departed friends ; for their life on
high is part of the harvest of which the risen Redeemer was the Firstfruits. 6. It
justifies the bright hope of personal immortality. — T.
Vers. 11 — 18. — Sorrow and despondency exchanged /or Joy and service. Among the
wonderful events of the first Lord's day morning, the incident here recorded is remark-
able for pathos and beauty, and also for spiritual instruction and encouragement.
I. It was a dead and lost Chbist that caused Maby'b gbiep and dibuat.
The woman's attachment and devotion to the Saviour were unquestionable. She and
her companions seem to have been more faithful to Jesus even than the twelve.
"Who, while apostles shrank, could dangers brave ;
Last at bis croBS, and earliest at his grave."
To Mary Jesus was as a dead Friend. She shared the common grief of the disciples,
and their common anxiety during the interval between the Crucifixion and the Lord's
first appearance to his own. Love induced her to linger near the tomb, and thus
occasioned her interview with the angels and with the Master himself. No wonder
that she loved much ; she was indebted, she may well have thought, more than others
to the compassion of Christ, for she had been delivered from the power of demons, and
received into the favour and friendship of her Deliverer. And now to lose the Lord she
loved and on whom she leaned was- a trial to her faith, a grief to her heart ; and she
would fain care for the lifeles3*body of the slain One. Emblem of those who have not
found Christ ; of those who, having found, have then lost him ; of those to whom Christ,
alas! is as if dead, to whom he is no living reality, no near presence, no Divine power.
Yet it is better that sensitive and yearning souls should grieve over the distance between
the holy Saviour and themselves than that they should acquiesce — contented and indif-
ferent— ^in their privation.
II. It was a living Chbist that tuenbd Maby's sobrow into jot. Observe
that Jesus knew Mary before she recognized him. The language he used was intended
to draw out her best feelings. Very beautiful and touching was the way in which
Christ revealed himself to her heart, uttering simply the familiar name, dear from tha
hallowed intercourse of friendship. It was, perhaps, the name he had used in dispossess-
ing the demons, and its utterance must have awakened many a tender memory in her
heart. The living Christ thus, in a way truly human, revealed himself to his friend ia
one moment to banish her forebodings and assuage her grief. Her cry, " My Master I"
WM enaugh to reveal her gratitude and joy— her joy again to see him, her gratitude
tkat tit* ftppeuance and i»vel»tion were ta her. EmMw tff th«M kmI* to wnaia t»
m tas GOStBL A(XX)BD1NG TO St. JOHlJ. lam. xx. 1-51
their darkness and sadness, their scepticism and despondency — Christ appears in hii
own Divine dignity and human S3rmpathy, addressing them in language of compassion,
and gladdening them by the Tision of his risen form and his ^orified and gcadous
countenance.— T.
Ver. 17. — A message full of meaning. The risen Ohrigt was the link between Deity
and mankind. Standing beyond the tomb, yet below the clouds, he sent a message to
the disciples whom he was about to leave, concerning the Divine Father whom he was
about to join. How fitly, wisely, and tenderly did he communicate with them in these
words I
L DooTBiNis ooNOERNiKa Chbibt eiuself. 1. His hmnanity. He still calls the
apostles "my brethren," Although he has risen in glory, and is about to ascend In
majesty, " he is not ashamed to call them brethren." Having for men's sake passed
through sorrow and death, so far from forgetting what he has endured, he regards his
humiliation and sorrow as a bond of attachment uniting him to those whose experience
he has partaken. 2. His SonsMp. He says, " My Father." Though he has beea suffered
to drink the cup of bitterness, though he has uttered the cry of desolation, though his
body has lain in the earth, still his relation to Ood is the same as before his Passion.
In all he has freely done what was pleasing to God. Still and ever is he the beloved
Son, in whom the Father is well pleased. He is mighty as man's Bepresentative. The
Mediator and the Brother of mankind is the Son of God. 3. His subordination. He
says, "My God." On three occasions our Lord made use of this appellation — on the
cross, in this connection, and in Bev. iii. 12 from the throne of glory. Similar language
is often used of him by the apostles, who call the Eternal " the God and Father of our
Lord." It is not for us to understand all that our Saviour means when, in his humili-
ation and obedience and subjection, he declared, " My Father is greater than L"
n. DooTBiNE coKOERNiNa Chbistians. 1. They are brethren of the risen Saviour.
So he here expressly calls them, sending them at the same time a fraternal message. It
is a gracious word of cheer and encourairement to those who have been enduring sus-
pense, sorrow, and depression. 2. They have with Christ a community of relation with
God. What the infinite Father is to Christ, that — such is the unity between the Master
and the disciples — that is he also to the lowliest and the feeblest of Christ's inends
and followers. 3. In this community, however, there is a marked distinction. Jesus
does not say, " Our Father and God," as if there were equality between Jesus and his
disciples. In fact, God is Father of Christ according to the nature of the Godhead, of
Christians according to grace and adoption ; he is God of Christ so far as our Lord's
humanity is regarded, of Christians by the covenant relation he has instituted. 4. In
this community there is a mediatorial superiority on the one side, and a corresponding
dependence on the other. It is through Christ Jesus that the character, the disposition,
the gracious purposes of the Father are made known to us, and it is especially through
him that the Divine Fatherhood is declared ; and it is through Christ Jesus that the
relations in question are actually established and are constantly maintained.
Afflioatioh. This message, in the first instance addressed to the apostles, is left with
the whole Church of the Redeemer, that all Christ's people may not only know where
he has gone, but may realize the purpose of his going as far as they are concerned,
and may enjoy the assurance that his Father is their Father, and his God their Gbd. — T.
Vers. 10 — 23. — Uie first LorcFt day evening. The most wonderful and memorable
day in the world's history was drawing to a close. The sun, whose rising beams had
shone upon the empty tomb, the afi'righted guards, the anxious sorrowing women, had
now set.
I. The nabbative introduces us. to an akzioub oohfant. Ten apostles and
somf of their intimate friends and fellow-believers were gathered together, drawn by
a commimity of interest in their unseen Saviour. They had a common memory, a
common love, a common sorrow. They betook them to seclusion, both from fear lest
the wrath of their enemies might assail them, and from lack of sympathy outsida.
They were disappointed and perplexed. Yet there was inquiry, exoitement, wonder,
speculation, among them ; for the news brought by Simon, by tiie women, by iha iw
from Emmaas, awakened eager interest and most conflicting emotiooa.
ea. XX. 1—31.] THE GOSPEL AGCOfiDlNG TO ST. JOStf. ^1
TL The nabkativb relates the bntbanob or a' Divine Vibitob. Unexpected,
amazing, was the approach of the Master. Gracious was his greeting, welcome hii
familiar tones. He convinced them of his identity by exhibiting his wounds, and
proved his humanity by partaking of food. And though his coming was friendly, yet
he upbraided his disciples for their unbelief.
III. The nabbativb depiotb the common and sudden jot which possessed thi
BBOTHBBHOOD. (On this, see homily on ver. 20.)
IV. The nabbativb becobdb the bacbed commibbion with which Jebus how
entrusted his disciples. It must be borne in mind that these servants of Christ had
been for a long time closely associated with him, and had thus been prepared for their
life-work. So tremendous a trust as this would otherwise be unaccountable. 1. They
were to go among men as Christ's representatives, as those entrusted with Divine
authority, and they were to act as ambassadors for God. 2. Their special mission was
to declare to men who should receive their message and should truly repent, the abso-
lution and remission of sin: The purpose of Christ's coming was to secure paidon and
acceptance for sinful men ; and this purpose was to be fulfilled by means of the ministry
of the apostles and their successors.
V. The nabbativb mentions the special qualification bestowed upon those
BNTBUSTBD WITH THIS HIGH COMMISSION. The words of Christ, " Beceive ye the Holy
Spirit," were accompanied with the symbolic act of breathing upon them ; and both
denoted the reality of the Divine gift by which unlearned and feeble men were fitted
to fulfil a ministry of blessing to mankind. — T.
Ver. 20. — 2%e glad vision. The record of the apostles' emotion serves a purpose of
value. They saw his form, his hands, his feet, his side. They heard and recognized
his voice when he gave them his salutation of peace. Thus they were convinced of the
reality, the identity, of the risen Saviour. And their conviction led to their witness,
and thus to our faith.
L The BEABONS fob the aLADNESB which the disciples BXPEBIENOED when THEY
SAW THE Chbist. 1. The gloomy feelings of doubt and foreboding experienced by
them during many hours past now gave way to the contrasting emotions of relief,
satisfaction, and joy. The disciples had been disappointed and cast down by the blow
which fell upon them when their Lord was slain. Their hopes had been all but extin-
guished. They had been bewildered and sad. Now their suspense was at an end,
their fears were dispelled, their doubts were removed. The reaction was great. The
cloud which had overshadowed them had been black ; the more welcome was the burst
of sunshine which now illumined their hearts. 2. Their gladness was increased by the
resumption of Christ's fellowship and friendship. When they saw the Lord, and heard
his well-known and well-loved voice, they appreciated his forwardness to show his
interest and' affection. He was still their Friend, and they could not tell for what
period they might be permitted to enjoy his companionship and counseL 3. The dis-
ciples must have been growingly glad, as they gained through the Eesurrection a fuller
view of the Lord's nature, character, and office. They experienced the fulfilment of
Christ's words, " A little while, and ye shall see me ; " " On the third diiy I shall rise
again," etc. Their hope that he would prove to be the Messiah revived. Who must
this be wliora death itself is powerless to hold ?
II. The bboadeb beasonb fob cub gladness because of the bbsubbbotion of
Christ. 1. Our faith is thus confirmed in the Divinity and authority of our Saviour
himself. 2. As a consequence of this, our natural and distressing doubts concerning
the interest and benevolence of God are effectually removed. 3. A glorious aim in life
is thus presented before us ; the Church becomes the living witness to the Resurrection
and to the gospel, which is based upon this stupendous fact. 4. A welcome and sacred
light is thus cast upon the immortal prospects of Christ's people. They who saw him
after the Resurrection, and who had heard him say, " Where I am, ye shall be alio,"
could not but cherish the hope of a deathless fellowship with the Lord of life, who hM
the keys of death and of the unseen world. — ^T.
Ver. 21. — 17n mission of the Son and of the servants. A mission involves » gender,
the party to whom he sends, the sent one, «nd • commission to be fulfilled by the sent
488 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xx. 1—81.
on behalf of the Bender and for the benefit of those whom he visits. A religious mission
originates in God, is designed for the welfare of men, and is accomplished in the first
instance by the Son of God, and then by his ministers.
I. Thb mission on which Christ was sent bt the Fathee. 1. The origin of
this mission must be sought in the love and pity of the Father towards sinful men,
and in the condition of humanity which rendered a Divine interpositinn desirable. 2.
The condition of this mission was the incarnation and advent of the Son of God. 3.
The evidence and authentication of this mission are found in Christ's mighty works and
benevolent ministry on earth. 4. The completion of this mission was effected when
the Lord Jesus laid down his life for the shtep.
IL The mission on which Christian apostles and evangelists were sent bt
THEIR Lord. The twelve were, because thus sent, designated " apostles." There is no
reason to limit the mission to these ; it was shared by the evangelists who were asso-
ciated with them, and indeed by the whole Church of the Redeemer. 1. Apostolic
tonditions. These ae (1) sympathy with tlie mind of Christ; (2) compassion for the
world; (3) renunciaiion of selfish ends in life. 2. The apostolic spirit. This is pre-
eminently a spirit of dependence upon the gospel and upon the Spirit of Christ. 3.
Apostolic methods. (1) The proclamation of distinctively Christian truth ; (2) the
institution of Christian societies; (3) the continuous employment of the Christian
example, and the witness of the Christian life.
IIL The relation between the mission or Christ and that of his Ch0eoh. 1.
A relation of dependence. The mission of apostles and preachers would be impossible,
had it iiot been preceded by that of the Divine Lord himself The mission of the Son
made possible that of the servants. 2. A relation of similarity. Notwithstanding
the difference between Divinity and humanity, between the work of mediation and
that of publication, the mission of the followers is as that of the Leader. Li both
cases the work is God's, the authority is God's, the favour and assistance is God's, and
the end sought is God's. The recompense and the joy ensuing in both cases upon
success is one and the same. How honourable is the Christian calling ! how noble the
Christian aim I how sacred the Christian fellowship 1 how bright the Christian hope 1 — T.
Ver. 23. — The cry of faith and joy. li St. John begins hii Gospel with a clear and
full declaration of our Lord's Deity, he here towards its close gives his readers to under-
stand that his conviction was shared by others who, like himself had the advantage of
prolonged and continuous fellowship with Jesus.
I. The witness of this cry to the nature and adthoritt of Christ. 1. This
witness is all the more important, because (1) given after our Lord's resurrection from
the dead, when his ministry was completed, and when its impression was single and
perfect ; and (2) given by an incredulous apostle, whose unbelief was overcome by the
force of evidence, and whose conviction was accordingly the more valuable. 2. This
witness was full and explicit. "When Thomas cried, "My Lord and my God!" the
two aj'pellations were unquestionably addressed to one and the same Person, who stood
before him. The language constitutes a confession of our Lord's Divinity. This must
be acl nowledged, even by those who regard the nature of the union of the human and
Divin in Christ as matter of speculation, because un revealed. 3. This witness wai
accepted by the Saviour, who would certainly have rejected it had it been the utterance
of mistnken enthusiasm. Jesus, however, in reply to Thomas, said, "Thou haat
believed," meaning by this language, "believed the truth concerning me."
II. The witness of this cry to the APPKOPBiATiNa power of faith. 1. When
we cry, " My Lord and my God I " we imply that, to our apprehension, Christ has not
only given liimself /or us, but has given himself to us. He could not otherwise be ours.
The only claim we can have upon him is founded upon his own generosity and sacrifice.
2. If we have property in Christ, it follows that we feel towards him a spiritual vuk
kfTectionate attaclunent.
* Jesus, thon art my Lord and God,
I joy to call thee mine ;
Vor on thy head, though pieioed with fhoza%
I wa • oTown Divin* I "
•H. XX. 1-31.] THE GOSPEL AOOOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. 489
3. The appropriation by the Bonl of Christ himself is the appropriation of him in all hia
offices. In approaching the Saviour, the soul addresses him thus : " My Prophet I my
Priest I my King 1 " 4. When this exclamation is sincere, it is a confession that Christ
is an all-sufficient and an everlasting Portion. "Whom have I in heaven but thee?
and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee 1 " — ^T.
Ver. 29. — ITie hlessedneis of faith. This saying of Christ was not so much a reproach
directed against Thomas, as it was a comfort and benediction for the Church of the
future. The apostles had their advantages, in that they had personal intercourse with
Jesus. Yet we are not without our counterbalancing advantages, in that we can believe
in him whom we have not seen. Let Christ's faithful disciples and friends take to
themselves this consolation, and let them be assured that wise and benevolent pur-
poses are secured by the provision that they must walk, not by sight, but by faith.
L It is impossible fob all to bee ; it is possible fob all to believe. It seems
as if our Lord's ministry were itself an evidence of the difficulty of establishing a
universal religion by a living Lord in the body and accessible to all men's sight and
knowledge. It would have been, as far as we can see, physically impossible for men of
all lands and through all ages to have seen Jesus. His ministry was confined to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel ; and even in Palestine there must have been multi-
tudes who were never brought into contact with him, who never knew him. Whereas the
spiritual dispensation permits of disciples being gathered to Christ from every country,
and through all the centuries, all of whom can fulfil the required conditions of faith.
n. It is unnecessary fob all to bee ; it is mecesbabt fob all to believe. It
was indeed needful that some should see. Our Lord's personal friends and attendants
saw and heard him, and had the opportunity of knowing him as he was in his humilia-
tion and ministry. But when their ears had heard, their eyes seen, their hands handled,
the Word of life, they were competent to testify of him whom they had come to
know BO well. Then the testimony of the few was sufficient to convince many. The
sight of some was the means, the preparation, for an end, and that end was the faith of
all. lu order that men may enjoy the favour of God and may participate in the Divine
nature and life, it is indispensably necessary that they believe the gospel, and exercise
faith in Christ. Sight may be dispensed with, but not. faith.
III. It is inexpedient and undesirable fob all to see ; rr is expedient and
desirable fob all to believe. We know that it is possible for men to see Jesus, and
not to believe. The Jews saw our Lord and his miracles, yet many of them were none
the better fur the sight. There is danger lest sight should end in itself, lest men should
be satislird when their curiosity is gratified. But the ends of the Christian religion
are secured through faith. The higher life of the spirit is by this means secured.
IV. It is well to see and to believe ; it is better to believe without beeino.
Those who see and believe may indeed be happy j but they are happier still who accept
testimony, who exercise spiritual intuition, who gain experience which itself confirms
their faith. This happiness is not — as is sometimes supposed — the happiness of ignor-
ance. It consists in submission to the Divine plan and appointment, in the pure
jpiiituality of the process of religious experience, in the harmony which exists between
!;he foundation and the superstructure of the new life, and in the prospect which
mimates the heart of those who look forward to that bright vision of the future — the
seeing the Saviour as he is. — T.
Ver. 31. — Scripture, faith, and life. To judge aright of any book, it is necessary to
take into consideration the purpose of the writer.
" In every work regard the author's end.
For none can compass more than they intend."
If we wish to understand this treatise, the so-called Gospel of John, we shall act wisely
to consult the treatise itself, and learn what its author had in view as his purpose in
preparing and publishing it. It has often been treated as if it were something very
different from what it actually professes to be. Happily, in this verse we have clear
information as to the design which the writer set before hkn in composing his narratira
and record.
490 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xx. 1—81.
I. The wbiteb'b bkoobd. Many of the works of Jesus were not written in this short
treatise ; " but these," says John, " are written." 1. This is a record oifaeti, and not
of " cunningly devised fables ; " of events which actually took place, and of words which
were really spoken. This Gospel contains neither falsehoods nor fictions; nor 18 it a
dramatic or poetical composition wrought by the force and delicacy of imagination. 2.
This is • record of facts in themselves so important as to be worthy of being held in
memory. They are the events which occurred in no ordinary life, but in a life distin-
guished from all other lives by its commencement, by its close, and by very many
circumstances in its course. In this passage the writer speaks of some of the chiefs
events which he records as "signs." This is a designation of miracles, and it is
observable that John relates at length about ten miracles performed by the Lord Jesus.
But the word especially refers to the signification, the moral meaning, of Christ's mighty
works ; to the revelation they afi'ord of his character, his Divine mission, his intentions
of grace towards mankind. The reference is not only to our Lord's appearances after
his resurrection, but to the whole manifestation of himself throughout his earthly
career. 3. This is a record of facts to which the writer bears his own personal witness.
What is set down is not so set down upon " hearsay evidence." John himself saw Jesus
do some of the works attributed to him ; John himself heard Jesus deliver some of the
discourses which none else has recorded. In other cases, where he was not present,
John had every opportunity of knowing what Jesus had said, from the very persons to
whom he had spoken. There can be no doubt that John heard Jesus deliver the dis-
course recordeil in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth chapters, that he heard
Jesus offer the prayer which occupies the seventeenth chapter. That those who first
read and accepted this document, and who commended it to the attention of Christian
people gener^y, were convinced of its authenticity, app ars from the imprimatur
which they added, " This is the disciple which beareth witness of these things, and
wrote these things : and we know that his witness is true."
II. The beadbbs' faith. We read some booljs for the charm of their style, for the
insight they afford into the author's mental peculiarities. We read other books for
their sparkling wit, their delightful humour. Others, again, we read that our tenderer
feelings may be awakened, or that we may be lifted out of the sordid cares and anxieties
of life into a fresher, more inspiring atmosphere. There are works which are read for
the sake of acquiring knowledge of a scientific, or technical, or historical character.
Now, this treatise was written for one definite purpose, which is here exactly stated by
the writer. If it fails of this purpose, it so far fails to effect that for which its author
wrote it. In a word, John's aim was that his readers might believe ariglit about Jesus.
1. That they might believe him to be the Christ ; i.e. the Messiah expected by the Jews,
because foretold in their prophetic books ; One anointed, commissioned by the Eternal to
do great things for Israel and for mankind. In the course of his ministry, such inquiries
were started as, " Is not this the Christ ? " "Do the rulers know indeed that this is the
very Christ?" It is to enable all fair-minded men to come to a satisfactory conclusion
upon this point that John wrote. He does not conceal his own conviction ; but, on tha
whole, he keeps himself in the background; he sets his glorious subject in the full light
of day, and he leaves his readers to form their conclusion. 2. That they might believe
him to be the Son of Ood. If the Hebrew people were most likely to shape their
inquiry as above, to the world at large the problem was less special. Has the Sovereign
Buler of the universe any interest in this human race? Is it possible that, to teach and
guide and save mankind, he has sent his own Son into the worlds— a man, yet Divine in
authority, in righteousness, in love? Before any one decides for himself upon this
question, he must read the record of the son of Zebedee, and acquire the means for
forming a satisfactory judgment. John's conviction was that the proper result of con-
sidering his record is faith. And in this all Christians are agreed. Their's is a reason-
able faith, based upon sufficient evidence — ^historical, moral, miraculous evidence —
evidence which will bear all scrutiny, which has convinced the wisest and the best of
men. At the same time, it is religious faith; for it is fixed upon a Divine Being, has
respect to Divine government, and issues in spiritual and eternal results. This explains
Uie memorable words of Jesus himself : " Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet
Have believed."
HI. Tbx beuxtsu^ Lin. Precious as it is, £uth is but the me«nB to tax end.
OH. XX. 1— St] THE GOSPEL ACCOBDma TO ST. JOHN. 491
Faith is a posture of the bouI ; life b a state of the soul. 1. Life is the natural result of
faith. Every man's life is affected hy what he believes ; in fact, a man's beliefs become
the principles of his conduct. It is so in politics, in literature, in art. 2. Faith in
Christ is the means towards a spiritual life. If belief in fictitious, vicious deities makes
men superstitious and immoral ; if faith in corrupt representations of Christianity has a
debasing influence ; surely faith in a Being so true, so holy, so affectionate as Jesus,
must have power to assimilate the believing soul to the Object of ita attachment. The
human nature cannot be said to live that is dead to all that is pure, unselSsh, and
morally beautiful. Christ came that we might have life, and that more abundantly.
3. This spiritual life is eternal. By this it is not intended to say that the mere con-
tinuance of conscious existence is linked with faith with Jesus ; but rather that upon
such faith depends all that makes life worth livin^; in this and in all worlds. " More
life and fuller 'tis we want." The life which is hid with Christ in God is independent
of the accidents of earth and of time. It is immortal as is he who gives it.
A^LioATiON. Let the reader of this Gospel ask himself — Have I been led by iti
perusal to receive Jesus as the true God and the Eternal Life ?
"For better they had ne'er been bom.
Who read to doubt, or read to scoTn."
T.
Vers. 11 — 18. — The powers of holy love. — ^The women rose early on the third day,
but there was One who rose earlier. They were last at the cross, and first at the grave.
Mary Magdalene was the first of the group. She ran back to Peter and John with the
tidings. There was a race between the two to the tomb. John outran Peter. Love
is swifter of foot than faith, but faith is more courageous and was in the sepulchre first.
Love followed. Mary is for a moment lost in the narrative, but appears again as the
chief figure. We have an illustration of passionate love to Jesus. Notice —
L The devotion of love. This is seen : 1. In her persistent and patient lingering
on the spot. " Mary stood without," etc. She did not enter with the two disciples ;
she was too weak for that. But weaker in nature, she was stronger in affection. If she
did not enter, she stood longer at the grave. They were gone, but she was tied to the
spot by the words of love, watching for some clue to the mysterious disappearance.
Love lingers with patience and devotion at the sacred graves which hold the dust of dear
ones. 2. In her increased courage. She does now what she could not do before — stoops
down and looks into the sepulchre, as did John before her. His example encouraged
her. It was more for her to look than for them to enter. She looked, not that she
expected to find him more than the others, but to see for herself, and see even where
he had lain. Love acts often from instinct rather than from reason. We look to the
grave. 3. In her intense feelings. She stood without, weeping. As she stood she
wept, and she stooped. She wept and looked through her tears. And as she wept she
stooped down. Intense feelings brought her to her knees. These were not the waitings
of ostentation and selfishness : there was no one to see her tears or to pay heed to
them J but they were the tears of genuine affection, the sighs of devoted love, and the
moans of intense sorrow. She stood and stooped and looked, weeping. This is the
only thing which even devoted love could do under the circumstances.
II. The visions op love. I. The vision of angels. Notice : (1) Their number.
Two. Angels are social ; seldom if ever one appeared in this world alone. They were
sent two and two. At the birth a host sang over the fields of Bethlehem. Two
appeared at the Resurrection. More may be there ; only two were seen, and only one
was seen by the others — two by love. (2) Their appearance. In white, the colour of
heaven, the fashion of the better land. Everything is white there. It is the colour of
peace, purity, happiness, and glory. It is a treat to see the colour in this dark world
of sin and sorrow, and especi^ly see it in a grave. (3) Their posture. " Sitting, the one at
the head, and the other at the feet, where," etc. They loved even the place where he
ha,d lain. They had finished their work, rolled away the stone, shook the earth,- sent
away the guard in terror, and waited upon their Master, and helped him to strip and be
clothed ; and now they sit at ease, as if taking rest. (4) Their sympathy. " Woman,
why weepest thou?" This is a question of kind sympathy. One would think that
tbe weeping of a poor woman would not affect an angel at aU. They never shed tears,
492 THE GOSPEL AOOOBDINO TO ST. JOHN. [oh. zx. 1—31.
•nd experimentally know no sorrow ; but they are sympathetic and friendly ; perhapi
they had attended bo much upon the Lord, that they would naturally learn sympathy.
(6) Their inspiring confidence. It is not to every one she would disclose the cause of
her grief. She would instinctively be suspicious ; but the appearance and language
of these inspired her at once with confidence, that they were honourable and friendly,
and probably closely related to her Master; hence she trusted them at once with the
secret of her sorrow. (6) This vision of angels was very natural. The naturalness of
the incident is to us much more important than the literal harmony of the narrative.
The appearance of angels is natural at the Besurrection, and a befitting introduction to
what followed ; and as the Master had left the house, it was natiual that he should
leave the servants there to answer certain calls which would be made, and entertais
visitors. 2. The vision of Jesus. (Ver. 13.) (1) Ser conversation with the angeh
finished abruptly. Her conduct might appear almost rude, except in the light of what
followed. She turned back, beckoned, perhaps, by the angel to do so, or she instinc-
tively felt some presence behind her. The servants will ever point to the Master when
present, and will observe becoming silence. (2) She knew not Jesus, amd why t She
did not expect to meet him alive. She suspected that the body had been stolen,
but little suspected that Life was the thief. She was too much enrapt in anxiety about
her dead Lord to recognize him living. Intensity of feeling is often unfavourable to
immediate recognition, and Jesus did not assume the old appearance. (3) She made a
good guess, hut still a mistake. She thought that he was the gardener, from his garb
and the time of his appearance. This was a natural thought, and true in a sense of
Jesus. He was a gardener, and the best that ever was in this world. She was glad to
meet Joseph's gardener. " Sir, if thou bast borne him," etc. She at once told her story,
sought intbrmntion, and her love made her feel strong enough to take the body away
herself. (4) The Master addressed her in much the tams way as the servant — only
added, "Whom seekest thou?" The angel's question was only an echo of his. It is
worthy of notice that this is the first question of Jesus after the Besurrection. "Why
weepest thou ? " etc. He asks the question still : he rose to wipe away tears, and to
remove the cause of human sorrow. (5) These visions were granted to love. Where
were the angels and the risen Lord when Peter and John were at the grave? They
were there, but love alone could see them. Angels and Jesus appear to intense and
devoted love ; if we had more of it we should have more spiritual visions.
III. The recognition of lovb. 1. Eer recognition was in consequence of a direct
revelation. (1) By the voice. The other disciples recognized him by sight. Thomas
said once that he would not recognize lum except by touch, but Mary by his voice.
(2) His voice, uttering a single loord — her name, " Mary." She had not heard her name
pronounced in the same way since he had last called it. She recognized the old voice
which spoke to her first and often afterwards. (3) Jesus knew how to reveal himself
best. He knew how to touch a chord in her heart which would bring her back to
herself and to him. 2. Ber recognition was warm and reverential. "Eabbonil""0
my Master ! " and she fell at his feet, and was about to embrace them. If her recogni-
tion was not so high and advanced as that of Thomas, it was warm and enthusiastic.
3. Ser recognition in one of its modes was gently checked. " Touch me not [or, ' do
not cling to me']." (1) This was incompatible with the laws of the new life and
relationship. He was not to be known henceforth after the flesh, nor to be reverenced
after the old fashion of physical existence. (2) This would be an impediment to hie
upward progress. " For I have not," etc. He had not finished his glorious course nor
reached his high goal. He was on the way, and such clinging to him would interfere
with his ascension. Besides it being incompatible with the new life, there was no time.
He was ascending, and her service was required in another way. (3) The new mode of
homage to him was revealed to Magdalene first. She was the only one who attempted
the old; this was checked, and the new method was hinted. She had in heart
devotional feelings advantageous to revelation. Devotion to him henceforth was to
take a higher aim and assume a higher form. After his ascension to the Father, the
new life would be oompleto, then in heart and spirit ih« couM cling to him for ever.
IT. The mission of love. "But go," eto. 1. JTUi mtMMn omtoMM m H$
mAttcmce his ascension. " I ascend." It is not " I have risen," but ** I aaeend." It
kieludes his resurrection, and more. He could not ascend unleu he had rises. Tlu fint
a.xz.1— 81.] THE GOSPEL AOCORDINa TO ST. JOHN. 498
movement of the new life in Jeius was a movement upwards ; from the grave he began
to ascend, and the first intelligence obtained of him was that he was already ascending.
2. The mission includes his destination. "I ascend unto my Father." It was
ascending somewhere, but unto a special spot and special Personage — unto his Father ;
he was going home whence he came. The intelligence of his final destination was
important. The time would soon arrive when he would be due at the right hand of
power on high. There was the attraction now. It was more natural for the risen Lord
to ascend to the Father than to remain here. 3. This mission was to the disciples,
" But go unto my brethren, and say," etc. They are the first to hear ; they are the
moat concerned in the matter ; they are the nearest to Jesus' heart. The world is to
hear the news, but through them. The risen Saviour is the same as of old. 4. Hiis
mission is to them in a new relationship. " My brethren." The terms of the mission
explain the new relationship. "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father," etc.
And having one Father and one God, they were brethren and fellow-subjects of the
same kingdom ; brethren in spirit, in faith, in love, in circumstances, and in common rela-
tionship. The risen Lord was more nearly related to the disciples than ever. Death and
resurrection made the union nearer : he was their firstborn Brother from the dead. And
the Ascension would make it nearer still: then they would be one in a common Father,
y. The obedibnoi of lovk. 1. Hie obedience is most prompt. There is no delay.
In spite of a strong temptation to cling to him, she goes at once. There is no mention
of her leaving Jesus ; only of her coming to the disciples. No sooner had she left the
former tban she was with the latter. The obedience of love is swift and prompt.
2. Her obedience is full. She told the whole story and delivered the whole message.
" I have seen the Lord," etc. And she did not stop there, but related all he had told her.
3. Ser obedience was joyous. Her weeping was turned into laughter, her sorrow into
ecstatic joy ; and the dew of her grief was kissed away by the rays of the risen Sun.
The news was good and joyous ; it thrilled her own heart, it thrilled the heart of the
disciples, and it has thrilled the heart of the world ever since.
Lessons. 1. The risen Lord first appeared to a woman. Her heart and eyes of love
were the first to behold the welcome vision, because she had the greatest love. 2. A
woman was the first missumary of Jesus. She was the first to publish the tidings of
his resurrection, because she was the first to get those tidings. She was the first at the
grave, and her love would not permit her to leave till she could find Jesus. She waited
at the king's gate till he appeared, and she was employed in his service. The feminine
heart can do much in the mission of life and love. 3. Love is rewarded with visions,
revelations, and employment. In the degree we love, we shall see, know, and under-
stand the spiritual, and be employed in its glorious missions. 4. We must not ding to
Jesus when we are wanted to do something for him. We must not even revel at his
feet when others require the news of his love. 6. Love is surprised with more titan it
expects. Mary only expected to find the dead body, but she found her living Lord.
The highest expectations of love will be more than realized and rewarded. — B. T.
Ver. 15. — Weeping for the wrong thing, L Thk cause of Mabt'b wbepino.
Try for a moment to think of the body of Jesus as being only that of a common
mortaL Let the instance be that of one dear to yourself. The body has been safely
laid away, and the earth heaped over it. Suppose, then, that in a morning or two you
find the grave broken open and the body removed. Your feelings upon such an
outrage would enable yon to understand the feelings of Mary here. No feeling is more
proper than that which regards the body of a dead friend as something sacred.
Consider, too^ what an extraordinary Benefactor to Mary Jesus had been. Out of her he
had cast seven demons.
II. The qnxsTioH ooukb fboh those who have a bioht to ask it. It is the
question of angels, and it is also the question of Jesus. It is the question of those who
know the real state of things, to one wlio in anguish is following a falsehood— one of the
likeliest of falsehoods, indeed, but a falsehood after all. As to Jesus, he would ask tba
question with a sort of secret joy, well knowing how quickly those tears would be dried
np, and how soon Mary would stand awed and gladdened before this stupendous
revelation of immortalitT. The question was neither intrusive nor superfluous. How
rnaaj are the tears and lamentatloDa of ignorance 1 It seemed m it,in this matter tt
tM THE GOSPEL ACOOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xx. 1—31
the Begunection, the possible must become the actual, before even the possible could b«
oredited. Jesus would not be astonished at this weeping of Mary ; what he wanted
was to deal with it promptly. He did not seek to weep with weeping Mary, but rather
to have Mary rejoice with rejoicing angels, and with the rejoicing Jesus himself; and
for once in the history of human sorrow this was possible. Mary would have been
satisfied if she had found the corpse of Jesus : what shall she say when even more than
the former Jesus appears? From the sense of absolute loss she passes to the sense of
full possession. And yet, great as the joy was, it was not the greatest of joys, seeing
it was only a revelation to the senses. This would not he Mary's last experience of
weeping. Though risen from the dead, Jesus was about to vanish, so that the life in
him might be manifested in another way. Mary had yet to win her way to the sober,
iteady gladness of the Christian's hope.
HL The question is okb to all weepebs. Many -besides Mary have groaned
over troubles of their own imagining. Many besides Mary have groaned over one
thing, when they should have been groaning over something quite different. The
feeling will not bear to be analyzed to its depths, and traced out to all its causes.
Jesus can do little for weepers till they weep for the right things and in the right way.
Oftentimes the right question would be, " Why are you not weeping ? " We are glad
when we ought to be sorry, and satisfied when we ought to be anxious. We may have
had a very great deal of trouble, and yet all the time our cares have never gone deeper
than our outward circumstances. It is hard to satisfy us in some ways, but very, very
easy in others. Jesus will never complain that we are troubled about common losses
and disappointments. Not to be troubled about these would only argue inhuman want
of sensibility. But we should also be troubled because of our weakness towards every-
thing that would make us Christ-like and well-pleasing to God. We need not bemoan
the loss of an outward Jesus, a visible Jesus, a Jesus after the flesh ; such a Jesus could
do us little good. We want a Jesus within, blending with the life and making himself
felt everywhere. — ^Y.
Ter. 19. — A nMmorahle ialutation. Every one in the little company must have
heard and used the salutation, " Peace be unto you I " thousands of times. Often must
they have heard it, even from Jesus himself. Then, however, it was only the
utterance of courtesy, and needed not to be mentioned. Now, being specially
mentioned, there is evidently special meaning in it. Jesus was now coming to his
disciples in utterly different circumstances from any in which he had come before.
I. CoNSiDEB HOW THEY HAD PABTED. It WHS in the darkness of Gethsemane, in
utter confusion, and quite unexpectedly so far as the disciples were concerned.
Everybody thought of his own immediate safety. Yet the scattering and separating
must have been of very short duration. The bond of union was stronger than they yet
comprehended. A higher power was at work than their own inclinations and tenden-
cies. Their conduct shows a curious mixture of courage and fear. They fastened the
doors ; but fastened doors would not have kept out very long any Jews who wanted to
get in. If safety was the main thing, then these disciples were remaining in the most
dangerous spot of all the world.
n. The affeabance of Jesus on the scene. All at once he came out of the
deepest mystery. We cannot but think of his own words to Nicodemus concerning
the wind : " Thou canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth." No wonder
the disciples were terrified. Aforetime they had often been careless and presumptuous
in their dealings with Jesus, but now a strange feeling of awe has arisen which effectually
stops everything like carelessness or presumption. Then just at the moment when
they can say nothing and do nothing, Jesus speaks the right word, " Peace be unto
you I" They would feel that not unjustly he njight have uttered words of rebuke.
One thinks of Jacob's needless fenrs when he heard of Esau coming to meet him with
four hundred men. This assurance from the returning Jesus was much needed — an
assurance as well as a salutation. However weak and ignorant, thoughtless and
stupid, the disciples might be, the attitude of Jesus was ever the same. He might
have to wound their egotism and selfishness ; but the wounds were always those of a
friend, not of an enemy. There is an immense difference between a surgical operatv)B
and • Tnalicioui itaK
CH. XX. 1—31.] THE GOSPEL AOOORDINa TO ST. JOHN. 496
in. Thk baltttation is gveb thk bahe. Out of the invisible he seeks us all, ftnd
•Iways with the same utterance. Peace is the desire and intention, and always the end
to be secured, however long and troublesome the process may be. Peace is the aim,
even when Jesus says that he comes, bringing not peace, but a sword. Men too often
approach one another, talking of peace, but preparing for war, and seeking for it. Th«
appeal ever is, " Be ye reconciled to God." It is not we who have to send up the vaiu
and agonizing cry, " O God, wilt thou not be at peace with us ? " — Y.
Vers. 24 — 29. — The unheHef of Thomat, I. Thomas and his fellow- apostlbb.
When they told Thomas they had seen Jesus, and he refused to believe, they must
have been rather staggered at first. They would insist on how they had seen Jesus
with their own eyes, and heard him with their own ears ; not one of them, but all. They
would point out how the sepulchre was empty, and how Jesus had said that it behoved
him to be raised from the dead. They might ask whether Thomas imagined that they
were all in a conspiracy to play an unseemly practical joke upon him. Yet there was
really nothing to complain about in the incredulity of Thomas. Who of them had
believed Jesus as he deserved to be believed ? Their thoughts had never been really
directed towards resurrection. They had been dreaming of individual glory and self-
advancement, and all that tended in a different direction had been unnoticed. We
must do them the justice to say that no tone of complaint against Thomas appears.
They would be too conscious that with the beam so recently taken out of their own
eye, they had no right to declaim against the mote in their brother's eye.
II. Thomas and Jesus. What is Jesus to do with Thomas? Is he to remain in this
state of emphatic unbelief, with no means taken to help him into faith ? Will Jesus
make a special appearance, all for Thomas's satisfaction? Surely that can hardly be,
but time will tell. A week elapses, and the disciples are gathered again, Thomas being
with them. Jesus reappears, just after the former fashion. What, then, will Thomas
do? Will he rush to Jesus, confessing and bewailing the wickedness of his unbelief?
Jesus removes all difficulty by tiiking the first step himself. All the apostles need to
be taught a lesson. Jesus knows well that faith can never originate in things that
can be seen and felt and handled. Such things may help faith, but cannot produce it.
The confession of Thomas, prompt and ardent as it seems, counts for little with Jesus.
He does not say, " Blessed ait thou, Thomas ; for flesh and blood hath not revealed this
unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven."- Thomas had to be both lovingly helped
and delicately rebuked.
HI. Pbobable aftbe-expbrienobs of Thomas. Thomas would meet many of an
unbelieving spirit, who could not, just upon his word, accept the resurrection of Jesus.
And then Thomas would have to reply, " I once thought as you do ; I insisted on
seeing the marks of the wounds ; and my Master, in his boundless condescension to the
infirmities of his servants, let me see what I wanted to see. But, at the e^ame time, he
taught me a lesson, in the strength of which I have gone ever since." All the apostles
had soon to believe in One whom they could not see. Where he had gone, they knew
not ; and how he was to communicate with them and they with him, they could not
explain ; but most assuredly a real and fruitful communication was established. Jesus
was not speaking of an impossible blessedness, or dangling the attractions of a dream
before the eyes of his disciples. The unseen, and not the seen, is what strengthens faith.
What men see is the very thing that makes them unbelievers, confusing them,
perplexing them, utterly disabling them from laying hold on anything solid and
comforting. If the seen hides the unseen, so that Jesus himself becomes the merest of
names, then there is dreadful misery. — Y.
VerB. 30, 31. — The purpose of John't Gospel. This statement comes In very fitly
iifter the narrative of Thomas's doubt. Many more things might have been told, but
ft mere record of actions is nothing in itself; it is precious just as it reveals the nature,
the character, and the office of the actor. A record of Jesus more encimihered with
details, and longer spun out, might not have given so clear a view of him.
L John's purpose. Many hooks have been written to destroy faith; here is a book
written to produce it. If a man believes a lie, it is true kindness to destroy his faith
in it ; equally, if he does not yet believe the truth, it is * duty t» do aU «ae CAn to help
49e
THB QOSFEL AOOOBDINO TO ST. JOHN. [sm. xxl 1— 2&
him into faith. This was the bright work of John, not to pull down, hnt to build ap ;
not to destroy faith, but to produce it. Certainly in producing a new faith he destroyed
an old one; but the decaying and yanishing of the old was not felt in the joy ol
welcoming the new. To believe is to be strong, to doubt is to be weak. And now
suppose one begins to read through John's Gospel, musing over the strange things thers
recorded — miracles of healing, language about the life, the li^ht, the bread, the vine,
the shepherd, pondering the raising of Lazarus, and still later the raising of Jesus — ^ha
might be inclined to say, " I cannot make anything of it ; it looks utterly inexplicable."
Then he comes to the words here, and how he ought to he helped. This work was not
written to iiewilder; if it does bewilder, such was not the writer's intent. John,
a believing man himself, wanted to lead others to believe. His attachment to Christ
was not the blind attachment of a fanatic. It was not an ignorant trust. John was
not a hired advocate, not a skilful arranger of &cts, hiding away what might be difficult
to explain or awkward to reveal.
II. The etioent besuiiT. Let ua be true to ourselves, giving the book fair play,
and the end will be the receiving of eternal life. Out of Christ we are all made to feel
that the excellency of our present life is indeed ia earthen vessels. A sudden accident,
a few hours of disease, and all is gone. Without Jesus we knoiv not where we are
going, or what may happen to us. But, believing in Jesus, we are sure of a life hid
away from all the perils of this present world. John does not put forward this book as
furnishing the best arguments he can supply. It is rather Christ's own sufficient
appeal to all who have an honest desire for salvation and eternal life. If there be not
enough in this book to persuade us, neither would we be persuaded IF Jesus himself
were to come in bodily form. They that love the New Testament will be fullest of
eternal life, for they will be fullest of faith and freest from doubts. The words of Jesus
will never be to them as common words. Looking round on the widely spread and
deeply penetrating evil of the world, they will feel that only he holds in his hands the
complete remedy for it. The claim of Jesus is one that can never pass away, seeing it
is the claim of the Son of God — the claim not merely of his appointment, but of his
nature. — T.
BXPOSmON.
OHAPTEB XXL
Vers. 1 — ^25. — 3. The epilogue, amueHng
to the prologue. The post-resurrection life
oorresponds with the pre-incamate energy
of the Logos.
1. Long and BQstained controversy has
prevailed on the question of the authenticity
and apostolic authorsliip of this chapter
even among those who admit the Johannine
anthorship of the rest of the GospeL
2. Among those who accept to the full
the authenticity, there are many critics who
mrge that it is not an integral portion of the
Gospel, but a later appendix, that the docu-
ment terminated, on its first composition,
with oh. XX. 80, 81, and that the chapter
before ns is dictated from a different motive —
that whereas the first twenty chapters formed
a collection of notable "signs " of the Mes-
siahship and Divine Bonsbip of Jesus,
adapted to produce true faith and thereby
confer eternal life on the believer, the pre-
sent chapter is stmotnially disposed on dif-
ferent lines, with a diverse motive, and hM
ite own conclusion.
3. The purpose is variously conceived by
those who agree to regard it as an appendix.
(1) There are no rational external grounds
for attributing any portion of ch. xxi. (un-
less it be the two verses, 24 and 25) to any
other hand than to that of the author of the
previous portion of the Gospel. Manuscript
authority is entirely unanimous in assuming
the integrity of the Gospel in this respect.
There could not have been any period
when the first twenty chapters were pub-
lished without the accompaniment of this
"appendix." If any appreciable time had
elapsed when this was the case, the fact
would have been testified by the discrepancy
of the codices, or references, or versions of
antiquity. It seems that there is some dn-
biety in the original form of Codex K as to
the twenty-fifth verse, though the doubt of its
editor did not extend to ver. 24. Critics are
divided, however, on purely subjective and
internal considerations. Even Hengsten.
OB. XXL 1—26.} THE GOSPEL AOOOBDISQ TO 8T. JOHN.
49T
berg, who urgently matntelns that the ehap-
ter if an original and integral portion of the
Goipel, yet feels the contrast so great in its
general tone that, apart from the spiritual
and allegorical interpretation to which he
resorted, he -would "have preferred to pass
the whole chapter by." .Doubtless there
are details which are to some extent stag-
gering; but the burden of argument is
strongly in faToni of its Johannine origin,
whatever may be its precise meaning. Vers.
14 — 18 are without question eminently and
luminously Johannine, and the reference to
the second advent is in entire harmony with
ch. xiv. 3 and other passages of the valedic-
tory discourse. The use of a few words and
phrases like itptotas yivo/ievns for irput, and
of ToKiMv and fierdCew, is so trifling that
similar deviations from customary phrase
might really be found in almost every other
chapter. The whole chapter forms a com-
plete paragraph, well compacted, and it can-
not be torn to pieces. So that we conclude,
both on internal and external grounds, that
all di£3culties are surmounted by the sup-
position that the author, after making a
formal close to his Gospel as a whole, with
vers. 30 and 31 of the previous chapter, did,
before publication, either contemporaneously
or shortly afterwards, produce an appendix,
which was closely connected with the pre-
ceding, yet with a different but highly sig-
nificant intention.
(2) Critics have differed upon the inten-
tion. Some have urged that it ia simply a
continuation and completion of the narra-
tive, with the object of revealing the person-
ality of the author and affording the means
of identification. Ewald, with Grotius and
Keim, suggests, indeed, that it was written
by John the presbyter, or some friend of
the apostle under his sanction, with no in-
tention of concealing his part in the com-
position. Others have supposed that the
motive was to explain the origin of the
legend that had arisen with reference to the
prolongation of the apostle's life, by link-
ing it to the veritable words of the Master
himself. The view of Dr. Westcott is that
the conviction of Thomas (oh. xx. 24 — 29) is
the key to the method of this oontinnative
narrative ; that &e writer proeeeds to give
ether and analogens lUnstratiens of the
oMthod in whieh obataolas to faith may ba
overcome. I think, with Dr. Salmond, in
an article in the Monthly Interpreter, April,
1885, that all the incidents proceed on the
supposition that the disciples had all come
to a clear understanding that the Lord had
risen. They were beginning to estimate
the new light that this would cast on human
life, and a believer's duty in the world. The
great majority of modem critics see in it
the representation, by the aid of one of the
numerous manifestations of the forty days
before the Ascension, of the nature of our
Lord's continuous presence with his dis-
ciples to the end of time ; his participation
and enjoyment in the work which he had
assigned to them; the special commission
he gave to the two conspicuous and beloved
disciples, vrith indications of the meaning of
apostolic work, the perils it might encounter,
and the principles of holy service till he
should come again in his glory. Those who
regard the Gospel as a pious romance treat
the chapter as a spiritualization of the Acts of
the Apostles written by a theologian of the
second century. Thus Thoma. Very many
of these have called attention to the obvious
references in this narrative to the Galilsean
ministry and service of the fishermen as given
in the synoptic records, with the points of
special contrast between the first and the
latest draught of fishes. Some, in an ad-
verse sense, have supposed that the evan-
gelist simply transfers, from the commence-
ment of the Galilean ministry, the whole
incident, and modifies the details to suit his
different ideas ooncenung the Lord and his
apostles. This is contradictory of the entire
theory that we have urged witii reference to
f The Gospel itself. Those who are not strongly
prejudiced against the idea of harmonizing
the four narratives rightly show that John
here blendt the twofold traditions, preserved
in Matthew and Luke, of the scenes of our
Lord's post-resurrection self-manifestations.
Matthew lays all his emphasis on our Lord's
appearance in Galilee, for which he had
prepared the disciples on the night of the
Passion (xxvi. 32), and again by the mes-
sage of the angels (xxviii. 10) ; and this ha
seta forth in great majesty, eorresponding
probably with St. Paul's asauranoe that it
was made or accompanied by an appearanoe
to more than five hundred brethren at onee.
Luka, OB tlM other kan4, &flf t* lafet le any
8k
498
THE GOSPEL AOOOBDmO TO ST. JOHN. [oh. eo. 1—26
Galilnan appearance, and oonflnea hli record
to the Belf-manifeBtationB in the neighbour-
hood of Jerusalem, or on the Mount of
Olivei. John, with characteristic differ-
ences, shows that he well remembers special
appearances to the disciples in Jerusalem,
and also on the familiar shores of the Lake
of Tiberias, confirming, therefore, the value
of each of the groups of facts recorded in the
synoptic Gospels.
Once more, it is contended by many who
admit the composition of the twenty-first
chapter to be by Bt, John, that he was here
producing a striking epilogue to the whole,
which answers in many ways to the prologue
in the first chapter; that as the prologue
illustrates (a) the pre-incamation energy
and presence of the Logos (oh. i. 1 — 5), so
we have here the idea of the post-resurrec-
tion energy and presence of the "Son of
God " in the work of the Church, watching,
waiting, guiding, helping, co-operating with
his own, " who received him, and to whom he
gave power to become sons of God ; " (V) that
as in ch. i. 6 we have the various methods
by which the ot tSioi receive and bear wit-
ness to the archetypal light, from John the
Baptist to the company of the regenerated,
so here from vers. 14 — 19 we have a repre-
sentation of the principle of witness, the
powers and ends of holy love, the methods
and law of Divine pleasing; and (o) that as
in ch. i. 14 — 18 the prologue sets forth his
first coming in the fiesh full of grace and
truth, in vers. 20 — 23 the risen Lord pre-
dicts and to a certain extent defines the
second coming. Thi» is a very attractive, if
somewhat conjectural, series of comparisons.
It cannot be said that these analogies do not
exist. The correspondence consists in the
two sets of facts rather than in the art
of the writer. The true representation of
the efficacity of the Lord's resurrection-
life and ascended majesty is contained
historically in the "Acts," which are far
more certainly " Acts of the Mi$en Lord "
than "Acts of the Apostles," and are con-
tained prophetically in the Bevelation of
St. John. We have in this appendix or
•pilogue to the Gospel, indications and
speoimens of the kind of intercourse which
pNvailed between Jesus and his disciples
daring the forty days, and a speoiman which,
altar tha mannar of Jakn, made the deepest
and most ineffaceable impression upon hii
own mind. It was, indeed, the third appear-
ance to the apostles after his resurrection,
but not the last. M'Clellan, in his special
dissertation on the subject, treats with great
warmth and vigorous denunciation the
theory of the Gospel being concluded with
ch. XX., and of the subsequent addition by
the apostle of ch. xxi. His arguments are
little better than assertions, based upon the
translation or paraphrase which he gives of
the iroWi fiiy oSv, etc., of ch. XX. 30. This
is as follows : " • Accordingly (o5j/), whilst it
is true (/nkv) that Christ wrought many other
miracles in the presence of his disciples,
besides (ical) those which are written in the
Holy Scriptures of this book, yet (Se) these
which are recorded, are recorded with this
special object, that ye may believe in Christ
[though ye have not seen him], and that be-
lieving, ye might have life in his Name.'
" The appropriateness of the position and
language of the comment in reference only
to this one particular incident is obvious;
and the conclusion theory tumbles to the
ground. With it," he adds with character-
istic impetuosity, " deservedly perishes the
dangerous appendix theory concerning ch.
xxi." After enumerating numerous theories
with derogatory comment, he adds, " But for
the hyjmthesis that the Gospel originally
en3ed with ch. xx., the theory (of its being
an appendix) would never have been heard
of, and with the utter coUapse of that hypo-
thesis, it is shattered to atoms I So perish,
we may firmly believe, one after another, the
conceits of ' modern criticism.' " Of course,
the two ideas stand and fall together. No
words are needed to vindicate one of these
positions without the other. It is unfortu-
nate that, in paraphrasing the clause on
which the conclusion rests, Mr. M'Clellan
should have begged the question at issue
by introducing a phrase which gives the
apostoUo comment a specific reference to the
words of Jesus as addressed to Thomas, and
omitted the weighty reference to the whole
of the proof which demonstrates that " Jestu
is the Christ, the Son of God." This able
commentator often forces on his reader ta«
contradictory of his own conolusiona.
Yen. 1— 14.— (1) Tin muUfuUUtm y
himulf in Of wor« o/ ^f».
OH. m 1—25.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDINO TO ST. JOHN.
499
Ver. 1. — After these thin^B Jesns mani-
fested himself again to the disoiples at the
sea of Tiberias. The opening formula is
one often adopted by John (see particularly
oh. ii. 12; v. 1, 14; vi. 1); consideTable
periods of time and cycles of ministry are
frequently covered by it. Another chapter
is opened, another series of events to be
recorded which had left undying impression
on the apostle's mind, and, in full view of
numerous other traditions, was chosen by
himself as especially worthy of record.
"Jesus manifested himself." In oh. ii. 11
we hear that "he manifested his glory;"
now he manifested his Person, as an act of
his own will. He was " manifested in the
flesh" (1 Tim. iii. 16), but now that flesh was
itself more directly under the control of his
personality, and the mere sensuous eye and
carnal understanding could not without his
special permission realize that wondrous
presence. The passive form of the verb is
used in Mark xvi. 12, 14. The touch of
feeling involved in the active voice must
not be overlooked. The "again" clearly
points back to the previous manifestations
described in ch. zx. 14, 19, 26. On each
occasion his coming, though in a recognizable
human body, was a body (a nopipTi, not a
irxV") which had the qualities of spirit
"The disciples" are afterwards mentioned
by name. -It was to disciples only that he
"appeared." Believers in him were those
alone who could see this spiritual body.
The effect produced upon them was that of
objective reality, but this was made to pre-
pared spirits. Such a proceeding is akin
to all the grander operations of nature, and
the most august manifestations of God,
" At the sea of Tiberias." This is the only
place where the "sea of Gkililee," or of
" Gennesareth," is called the " sea of
Tiberias." That it was identical with the
familiar lake is evident from the known
site of Tiberias (now represented by the
modem town Tubarieh), a city which is
mentioned by Josephns (' Ant.,' zviii. 2. 3 ;
'BelL Jud.,' ii. 9. 1; 'Vit.,' §§ 12, 13, 64),
and which, from its schools of learned men,
had a great place in later Jewish history.
Moreover, in ch. vi. 1, 23, if the Greek be
accurately rendered, the writer spoke of
" the sea of Galilee, of Tiberias," interpret-
ing the name well known by the Jews,
through another name by which it would
be better recognized by Gentiles (see note
on ch. vi. 1). Dr. Parrar, 'Message of the
Books,' sees in the nomenclature a hint of
the later origin of the Fourth Gospel than
the date assigned to the synoptic narrative.
'ETri is used because the shore where they
saw him was a raised beach or cliff " above '
the sea. It must be observed that the same
phiMe la lUMd in eh. tL 19 and M»tt. ziv.
25 for Ohrisfs walking "upon the sea;"
but the M is itself explained here by th«
aiyia\6if of ver. 4, just as the preposition
receives elsewhere more literally another
meaning from the context. And he mani-
fested himself thni; "on this wise," i.t.
after the manner to be described. This ii
the commencement of our Lord's discourses
on the kingdom of Orod (Acts L 3). This
was the beginning of the great fiUfllment
of his own predictions (Matt. xxvi. 32;
xxviii 10), and of the angel's words to the
women. The narrative gives the deep heart-
tones and genuine teaching of the risen
Lord.
Ver. 2. — There were together. Not the
whole company of the eleven apostles ; five
are especially mentioned, and two are left
unnamed. 'The five, of whom the Gospel
knows much, are Simon Peter, whose two-
fold name denotes that, notwithstanding hia
grievous failure, he had not lost his faith,
and still stood at the head of the company,
the man of rock and the man of impetuous
energy. Thomas called Didymus, whose
incredulity had vanished, and whose devoted
love had eraerj^eA from the depths of
despondency to the loftiest faith, who had
come to feel and say that the risen Christ
was both Lord and God. Thomas, who
had shrunk from the society of his fellow-
epostles, was now closely united with them,
more than he had ever previously seemed to
have been. Thomas is the apostle last men-
tioned by the evangelist. Elsewhere he is
associated with Philip of Bethsaida, and this
town may have been his home. Nathanael
of Cana in Galilee is mentioned by way of
recalling the two miracles recorded by
John as having taken place in this " Cana
of Galilee" (ch. ii. 1—12; iv. 16). The
former of the miracles followed immediately
on the mention of the calling of Kathanael
(ch. L 45). The reference to the little
place in Galilee where the glory of Christ
had been first of all seen and had led to
the faith of the disciples, calls attention to
the place and province of this manifestation,
and to what was contained in the memory
of one of the witnesses. And the (sons >) of
Zehedee — a phrase used for James and John
in Matt. xx. 20 ; xxvi. 37 ; xxvii. 56. This
is the only time that Zebedee is mentioned
in this Gtospel ; but the reason for bis sons
being thus designated points unmistakably
to the first call of these two men to disciple-
ship by the side of this very lake, after tiiey
had witnessed the draught of fishes, becoming
' K, D, E, read oi iA» instead of a! only.
The latter reading is preferred bvAlford,
Tregelles, Tischendorf ^Sth edit), Westoott
and Hort, and B.T. Tregelles places viol
in the T"ftrf *■
eoo
THB GOSPEL AOOOSDINO TO BT. JOHN. [tm. xzi. 1— 2&
from that time forward "flshen of man"
(Matt. ir. 21 ; Mark i. 19, 20 ; Lnke v. 10).
That they ihoold here be mentioned after
Thomas and after Nathanael ooneBponds with
the reticence and modesty of the evangelist.
This is still more probable if the two othar
disoiples were iuiSi]Tai in the broader sense.
The simple fact that they are mentioned
after the five apostles has been thought by
some to imply that, whosoeTer these were,
they were not of the number of the eleven.
No one writing the story in the second
century would, in an enumeration like this,
have placed tlie proto-martyr James and
the intimate friend of Peter, the great
" light of Asia," the admitted author of the
Apocalypse, and the spiritual father of
Foly(»rp and Papias, after Thomas and
Kathanael. After his manner, he (the anthor)
here prepared for the implicit subsequent
identiJBoatiou of the " disciple whom Jesus
loved," and also the author of the Oospel,
with ont of the sons of Zebedee. The sup-
position that Andrew and Philip are meant
by the " two other disciples " is not without
Terisimilitude, from their mention in oh. i.
If this were the case, both of them nre
practically discriminated from the " disciple
whom Jesus loved " by the obvious refer-
ences to them elsewhere by name, while
** John " never thus signalizes himself. The
mention of seven disciples reveals the love
of the writer for the number " seven," with
its division into two groups of three and
four (see Introduction, pp. Ixxviii., Ixxix.).
And it is remarkable that, if Andrew and
Pliilip are tbe unnamed ones, the seven
wonld correspond with the first seven
apostlesmentioned in Matthew's enumeration
(x. 2 — 1). Matthew, James the son of
AlphsBus, Jndas the brother of James, or
TbiuldsBus, and Simon the Zealot were not
present. This, of course, rests on the hypo-
thesis that Nathanael and Bartholomew are
identical (ch. i. 45, note).
Ver. 3. — Simon Feter laith unto them, I
go a-fishing. The abruptness of the lan-
guage addressed to six (jmStiTai ) disciples,
who seemed to be living as in one family,
suggests a lengthened waiting, and some
disappointment as to the effect upon their
daily life of the great revelation. They are
summoned by the most commanding spirit
among them to resume what was, for some
of them at least, their customary calling.
He would seek in humble fashion, along the
lines of ordinary duty to his family and him-
self, the supply of daily wants. According
to some writers, Peter felt a presentiment
of the coming of his Lord under scenes
identical with those of his first call (Luke
V. 1 — 11). According to others, Peter ex-
Ubited some of the heart-sickness of deterred
hope. On aitker inppoiitien we see a new
illuatration ot, and testimony to, ttie ehft>
raoter of the man who was so oonspisnoni
an initiator. They say to him, Wa also some
(or, {ro)with thee. They do not "follow"
him, as tliey had been summoned once to
follow their Lord; bnt they are willing,
even eager, to accompany the strong-hearted
man, and ready to take his lead. They
share at once either in his presentiment or
in the expression of his delayed hope. They
went forth ; i.e. from the home whiob they
had made for themselves on this well-
remembered spot — from Capernaum, which
was most pial»bly the early home of Peter,
and a spot to which he would naturally
revert. And entered into the ship ; ' the
veritable vessel that had often served them
on that lake of storms. Though Peter and
Andrew, James and John, had left their
boats and nets and hired servants, it is not
nnlikely that members of their two families
had retained them. And that night they took
nothing. Let the unusual word be noticed.
niiifo/ occurs three times in this brief
narrative and six times in the Oospel, in
the sense of " laying hold," " taking posses-
sion of," but nowhere in the synoptista.
It occurs, however, in Acts xii. 4; 8 Cor.
xi. 32 ; EcoluB. zxiii. 21 ; and, what is more
remarkable, in the sense of "taking animals"
in Rev. xix. 20 (JiruiirBri ri Bitpior) ; so the
LXX. for triM (Cant ii. 15). The night
was then, as now, the most convenient time
for fishing, and the fruitless eflTort must
have reminded them of the night described
in Lnke v. Some critics have sniiposed
this failure to be parabolic or symbnlio of
the comparatively barren results of the
apostolic ministry to the Jews, while what
followed was prophetic of the great snccess
which should accompany their appeal to the
Gentiles. But Peter's wonderful sncoess on
the Day of Pentecost and on subsequent
occasions in dealing with Jews, contradicts
this interpretation. The only analogy
which offers itself to onr minds is the
limited success of all their endeavours nntil
the apostles were veritably endowed with
power from on high.
Ver. 4. — When the day was now breaking,*
Jesus stood on* the beadh. If the cis be &e
' 'Avc/3T)arai' is the reading of T.S.; bat
K, A, B, 0, D, etc., read 4y40Ti(ray, and are
followed by all the modem editors. EMrvt
is omitted by Meyer, Westoott and Hort,
Tischendorf (8th edit.), and B.T., on the
authority of K, B, G, D, L, X, A, nnmecoui
versions and oursive mannscripta, bat not
by Godet; ciilit is the reading of T.B.
* Many manusoripts, with K, VnlgatiL
and Syriac, omit IJSti. It ia not azpnnged
by Westoott and Hart, Bor Tiaohenderf (8th
edit), nor B.T. Tu^miB k praCamd h]
<iB.xxi.l>.2S.] THB G0SPB3. AGCOKDmO TO ST. JOHN.
801
trae reading, it wonld imply th«t Ite atood
forth, u having oome from some nnperoeiyed
region. If the M remain, the idea ia that
the morning light, as it wa« breaking oyer
them through the curtain of dense mist
which hnng before snnrise on the eastern
hills, discovered Jesus standing upon the
beach. There is obvious refereuce, in the
manner of his approach, to that "stand-
ing" in the midst of them, with which they
had become familiar (see ch. zx. 14, 19, 26).
Howbeit (jxcvtoi suggests something unusual,
ch. iv. 27 ; zii. 42) the disciples ^ew ' not
that it WM JesuB. He is not walking on
the waters m of old, but standing on the
solid ground. Just as Mary of Magdala,
and aa the disciples on the way to Emmaus,
and as even the disciples themselves on the
Easter night, were in doubt, at first, who
and what this manifestation might mean,
so now the obosen seven fail to understand
that which was before their very eyes. The
morning mist and shadows adding to the
obscurity produced by some hundred yards
of distance, together with wearied and toil-
some effort and a sleepless night, may sug-
gest some explanation of the marvel; but
the mystery is ba£3ing. Two or three
remarks may be made. (1) These various
appearances seem at first to confuse their
perceptions by reason of the ordinary human
characteristics that accompanied them.
Mary for a moment mistook him for the
owner or worker in the garden ; the " two
disciples " imagined that he was " a stranger
in Jerusalem;" and these disciples think
him, for the moment, to have been a stray
wanderer by the lake-side. Tlieir pre-
supposition concerning the reappearance of
their risen Lord wonld probably have
involved some strange and awe-striking
fulguration of his power; but the true
" spiritual body " does, when it pleases, take
on forms far more familiar. (2) Tlie slow-
ness of the process by which the apoatles
became finally convinced, against their
prejudices and sense-bound views, that he
had risen into a new form of living, and
into new conditions of existence.
Vers. 5, 6. — Jesus therefore saith onto
them. They failed to recognize his first
appearance, so he permits them to hear the
B.T., Westcott and Hort, and Tischendorf
(8th edit.) for yevoiiev-ns of T.B., Laciimann,
and Alford, on the authority of A, B, 0, E,
L, though the latter has K on its side. K,
A, D, L, etc., read M instead of els {rhv
oi^ioAitv]: BT. and T.B. read (it; Westo^tt
and Hort place M in the margin, Lach-
mann and Tiaobendorf (8th edit.) in the
text.
■ Tregelles (margia) load* tyyaxrw ia
plae* of if ttca*
Toioe whioh had often ponred loeh mniii
into their ears. Children ; not rcKcia, the
phrase used in ch. xiii. 83, but iratSla,
I' young people," "lads" — a term of less
intiniate fami'iarity, though the apostle
himself used it in 1 John ii. 13, 18 (in vers.
1 and 12 nxvla is nsed, apparently in in-
terchange with it) The fiii ti suggests a
negative answer. TIpo(r(pdyioy is that which
is eatea with bread, and is comm(mly ijjiov
or a;j/ii)iiav, something roasted for the purpose
of eating with bread. Since fish was very
frequently used for the purpose, the word
was often used for "fish" itself (LXX.,
Numb. xi. 22 ; ch. vi. 9, 11. Other equivalent
words are found in Attic Greek, Trpo(r<pi.ynii.a,
irpa(r6^litt). Children (lads, young men
yonder), you have nothing, I suppose, to eat 1
Xhey answered him, ITo. In all this scene
the risen Lord showed himself interested
and co-operating with them in their daily
toil, as engaged in the same work with
them. Their listless manner showed that
they had toiled in vain, and, perhaps with
tone or gesture of unwillingness to confess
their failure, they replied in the negative.
Then he said ' to them, Cast the net on the
right side of the ship ; the side opposite to
that on which they were dragging it along.
Moreover, the "right hand," the "right
eye," the " right ear," the " right side," are
proverbially the more useful, fruitful, or
honourable. The imagery is preserved
throughout Scripture. And ye shall find.
Therefore they cast it. And in order to do
this tliey would probably have had to hanl
a considerable portion of it into the boat
for the necessary transference from left to
right. They at once obeyed the summnns,
remembering what they had previously
found to have been their experience (Luke
v.), and no longer were they able, or had
they strength, to draw it into the boat.
'E\Ki(Tai is here quite a different process
from the aipovrcs of ver. 8, which describes
the hauling, tugging, of the net to shore.
The difficulty arose from (or, because of)
the multitude of the fishes. The miracle
here is a simple indication of the higher
knowledge which the Lord possessed. This
huge shoal may, humanly speaking, liave
been perceived in its approach ; so that the
event is more impressive in its analogical
force than in its supernatural machinery.
It suggests the surprising results that would
accompany their labour when they should
under the Lord's own injunction and inspi-
ration, become veritable fishers of men. The
parabolic teaching of this miracle ii on-
usually obvious.
Yer. 7.— Therefore, m • diitinst oonie-
> Tischendorf (8th edit) iwda x^
instead of tlwn.
603
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xxl 1— 2&
qaence of the vivid reminiBcence of the paatj
with Budden intuition given to him by the
event, and a fresh lealization of the identity
of the lisen Lord with the Master Jeens, that
disoiple therefore whom Jesus loved — who
must have been either one of the sons of
Zebedee or oae of the two unnamed disciples.
The latter supposition is inapposite from the
intimacy between Peter and John, which the
synoptic narrative, and references in the Acta
and Gal. 11., have recorded ; that disciple
knd no other, the one so often referred to,
one of the seven, saith unto Peter, It is the
Lord, Had he not again and again done
wondrous things of power, wisdom, and
love ou this very spot, in these very waters ?
So John comes intuitively and with true in-
sight to the sacred truth and reality, and his
conduct is again contrasted wonderfully with
the energetic and impulsive Peter (ch. xx. 5,
6). The same relative characteristics of the
two apostles have been preserved throughout
the fivefold narrative. Such u contrast so
delicately and persistently sustained lends
certainty to the objective reality. Aooord-
ingly Simon Peter, when he heard^ It is the
Lord — for the words flashed conviction into
him — hurried at once to put his new Idea
to practical proof. The word of John
satisfied him, and, not seeing for himself
what John saw with mental eye, he accepted
the joyful news, and was the first to spring
into the sea, and, with his usual energy, to
cast himself at his Master's feet. He girt
his coat about him (for he was naked). The
word yviiv6s does not mean perfectly nude.
A man who had simply the x'ti^k or tunio
upon him was practically thus regarded.
The word yviJM6s occurs in Isa. xx. 2 ; 1 Sam.
xix. 24 ; Job xxiv. 10 in the same sense. The
proper name for the tunic, or garment next
the skin, was iiroSirns, and that which was
put over the tunic was iTnvSirris and iirevSu/jLU
(Meyer and Wettstein, in loo.). The Talmud
has Aramaized the word, calling it Kni^Dtt
(_ependetha), and used it for the workman's
frock or blouse, often without sleeves, and
fastened with a girdle. Dr. Salmond truly
says that this reference to an act which
to ordinary men would have suggested a
diflferent arrangement of dress, reveals the
eye-witness. Hengstenberg suggests that
Peter simply girded his upper garment for
the purpose of swimming more easily ; but,
as Luthardt observes, with this ixcvSims
already upon him, he would not have been
" naked" And he oast himself into the sea,
intending, whatever might be the fate of
the laden net, to be the first to greet and
worship the Lord. Of the reception he
met with John says nothing: he knew
nothing. The Lord had some special in-
struction for him a little later. It is not in
haimeoy with the words, ai Gerhard rap-
posed, that Peter walked triumphantly upon
the waters. Not a hint of it occurs. Tha
hundred yards were rapidly covered, eithw
by swimming or wading to the shore mean-
while.
Yer. 8. — But the other disciples oame in the
little boat. Either what was first described
as T^ trKoim is now more minutely described
as irXotipiav, "the (same) little boat," or
else they had transferred themselves from
the more cumbrous fishing-smack to the
smaller craft which was tethered to the
larger one. The reason why the other
disciples came in the boat is given in the
parenthesis : (for they were not far from the
land, hut as it were two hundred cubits ofE);
i.e. about three hundred feet, half a stadium,
a hundred yards, 'hirh to denote dittanee
from, is used in this Gospel (see note, ch. xi
18) and the Eevelation (xi v. 20). The disciples
came in the boat over this distance, dragging
the net (full) of fishes. The net was not
broken, though filled. They did not further
attempt to lift it ; they hauled it to the shore
as it was. Strauss, who tries to show that
we have a glorifying myth framed out of
an amalgam of the narratives of the first
miraculous draught and that of Peter walk-
ing on the water, is singularly unfortunate ;
for there is less of the supernatural in the
story than in either of the two narratives to
which he refers.
Ver. 9. — So when they were oome to land
(literally, with Bevised Version, got out of
fhe boat upon the land ; K reads dvifiriaay
instead of a.ire0naai/'), they see a file of ooals
there. The word ivipaxia occurs only in ch.
xviii. 18 and in this place. It is derived
from &vepal, a "coal of fire," or burning
charcoal. Observe the form KtiiUv-nv (cfc
ch. ii. 6), which implies that the burning
brazier was placed there for a purpose. And
fish laid thereon, and a loaf.' ('Oi|/i£fiiai' and
oxiiipta, used both in the singular and the
plural for the roast relish eaten with bread,
and, by reason of the customary food of the
people, is often used for " fish " or " fishes.")
Our Lord was regarding the whole of this pro-
ceeding from the standing of one who would
meet their hunger, and was conscious of
power to feed the world in its utmost need.
So the provision which was thus mude in
advance for the need of the disciples be-
comes symbolic of Christ's power to meet
all the wants of the dying world. Numerous
speculations have been hazarded about the
met'iod employed by our Lord to prepare
tills meal. The early Fathers, Chrysostom,
Thnophylact, with Grotius, have appealed
» "A fish" and «a loaf" are put in the
margin of the Bevised Version, in oontraat
with the many flshei which are now at thail
dispoiaL
OH. XXI. 1—25.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDmG TO ST. JOHN.
608
to Chrlft'i creatiTe power. Lnthardt thinks
of the miniBtiy of angeU. Some hava
BUggested that Feter prepared the hasty
repast during the interval that elapsed
between his landing on the shore and the
approach of the boat. Our Lord, who knew
how to arrange for the last lupper with his
disoiples, and who had all the resources
of Providence, and hosts of disoiples along
the shore, would, with superlative ease, and
without revealing himself to strangers, have
made this simple meal ; and, with Ids know-
ledge of the case, would have still de-
lighted to act towards his beloved ones as
at once their Host and their Minister. He
■imply prepared for hii own what he has
been doing ever since.
Yer. 10. — JesuB Baith to them, Bring of
the fish (oi^dpia) which ye have now taken
(see note on ver. 3). It is not exactly said
what was done with this fish. The impli-
cation is that to the scanty meal already
provided, the new supply was added, and
that the Lord permitted his disciples to join
his repast, and to rejoice with him at the
Buocess of their labour. They and he shared
in the travail, and were satisfied therewith.
The circumstance is highly parabolic of
the common joy which would fill his heart
and theirs when the fidness of the Gentiles
should be brought in, and all Israel be
saved.
Yer. 11. — ^Then Simon Feter went up.'
Here again Simon is first in action, as John
is the more rapid and real in hia mental
processes. The other disciples may have
aided him, following his lead ; but the
singular verbs are used on both occasions
(ivi^n and rf\Ku(rf). In like manner,
though the twelve apostles took part in the
transactions of Pentecost, Peter opened his
mouth to speak. On other occasions, while
John spake by the eloquent glances of his
eye. and the rest of the disciples joined their
leader in testimony and prayer, Peter's
voice was that which conveyed the mighty
exultation of their common heart (Acts iii.
12, etc.; ir. 8, etc.; viii. 20, etc.; x. 34 —
xi. ; XV. 7 — 11). The word dvePri, " went
iip," must be explained by the fact that
avaPaivsiy is used of embarking in a vessel
(ch. xxi. 3; Mark vi. 51; Acts xxi. 6),
though in each case there is some difference
in the manuscripts, with reference to the
text, as there is also here. If the vessel
was drawn up on the shore, with the net
attached to it, the form of expression is
explicable. Peter went up into the boat
for the lines of the net, and, having secured
It, he drew the set to the land,' full of great
> M and L read iw^Bri instead oliwifiri.
* 'EtI t^i yrjs of T.K. has bean replaced
by K.T., Tisohandorf (8th adit.}, TiagaUes,
flshsB, a hundred >'nd fifty and thraa. Yarions
efforts have been made from early times to
give some symbolic meaning to this ennme-
ration. Canon Westcott has detailed several
of these strange guesses. Cyril of Alexan-
dria set the example, and was followed by
Ammoniut the presbyter, who both in dif-
ferent ways regarded the 3 as representative
of the Trinity, the 100 + 50 representing,
in different proportions, the success of the
apostolic ministry among Gentiles and Jews.
Augustine observes that 10 is the number of
the Law, and 7 the number of the Spirit,
10 + 7 = 17 ; and the numbers from 1+2
+ 3 . . + 17 = 153; so that the numlier ra-
presents all who are brought to God under
every dispensation of grace. Gregory tA«
Qreat reaches the value 17 in the same
fashion as Augustine, but, says he, it is only
by faith in the Trinity that either Jew ar
Gentile ever reaches the fulness of salvation ;
17 is therefore multiplied by 3 = 3 x 17,
which produces 51, which is the number ef
true rest ; multiplied again by 3, which com-
pletes the glory of the perfected, it is 153.
Hengstenberg, following Grotius, supposes
a reiierence to the 153,600 Oanaanitish prose-
lytes who were received into the kingdom
in Solomon's day (2 Chroo. ii. 17) 1 though
the odd 600 certainly confuse the reckoning.
Jerome refers to the opinion of a learned
naturalist of the second century, Oppian,
who is teid to have ascertained that there
were 153 different kinds of fish in the seas,
and that the apostles took of every kind,
revealing the ultimate success of the fishers
of souls with every kind of man — an allegory
based on false science and insecure data,
and involving a stupendous miracle, if it
be meant for an historical fact. Several of
the modern Tiibingen BcUool, in various but
unsatisfactory ways, see in the number one
made up by the letters composing the name of
Simeon (71) bar (22) Jonah (31) Kephat (29) ;
and here even Keim follows suit. Thoma
finds the number in the mystic IxeTS,
"Jesus Christ the Son of God, Saviour."
Beuss discourages mystical or occult mean-
ing. The remark of Baumgarten-Crusius,
that the number is simply an index of the
authenticity of the narrative, and of the fact
that the fishes were counted on the occasion,
is eminently sensible (so Godet and Meyer).
The fact that it is not a round number adds
to the probability of this statement, and
enters a caveat against allegorical interpre-
tation. And for all they were so many, the
net was not rent. This is obviously a point
of contrast with the first miraoulous draught
of fishes, when the nets brake and the boats
began to sink. This does fonn a probabla
Alford, and Westoott and Hart, by tls tV
y^y, with K, A, B, aai BHsaMas owuTas.
«04
THE GOSFEIi ACOOBDINO TO BT. JOHN. [oh. zzl 1—'ZS>
•llegoiy of the nicceBS with which the final
faigathering of aonli ahall be effected.
Yer. 12. — Jesus saith to them, Come and
break your fast, A word ia used which
does not denote the principal meal of the
day (not Sniryiia, but ipuTTda, from ipurroy),
but a slight refreshment that was taken in
early morning, or at least before noon, and
answers to our breakfast at the dawning of
the day.' He calla them to the repast. He
becomes once more their Host and their
Minister. Even still, metaphorically, he
washes their feet. He attends to their re-
quirements. He feeds them from this
strangely bestowed supply. He joins them
in their hunger for souls. He inspires their
methods. He shares in their victory, after
painful -fruitless toil. Now * not one — i.e.
not even Thomas — bi the disciples durst in-
quire of him — put to him tlie interrogatory —
Who art thoul knowing, each one of them,
that it was the Lord. The use of iitrciffiu
instead of tpHT^orai, John's own word, is
not to be wondered at, as he does not think
of a simple inquiry, but of snch an exami-
nation as would furnish them with facts.
These they possesaed. A feeling of awe
and reverence possessed them. They were
of one mind about the marvellous revelation
of himself to them. Seme strange emotion
sealed their lips. He had not manifested
himself to the world, but to his disciples,
and to them by "the interpretations they
were putting upon their own experience"
(Westoott). They knew it was the Lord.
They looked into that other world. They
were lost in silent amaze, and received the
revelation once mora of their risen Master
and Lord,
Yer. 18. — Jesus eometh,* and taketh the
bread, and givsth them, and the fish likewise.
It would seem that the apecifio bread and
fish already referred to (ver. 9) was the
material of at least the first part of ttiis
sacramental meal. No benediction or prayer
is mentioned. If this may not be presup-
posed, his presence made the feast, and was
tue blessing. Meyer says, however, that
&PTOV and otfiipioy, as in earlier verses, are
simply generio. On either supposition, it
is clear from vor. 15 that more fish were
' Sea 'Diet. Bible,' art. "Meals." The
substantial (Seiiri'iu') meal took place in the
evening (Josephus, 'Vita,' § 44 ; ' Bell. Jud.,'
i. 17. 4), called by our translators " dinner *
or " auppe*."
* Authorities for the S4 after obSelt are
much divided. Tisehendorf (8th edit.) and
B.T. retail it : but Alford and Westcott and
Hort reieot it
• N, 3,0, D,L,X, Tisehendorf (8th edit.X
TrvgoUea, Alford, Westcott and Hort, and
B-TTMiit tko etr of A. r, A. and T.B.
prepared and used by the seven dlaoiplei
than the solitary loaf and o^ipiov whieh
were first seen upon the fire. The Lord
gave them symbolically the entire gift of
his love by that which he came forward at
this moment to supply,
Yer. 14. — This if now— or, as Meyer puts
it, thi» time already it — ^the third time that
Jesus was manifested (passive, not active, aa
in ver. 1) tO the ' disciples, after that he was
risen from the dead ; or, when he had been
raited from the dead. The implication ia
that there had up to this time been no other
manifestation to gronps of his disciples than
those which John had related. Thereforo
those other occurrences mentioned by Luke,
Matthew, and Paul muat be supposed to lie
still in the future. That there were other
manifestations ia not obscurely hinted by
the word ijSi). The appearances to the
women, to Cephas and James, are not of
the class so carefully described by John.
The elra rois SdSeKa of 1 Cor. zv. 5, etc.,
might be regarded as this third manifes-
tation to the disciples (Luthardt). Godet
agrees that the two appearances in Luke
(Emmans and Peter) are not reckoned by
John, any more than that made to Mary
Maffdalene. The statement, "to the dis-
ciples,* is clearly the explanation. Paul
mentions the appearance (1) to Simon Peter ;
(2) then to the twelve (ch. xi. 19, 26); (3)
to the five hundred, at the head of whom
may have been the eleven of Matt. xxviiL
16 — 20; (4) James; (5) the twelve (the as-
cension not described by John). Since Lnka
and Paul (Godet) omitted the narrative be-
fore us, John is here repairing the omissions
of tradition. It seems quite as reasonable
to place this third revelation to a group of
apostles as the third of Paul'a enumera-
tions. John ia explicit in recording appear-
ances to the special, combined, and chosen
vritnesses, while he not only implies, but
mentions, other manifestations. Paul recitea
the special manifestations of various kinds,
and gives most important details dropped by
other traditions. The apocryphal ' Gospel
according to the Hebrews,' as related by
Jerome ('Cat. Script. Eccl. « Jacobus "'X
quoiM the passage which refers to the in-
terview between Jamea and the risen Lord.
Gregory of Tours (' Hist. Francorum,' i. 21)
refers to the tradition as though he had
taken it from some analogous but not iden-
tical source (see a full discusaion of the
passage in Nicholson's ' Gospel according to
the Hebrews,' pp. 62 — 68). If the previou*
manifestations of the risen Lord were made
> Tisehendorf (8th edit.), Tregellea, Al-
feid, B.T., and Westcott and Hort rsject
the aiiroS, with K, B, 0, L, and aiunurow
ouraivu.
CH. XXI. 1—25.] THE GOSPEL AOOOBDINa TO ST. JOHN.
m
to loye, to thoTight,to earnest thongh trem-
bling inqniry, to ipiritual vision only, so
here we md that, amid the ordinary duties
of life and the activities and disappoint-
ments of daily service, the Lord manifests
himself. The eye of love and the heart of
rook are made ready for special assurances
of the Master's presence and power to help
and guide disciples throughout that myste-
rious future iu which they are to feel and
realize his words, "lot I am with you
alway, even to the end of the world."
Vers. 15— 19.— (2) The revelationt to he
made in the servicei dictated by love and
iieuing in martyrdom. The con/ettion made
by Simon Peter, and the charge given to him.
Ver. 15.— When therefore they had break-
fasted, Jesus saith to Simon Peter. His full
name and Christ-given appellation is in the
mind of the evangelist ; but he, with marked
emphasis, shows that our Lord went baok
to his relations with Simon before the latter's
first introduction to him (see oh. i. 42, etc.),
and recalls the attitude Christ had taken to
Simon on more than one memorable occasion
(Matt, ivt 17 ; Luke nil. 31). On two of
these occasions the simple humanity of the
apostle was the basis on which the Lord
proceeded to confer upon him the high
official designation. The grace of God, in
the first instance, selected Simon of Jonah
to be a rock. In the second, " not flesh and
blood," but the Father's grace, revealed the
mystery of the Divine Bonship to him, and
won the name of Peter. In the third, the
utter weakness of Simon's own flesh reveals
the power of the prayer of Jesus for him,
so that he might ultimately convert his
brethren: and now "Simon'' is reinstated
after his fall into his apostolic office. Simon,
son of Jona — or, John ' (see ch. i. 42, note)—
lovest thou me mora than these t i.e. more
than these other disciples love me f Thou
hast seen more of my compassion, farther
into my heart, deeper into my Person, my
positiun, and my work, than they have done ;
thou hast dared again and again to ask for
higher service and more conspicuous dis-
tinction. Thou hast made louder protesta-
tions than any of these of thine nnworthiness
to serve me, and in the deep consciousness of
humiliation thou hast been more emphatio
• The authorities are much divided as to
the readings. (1) 'Iwivyou is given in N', B,
C*, D, L, o, b, d, Vulgate. Meyer here
and oh. i. 42, with Westoott and Hort, B.T.,
and Tisohendorf (8th edit.), thus read. (2)
'ladvov, on the authority of some corrected
manuscripts, is adopted by Laohmann, Al-
ford, Tregelles, and B41e Kevisers. (3)
'Imi/S, by T.B., with A, C, X, A, and other
manuscripts, numerous rarsinns and qnota-
tions ; and this is still retained by Lange.
than any of them in refusing grace which
thou thoughtest it might dishonour me t«
give. Thou didst indeed say, " Though all
men should be offended at me or should deny
me," thou wouldst never be offended and
never deny me. " Dost thou love me more
than they do ? " There is no positive refer-
ence to the denial and fall of Peter ; but the
implication and suggestion cannot be hidden,
though Hengstenberg and others fail to ap-
preciate it. The circumstance that Peter was
"grieved" because the Lord put this ques-
tion to him a third time makes the reference
very little less than explicit. The real
significance of the narrative is the reinsti-
tution of Peter in the position of importance
he had fllled throughout, and an indication
of the nature and quality of that service.
In Simon's reply. Yea, Lord; thou knowest
that I love thee, three things are very
noticeable. (1) Peter says nothing of the
superiority of his affection for his Lord over
that of his colleagues. Had they not in
outward act been more faithful than he?
He could not arrogate any sweeter, dearer,
more abounding affection than he was willing
to believe that they felt for their Master.
It is scarcely worth while to notice the
miserable translation that some few com-
mentators have suggested: "Lovest thou
me more than (thou lovest) these fiehing-
smacks and this thriving business on the
lake?" Observe (2) Peter's admission
that the Lord knew his inmost heart, con-
cedes, therefore, that the question was merely
intended to test his faithfulness, and foroa
him to a more salutary and binding acknow-
ledgment Notice (3) Peter's change of
phraseology. The word used for " love " by
the Lord is iyairdu, but that which is used
in response by the apostle is i(wXfi, the love
of natural emotion, and even tender, intimate,
personal affection. The Latin language, by
rendering ^lAS by omo rather than diligo,
expresses the subtle shades of meaning
between <pt\t!r and 070^01'. There is, how-
ever, no English word but "love " for them
both. The admirable remarks of Archbishop
Trench ('Synonyms of New Testament,'
§ xii.) find special illustration in these verses.
Many passages occur in which amo and
ifiiKdK seem to mean more and have deeper
intensity than diligo and i7aira«. Amari is
the affection which a friend may desire from
a friend, even more than diligi ; but the latter
denotes choice, mental conviction, and self-
recognition of the fact. Antony, in his
funeral oration over Ceesar (Dion Cassius,
xlL 48, quoted by Trench), says, 't.<^i\iaaTt
eArtiy is mrifa Kal if/airiiaaT tts tifpyf-
riir. Thus in the New Testament we are
continually told of the kfiAy r^r Sfir,
but never of the <fiiXt<r r^¥ 9tir. GM il
hirasair said to kywnrw Mid f A«» tW cMk
506
TEB QOSFEL AOOOBDINa TO BT. JOHK. [oh. xcl 1— 2S,
When, therefore, the Lord here asks Simon,
'Kyairas, " DoBt thou esteem me worthy of thy
lore ? " Simon, with a burat of pergonal aflfeo-
tion, Bays, yet with a certain humility, " I
love thee" — meaning, " Such lore as I can
lavish upon thee, such as I may dare in
my humility to offer thee, O my MaBter,
Brother, Friend!" This being the case,
/esTis saith, Feed my Iambs, Love to Christ
is the first, high, main condition of faithful
service. The chief of the apostles will have
this as his ^rime, chief, and most laudable
service. Each of the terms of the commis-
sion, in its threefold repetition, resembles the
other; and Meyer says the whole duty of
the pastor of souls and earthly shepherd of
the flock is involved in each of the three
expressions. Our Lord commences, however,
with providing true food, seasonable nourish-
ment, for the "lambs" of the flock. The
ti-nder emotion involved in the term cannot
be excluded, but it is a comprehensive and
suggestive one, and embraces the young
converts, the first believers, those who with
impetuosity and gladness receive the Word ;
the little children who will literally crowd
into the Church become the highest and
saoredest care of the chiefest apostles and
most honoured of pastors. The first, the
main thing they need, is the milk of the
Word, and the sweetest pastures. ThiB
consideration of the next generation, and
gracious eare for the children and the child-
like of every successive age, is one of the
sacred signs of Divine revelation. Our Lord
is represented in the synoptics as " suffering
the little children " to " come to " him, as
"blessing them," and rejoicing in their
hosannas. St. John preserves and glorifies
the whole conception by recording this com-
mission of the risen Lord to the greatest of
the apostles. If the babes and sucklings
had "held their peaee, the stones would
have cried out," is the pathetic approval of
the rejected Lord. "Feed my lambs" is
the gracious, unexpected summous of the
triumphant Christ and Lord of all.
Yer. 16. — He saith to him again the second
time, Simon, son of Jonas (John), lovest thou
me ! Here our Lord omits, as Peter had
done, the " more than these," but he again,
with perhaps deeper meaning, uses the word
&7an'at. Dost thou render me even more
in one sense, though less in another, of thy
heart's reverence ? Dost thou treat me with
the oonMenoe and esteem, submission and
admiration, which are my due ? Again Peter,
with his heart bursting with personal affec-
tion, feels that he can and must say. Yea,
lord ; thou knowest that I love thee ((fii\w
at ; i.e. love thee dearly'). The commission
that follows ia the second stage of pastoral
sfflce. He saith to him, Tend (" act the part
of ahepherd ") mj sheep, Christ is the " good
Shepherd," and, as Peter puti it in 1 Pet.
T. 4, the "chief Shepherd." He has laid
down his life with a view of taking it again,
and ever after discharging the functions of
the Shepherd. He means to bring all the
"sheep" into one flock. They shall all
hear his voice, and receive from him ever-
lasting life. Meanwhile the leader of the
apostles is made to appreciate that loTO
is the condition of all healthy guidance.
Faculty for rule is part of the very nature
of the pastoral care. The sheep will need
this even more than the " lambs ; " the old
disciples will require, even more than the
young converts, both direction and command.
In this respect the subsequent career of
Peter was more conspicuous than that of
the rest of the apostles (see Kev. ii. 27 ; vii.
17 ; Acts XX. 28 ; 1 Pet. v. 2 for the use of
the word). But the shepherding of the
sheep is an essentially necessary and integral
portion of every pastor's care. When assailed
by the wolf of heresy, by the hostile marauder,
by new conditions of any kind, by special
danger, unless he can in self-forgetting love
pilot and protect his flock, ha is no true
shepherd.
Ver. 17, — And now Peter aeems to have
conquered, by his persiatenoe, the heart of
his Lord, and Jesus adopts the very phrase
which Peter twice over had substituted for
that which he had himself used; for he
saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of
Jonaa (John), lovest thou ma 1 (<pi\ets /tte ;) ;
aa if he had said, " Dost thou indeed love me
dearly, love me as a friend, love me with the
earnestness and fervour that twice over has
corrected my word into one more congenial
to thee, and more ample and true than that
used by myself? " This trait of Peter's cha-
racter, which John has hinted on several
occasions, is abundantly illustrated in the
synoptic narrative and in the Acts of the
Apostles. Peter was grieved hecausa he said
unto him the third time, Lovest thon me t
The grief was natural. The repeated question
suggests some doubt about his sincerity, and
the adoption of the apostle's own word cut
him with a more poignant heart-thrust ? He
may have thought thus : Jesus seems to dis-
trust the reality of my personal affection,
and will not accept my implication that
this is more to me than the most thought-
ful kyaiHi, the most deeply meditated and
measured reverence. He was grieved
because a third time seems like an infinite
repetition, and, if repeated thus a third time,
it may be asked me again and again every
day of my life. He was grieved from the
irresistible analogy between the threefold
denial of which he had been guilty, and thia
threefold interrogatory. He does not say ai
before, " Yea, Lord ; " but commences. Lord,
then kiioweat(sISas) all things. Omnisoienoa
OH. XXL 1—26.] THE GOSPEL ACCOBDIlSra TO ST. JOHN.
607
is fieelT conceded to the Lord . All thingi that
Peter aid, thought, or felt, all his bewilder-
ment, all his mistakes, all his impulsiveness
and mixture of motive, all his self-assertion,
all his weakness and disloyalty, are known ;
but so also all the inner springs and lines of
his nobler nature, and that though he played
the fool, he was a hypocrite in his deniala.
The Lord knew that his faith did not really
fail, though his courage did; and in Tlrtue
of this breadth of the Lord's knowing, he
must have come to full cognizance of the
entire meaning of Peter's life. Thou (seest)
hast oome folly to know that I love thee !
Just because thon intuitively knowest all
things. The play on olSas and yiviiaKeis is
obvious (see oh. x. 14 ; xvii. 3, etc.). Jesus
saith to him, Feed my little sheep.* It is said
by some that, even if this be the true read-
ing, we have simply a renewal of the tender-
ness and strong emotion which led the Lord
to apeak of the ipvia on the first occasion.
Doubtless deep and glowing affection per-
vades the use of these epithets ; but if this
be the sole expllination, then the reason of the
adoption of Trp6$aTti, in the second commis-
sion is not evident, &pvia would have answered
the purpose. There is distinct progi-ess in
themeas: (1) "Peed my Zom6»;" (2) "Rule
(shepherd) my $1teep;" (3) "Feed my little
ihtep." First, let Peter, let the apostolic
company, let any one of the successors
of the apostles, learn the delicate duty of
supplying the just and appropriate nourish-
ment to those that are young in years
or in graces: then let him also learn to
guide, direct, protect from outward foes,
the mature disciples, and preserve the dis-
cipline of the flock, seeking the lost sheep
until it be found ; and he will find that then
a third duty emerges. The sheep that are
young in heart, the old men that are childlike
in spirit, the trembling sheep that need even
more care than the lambs themselves, are
specially thrown upon the shepherd's care.
Was not Peter himself a Tpo$ttTi6vJ Had
he not shown that he was a most imperfect
master of himself? He was mature in years,
but childish as well as childlike in character.
He could (for a while) only see one thing at
a tiiae, and he was impatient of the future.
Mark well i is churacteristic words, " Depart
fr im me, for I am a sinful man, O Lor d I "
"That oefar Irom thee,0 Lordl" "Why
cannot I follow thee now?" "Thon shalt
never wash my feet 1 " " Not my feet only,
but my hands and my head!" "Let us
build for thee three tabernacles I " "Not
' UpiBara is the reading of N, D, and
many manuscripts; but irpoBaTid is in A, B,
0, both the Syriao versions, and is accepted
by B.T., Westoott and Hort, Tischendorf
(8tb sdjt.), Tre|;eUe^ ftodet, and Meyer.
so; I have never eaten anything common oi
unclean I " These are familiar illustrations
of the childishness and infantile simplicity,
babyish audacity, of the old disciple. Even
after the Loid has risen from the dead, Peter
ventures to correct his language. Christ,
moreover, accepts his persistent alteration of
the word for "love' from the lips of this
TtpoBariov. Thus the Lord summons him to
undertake a duty which he would on reflec-
tion be specially able to appreciate.
Ver. 18. — Verily, verily, I say unto
thee. This form of address links tlie pre-
resurrection life to that which follows,
proclaims the identity of the being and
the unity of the Person of the Christ under
new conditions. More than that, much
solemnity is conferred on this final word
of the Master. When thou wast younger
than thou art now; t.e. before thou earnest
under my sway; when thou wert supreme
ruler of the flshing-fleet of Capernaum,
with wife and family dependent on thee;
when Andrew, James, and John (thy part-
ners) were in a measure all doing thy will,
following in thy train, submitting to thy
behests, — thou girdedst thyself for whatever
task was set before thee; thou hadst the
choice of duties and pleasures ; thou hadst
time at thy disposal, thy method of service
in tliine own hands, even as now it was thy
will to gird ttiee for the task of swimming
to my feet (see Isa. xlv. 5; Frov. xxxi.
17; 1 Kings xviii. 46; ch. xiii. 4, 5,
tiaQdvvviu ; Luke xii. 35 — 37 ; xvii 8 ; Acts
xii. 8, itepi^6vwp.i ; 1 Pet. i. 13, avaQ^wvixi,
The simple verb is used here in reference to
all kinds of "girding"). So that the Lord
reminds him of his natural self-will, so
conspicuous and prominent, the secret of
all hiis weakness and much of his individu-
ality. And thou walkedst whither thon
wouldest; or literally, (hou wert in the
habit of walking whithersoever thou wert
willing or desiring to do; i.e. thine outward
conduct, and the whole line of thy daily
enterprise and duty, was not only an
utterance of thine own self-mastery, but even
thy wishes, the momentary waywardness of
thy purposes, found immediate gratification.
But a great change has come over thee;
thou hast passed through a new experi-
ence. Already thou feelest that thou art
not thine own; thy heart and strength,
thy hands, thy feet, thy very girdle and
sandals, are beginning to seem to thee no
longer at thine own disposal. Thy self-will
is checked, thy natural audacity and power
of initiation are repressed into much nar-
rower limits. Thou hast found thyself
weaker than a little child ; thou art in need
of this Divine principle of " love," deep and
fervent, reverential as well as personal, not
only to utter bold expressions of regard^
SOS
THB GOSPEL AOOORDIKO TO ST. JOHN. [ob.zzl1— 2S.
bat to fonn the Tery focns and new central
foroe of thy whole being; and lo it will
come to pusa that this new force will more
than master thee ; and when thon ihalt be
old and gray with yeare, thy service to that
other and higher will shall be complete:
thou wilt stretch forth thy hands in token
of entire submission to the will of another,
however it may be revealed to thee—
whether at the instance of " the angel " or
"Herod," of "Cornelius" or Nero's execu-
tioner! This remarkable phrase has often
been supposed to mean the " stretching
forth of the hands of the cmci£ed " on his
being appended to the cross. But such a
process would follow rather than precede the
" girding," which is, on such an interpreta-
tion, taken literally of the girding that pre-
ceded the nailing. There can be no doubt,
from the language of St. John, that this
was the final and forcible illustration of the
new principle that would take full posses-
sion of Simon Peter. But meanwhile it was
a long life of willing surrender to the
Supreme Will which gives its highest
meaning to these words. And another shall
gird thee, and carry thee ' (or, bring thee)
whither thou art not wishing to go. The
old self-will, though it be indeed mastered,
will not have utterly vanished. If it be not
so, where would be the sacrifice? Even the
blessed Lord himself said, " Not my will,
but thine be done." Verily, even the sancti-
fied nature of the sinless Man, prepared in the
spotless womb of the blessed Virgin by the
Holy Ohost, anointed by the Spirit, and in
living absolute union with the only begotten
Son, — even he was, in human consciousness,
disposed to cry, " If it be possible, let this
cup pass from me," etc. We need not
wonder, then, that to the very last, when the
supreme will was manifested to Peter in
the approaches of violent death, he should
feel the will of the flesh thwarted. The
exquisite legend embodied in the " Domine,
quo vadis ? " (see ch. xiii. 33) confirms the
entire representation of the character of
Peter. So also does the story, preserved by
TertuUian (' Ue PrsBs.,' 35 ; 'Ad Scorp.,' 15)
and EusebiuB (■ Hist. Eccl.,' iii. 1), that the
apostle preferred crucifixion with his head
downwards, on the plea that to be crucified
as his Master was too great an honour for
one that had denied his Lord.
Ver. 19. — This he said, adds the evange-
list, signifying by what manner of death,
not necessarily crucifixion (Gkidet), but that
violent and martyr-death to which the
prince of the apostles was called. How
" Laohmann, Tischendorf, T.R. and R.T.
put re before (,Aa(u K, D, n, read dAAst
^wwovteu K, for •i<rci inrov^ reads T«i^<nivn
rm tr% ^ ihall io to thae whatsocTtr," ato.
many anticipations, partial beginning!, of
the final scene must Peter have passed
through before, in utter human helplessness,
but in Divine, supernatural strength, h*
tlretched out his haruis, allowed another to
gird him, prepare him for the day's work,
and carry him whither all his natiire would
shrink to go I There is no other hint what-
ever of literal cruoifixion than this phrase
of " stretching out the hand," which is no-
where else applied to the peculiar method
in which the crucified ones suffered.
Doubtless the transposition of the two
phrases must not be pressed too much, ^ca
the itretchiiig of the arms might possibly
bear the literal interpretation of the action
which was forced upon the victim, and the
subsequent " girding " refer to the ivhligor
oulum, by which he was fastened to tile
instrumunt of torture ; while the " being
carried whither he would not " might,
though by soroe forcing of the phrase, be sup-
posed, though enigmatically and obscurely,
to refer to the uplifting of the cross witii
its living biurden. The phrase, " signifying
by what manner of death he should glorify
God," is peculiarly Johannine (ch. xii 33 ;
xviii. 32). This sublime term for the
suffering of the great saints, taken from
the light which the Lord's agony had cast
upon holy death, became a permanent
Christian idea (Suicer, 'Thes.,' i. 949).
When John wrote, the fact of Peter's deatii
must have been well known throughout
the Church. There is every probability
that he had long since been crucified, and
the solenmity of the utterance was aug-
mented and pointed by the well-known
manner of the death of the illustrious
apostle. This was, however, by no means
the only meaning that naturally flows out
of the warning; nor is Peter's experience
the only illustration that it bears. And
when he had spoken this, Jesus saith to him,
Follow me. There may have been a primary
interpretation derived from Christ's removal
to a distance from the rest of the disciples,
and the intention of conferring upon Peter,
there and then, special and further instruo-
tions. But from the context, in which the
contrasts of life, character, and service are
conspicuous, it would seem impossible
(Meyer) so to restrict the meaning, as
Tholuck and others do. The command ia
the concentration into one burning utterano*
of all that is meant by Christian life — that
coming into relation with the living Lord,
that imitation of his principle of action,
which, as St. Paul in Phil. ii. has shown,
was capable of imitation in the narrower
and smaller circle of our human experienoa.
If it be rational for the Lord to have said,
" Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven if
patfek,'* and for Paul to h«T* pressed ■{»«
OE. ra. 1— 25.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
009
his converts, " Be ye followera of Ood, w
dear children ; " " Be ye foUuwers of lue, aa
I am of UbriBt," — then the Lord gathered
all the mles of conduct which were involved
in his previous discourses into one word,
when he laid upon the man who should be
a fisher of souls, a feeder of lambs, a shep-
herd of sheep, a feeder of the little sheep of
the flock, the comprehensive duty, " Follow
me." Those interpretations which make
the words mean " ITollow me as universal
bishop and pastor," as that of Chrysostom
does, are incompatible with the narrative;
or if we suppose them to signify, " Follow
me into the invisible world," or " Imitate me
in my martyrdom," this would be unpractical,
and Dy no means in obvious harmony with
the kind of injunctions just given. We give
the passage from .lames Innes' translation
of Aug., 'Tr.,' oxxiii. 4, which Westoott
justly implies is beyond translation : " Such
was the end reached by that denier and
lover; elated by his presumption, prostrated
by his denial, cleansed by his weeping,
approved by his confession, crowned by his
suffering, — ^this was the end he reached : to
die with a perfected love for the Name of
him with whom, by a perverted forwardness,
he had promised to die. He would do,
when strengthened by Christ's resurrection,
what in hu weaknesss he had promised
prematurely. The needful order was that
Christ should first die for Peter's salvation,
and then that Peter should die for the
preaching of Christ." Our Lord, when
appealed to with reference to John, does not
merely repeat the injunction, " Follow me,"
but forces upon Peter the original summons.
This undoubtedly gives a solemnity and
specialty to the work of Peter, to which the
subsequent career of John was not an exact
parallel. It cannot be said that our Lord
in any sense forbids John to follow him,
but says that, though John may abide, may
rest, may meditate, may see visions and
dream dreams, until he the Lord should
come, that would in no respect alter the
direct advice given to Peter. On referring
to the earliest scene described in this Gospel
between Jesus and his disciples, we find
that " Follow me " was addressed to Philip,
Moreover, Andrew and John were, on their
first introduction to Jesus as " the Lamb of
God," already (aKol^ouBoivTas) "following
him," and they were even then asking for
power or permission to " abide " (jifveivy
with him. But Peter was not then told to
"follow him," but was simply invested
with the great name of Cephas (oh. 1. 42).
These details are obviously supplemented
by those before us. The entire phraseology
is borrowed from the mtrlier narrative.
The true lolution of the problem of the
paragraph is that John had followed the
Master from the first, and elnng to him
(l^civc), abiHle with him, from those early days
till the momeut at which tliese memorable
words were uttered. In tlie journeys to
Jerusalem, at the interview with Nico-
demus, in Samaria, at the pool of Beth( sda,
in the ball of the high priest, and in
Pilate's pi89toriura, at the upper chamber,
and in the garden, to the cross, and to the
grave of Joseph, the beloved disciple had
" followed " his Master. Peter's devotion
was intense and at times passionate, but it
was marked with a striking disposition, from
first to last, to lead as well as "follow,"
to advise as well as to be guided, to stretch
forth his hands, and to gird himself for his
own enterprises. But with all his extra-
ordinary pecniiarities, he had never really
broken the bond or relinquished his faith;
and now the Lord in one word corrects
every one of his failings anew, and institutes
him into his sublime mission by the call,
" Follow me." But even yet, Peter's extra
ordinary characteristic, to guide rather than
to follow, leads him once more to take the
initiative. For whatever gesture it was
that our Lord made, which induced Peter to
think of immediate action, we cannot say ;
but it would seem that, even before he began
to follow, he gave another intensely vivid
characterization of himself.
Vers. 20-i2a.— (3j The revelations made
to patient waiting for the coming of the Lord,
with correction) of a mitunderitanding touch-
ing the disciple whom Jestu loved.
Yer. 20. — Having turned himself round,
instead of keeping every glance for his
Lord, Feter seeth the disciple whom Jesus
loved following (iKoKovBovvTo), obeying the
command without offering one suggestion.
The writer adds, by way of further identifi-
cation, he who also leaned back at the
supper, upon his breast, and said. Who is he
that betrayeth thee 1 (see notes on ch. xiii.
23). The note is here introduced to show
the close connection of Peter and the beloved
disciple. It was Simon Peter who had
beckoned at the supper to the beloved dis-
ciple to ask this very question.
Vers. 21, 22. — Feter then,' seeing this
man, saith to Jesus, Lord, and this man,
whati What is the duty, place, fate, or
honour of this man ? Faulus and Tholuok
suggest in the words the inquiry, " May
not this man come now and hear our inter-
course,- share in my travail and the like ? "
Meyer supposes it to be dictated by a certain
jealousy or curiosity, a consciousness of con-
trast between his own itapetuosity and the
■ This oSv, on the anthority of K, B, 0, D,
33, and Yulgate, Coptic, and Byriae, is in-
troduced by Tischendorf (8th edit.), Tre-
gelles, and B.T. T.B. omits it.
610
THE GOSPEL ACCOBDOrO TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xxt 1— 26.
beloved disciple'i qnietndesnd lelf-poBseR'
■ion. Clearly the inqnixy was not altogether
pleasing to the Lord, and led him once
more to reiterate the original injunction.
If I will that he abide nntil I come, what
is that to theet Follow thoa me. Do
thou follow me, and cease to inqnire after
another's duty. Meyer considers that the
fievsiv is the opposite to aKoXovdeiv — that the
latter word means "following unto death
and martyrdom," while the former means
*• to be preserved alive," and turns to Phil,
i. 25 and 1 Cor. xv. 6 in vindication. Doubt-
less that was the crude explanation which
led to the subsequent legend of his immor-
tality on earth, and the apostle's own dis-
claimer; but the word ixevfiv seems to be
used in ch. i. 37, 39, 40, and in many other
places, of the complement and entire fulfil-
ment of the idea and practice of iKo\ov8eiy —
of that abiding in Christ which is the full
result of heartfelt following and nnquestion-
ing submission to the Saviour's will (ch. xv.
4,5, 10; see also 1 John ii. 6, 17, 24, 26;
iii. 24 ; iv. 15). Taking with these passages
the corresponding and alternative use of the
word to express the manner in which God,
truth, or love "abides" in the child of God,
it would seem as though it were the key-
note of much of John's most mature ex-
perience— a fact which is very remarkably
elucidated by the passage before us. Baur,
Hilgenfeld, Schwegler, Strauss, have urged
from this passage that the writer was con-
tending against the Fetrine tendency in the
Church, by representing John as the higher
and more distinguished apostle ; and, ac-
cording to Kostlin, a precisely opposite ex-
pression was conveyed by the unknown
writer, who meant to flatter the Boman
primacy, in the second century, by the dig-
nities thus conferred upon the chief of the
apostles. Both hypodieses are baseless.
The beloved disciple quietly accepts here
the r61e of "abiding," "waiting," "resting
in the Lord," and admits the superior energy
anil constant initiation which Peter was, as
a man, constrained to pursue. There is no
jeaIousybetweenthem,northehintof it. John
receives more than he asks. " If I will that
he abide till I come," eto., has been variously
interpreted (the condition is not a simple
supposition, there is a probability or uncer-
tainty in tbe period of the " abi<ung " — the
apodosis declares the as yet unuttered con-
dition to be without bearing on Peter's im-
mediate duty). Some have said that it
means, "If I will that he enjoy the long
life and the natural death of one who rests
with Christ nntil he comes to take him
home by a quiet departure, until he comes
to receive him to liimself " (ch. xiv. 3. So
Ewald and Olshansen). This view is im-
probable, because matt eertainly in that
sense, Peter too followed and tarried and
abode with Christ till the day when he was
taken home. Luthardt suggests that the
saying, as here given and interpreted by
John himself, not of physical immortality,
but of the coming itself, is John's way of
asserting that the Lord hat come ; that in
the fall of Jerusalem, a.d. 70, the destruc-
tion of the theocracy, and the obvious estab-
lishment of the true kingdom in all the world
was the " coming," the vapovaia, the Ipxofmi,
of which the Saviour had always spoken.
John " sees the coming of the Lord in that
event." In this general interpretation, Stier
and Hengstenberg concur. Westoott throws
more light upon it by wisely emphasizing
(eas Ipxofiai) the coming, not as one great
event, but that continuous realization of hig
return which is the lofty privilege of faith ;
and shows that in numerous places cut points,
not so much to the ultimate consummation,
as to tbe interval which will elapse between
the commencement and the consummation
of the coming (cf. ch. ix. 4; xii. 35; Mark
vi. 45 (with dvo\iti); 1 Tim. iv. 13; Luke
xix. 2 ; Matt. T. 25). How frequently has
Christ spoken, in the latest discourses, of
coming again, to fill the sorrowing with joy,
to teach in the power of the Comforter, to
judge the prince of this world, to raise
and quicken the dead I Such abiding is the
full issue of faithful following. Surely two
types of character pervade the whole dis-
pensation— the Martha and the Mary types ;
the faithful servant who works and trades
with his talents, and the virgin who waiii
for the Bridegroom; and these two types
both meet with appropriate advice. Simon
is bidden to follow, and, occupied with busy
cares of the Church, leave results to Christ ;
but John, who has passed into the sanctuary
of holy love, is encouraged to rest patiently,
and in obscurity and silence, to glory and
serve by "standing and waiting."
Ver. 23. — We need not be surprised that
the sublime meaning of these words, " Wait
while I am ever coming to him," should
have been misunderstool. Therefore this
word went forth to the brethren. The
designation, " brethren," only occurs in oh.
XX. 17 and Luke xxii. 32. The more fa-
miliar names of" disciples " and " children,"
" servants " and " apostles," are used in the
Gospels. The Acts and Epistles introduce
a new group of titles, e.g. " believers " as
well as "brethren," "saints" as well as
"disciples," "Christians," "slaves and
soldiers of Christ," "sons of God," "priests
and kings," and " little children ; " but now,
acting on the Divine hint of the Lord's own
words, John speaks of his fellow-disciples
who are called into the sacred fellowship
as " brethren." The word went forth that
that discipl* dieth not (tKta/as. eanivaleat
(Kxaxl— 86.] THE GOSPEL ACOOBDING TO ST. JOHN.
Sll
to "the diBoiple 'whom Jesus loved ").
This -was not an aanatuial supposition, as
his age adyanced, and he was regarded as
the "great light of Asia," the depositary
of the latest traditions, as the link between
the days of our Iiord's ministry and two
■uooeeding generations of believers, the seer
of mighty visions, the enemy of all un-
righteousness, and the apostle of love to the
lost. In virtue of this very tradition, three
hundred years later it was said that the
holy apostle was still sleeping ia his tomb
at Ephesus, and that the dust moved lightly
on ms heaving breast (Augustine, ' Tr. on
John,' cxxiv. 2). Here was the beginning
of a genuine myth, which, having no real
root in fact, failed to establish itself. " John
the Baptist ia risen from the dead," ex-
claimed Herod Antipas, "and therefore
mighty powers energize in him." But
there was no life and no truth in the story,
and even among the disciples of St. John
Baptist it did not take any place as a sup-
posed fact. It is interesting to see that here
a myth was started without positively bad
faith, and based itself upon a recorded say-
ing of the Lord ; but it perished I The aged
apostle strikes the folly dead with one stroke
of his pen. The language is remarkable,
as helping to prove tiiat John wrote this
chapter as well as the rest of the Gospel,
Yet ' Jesus said not onto him, that he dieth
not ; but. If I will that he abide while I am
ever coming, what is that to thee t Meyer,
who always insists on the apostolic idea of
the noamess of the vapouaid, thinks that John
does not decide here whether the rumour
was true or false, and simply says it must,
when he wrote, have been left still uncertain
and unsettled (so Luther). The tradition is
not authoritatively condemned ; but it is
shown to be a mere inference, one inference
out of many, from words partially understood.
The Epistles of John show how deeply John
pondered the idea, and how much he crowded
into the words, " abide in' him," until the
coming, and before and during and after the
various comings of the Lord to him. Mr.
Browning, in 'A Death in the Desert,' makes
St. John say in his last hours —
" If I live yet, it is for good, more love
Through me to men : be nought but
ashes here
That keep awhile my semblance, who
was John, —
Still when they scatter, there ia left on
earth
■ On the authority of K, B, 0, 33, etc., ovk
tht 8i is preferred to koI ovk (Tire, by West-
cott and Hort, Tregelles, and B.T. ; but not
by Tisohendorf (ijth edit.}, Lachmann, or
Alford.
Ko one alive who knew (consider this I)
— Saw with his eyes and handled with
his hands
That which was from the first, the Word
of life.
How will it be when none more saith, * I
saw ' ?
Such ever was love's way: to rise, it
stoops.
Since I, whom Christ's mouth taught, was
bidden teach,
I went, for many years, about the world.
Saying, ' It was so ; so I heard and saw,'
Speaking as the case asked : and men
believed.
• • • • •
" To me that story — ay, that Life and
Death
Of which I wrote ' it was ' — to me it is ;
— ^Is, here and now : I apprehend nought
else.
Yea, and the Besurrection and Uprise
To the right band of the throne — . . .
I saw the Power ; I see the Love, once
weak,
Besume the Power; and in this word * I
see'
Lo, there is recognized the Spirit of both
That moving o'er the spirit of man,
unblinds
His eye and bids him look. . . ,
Then stand before that fact, that Life
and Death,
Stay there at gaze, till it dispart, dis-
pread,
As though a star should open out, all
sides,
Grow the world on you, as it is my
world."
In ver. 23 we find the significant close of the
Fourth Gospel, and there is much to make it
highly probable that the two remainin g verses
were added by the Ephesian elders, as their
certificate of its authorship, and their iden-
tification of the beloved <^sciple with the
author of the GospeL It difiers from the
similar passage, ch. xix. 35, where the writer
himself gives his own autoptic testimony to
the great miracle of the spear-thrust ; and
where that testimony is declared by himself
to be tt\riBivli, " veritable," ».«. answering to
the very idea of testimony. Here the person
and verb are plural.
Vers. 24, 25. — (4) Note of lubsequent edU
tors idith reference to the authorship and the
fulness of unrecorded traditioni touching the
words and deeds of Jesus.
Ver. 24. — This is the disciple who testifleth
concerning these things — whether those
narrated in the twenty-first chapter or in
the entire Gospel. He is still testifying.
He has not yet departed. He still proolaima
fiia
THE GOSPEL AOOORDINa TO BT. JOHN. [oh. xtl 1— 2Sk
hi* goipel of the lore of God, Ui memorial
of "the Word made flesh," of "the Light
of the world," his doctrine of the " eternal
life whioh was with the Father, and has
heen manifested nnto ua." And wrote these
things — compare "these things write we
onto yon, that yonr joy may be full " (1
John L 4) — and we know (as a matter of
fact, otSuiuv) that his testimony is tme
^aKn^s),''xeraeioMB." We know him; we
believe in his representation ; we know with-
out any shadow of doubt npon our mind
that what he has said answers to the fact.
It does not need that any of the elders
should have seen the Lord to justify the
use of olSafiey. Meyer supposes that these
words, notwithstanding their plural foim,
simply show that John identifies himself
with his readers, and, from the peculiar
deUcaoy of his mind, hides himself and his
mdiyiduality among them or behind them.
Alford compares it with oh. i. 14, " We have
se«n his glory," and 1 John iv. 14, 16 ; v.
18. Chrysostom and Tbeophylact read, in
place of o7Sa;uei>, olSa fidy, " I indeed know
that his testimony is true." This ingenious
method is rejected by modern scholars, on
the principle that the writer would not thus
have passed from third person to first. This
does not seem to be insuperable: Paulus
adopted this solution. The chief difSculty of
admitting that these words are a note by the
Ephesian presbyters, and of ignoring Chry-
sostom's suggestion, is that ver. 25 contains
an imquestionable reintroduction of tlie first
person in the ol/iau This difSculty is, how-
eyer, surmounted by Meyer, on the supposi-
tion that the last verse is not Johannine.
Meyer and Tischendorf (who excludes it
from his text) suppose it to have been a gloss
by later hands, one which departs from the
gravity and dignity of an apostle by its
strong hyperbole. Still no codex but the
Sinaiticus omits it, and the omission may
be due to the loss of the last folio, on which
it may have been written ; while every other
codex contains it. Oodet thinks the writer
was one of the elders who had joined in the
previous authentication, and refers to " the
strange notice which Tischendorf records
from a manuscript in the Vatican, that Fapias
was the secretary to whom John dictated the
entire Oospel," and imagines that the hyper-
bolic style of some of the extant fragments
of Papias might account for the extravagance
of the statement it contains. Lange and
Alford regard the whole verse, together with
ver. 24, as Johannine, and suppose that
John here speaks in proprid persona when
the fulness of his memory baffled all ex-
pression. Some treat the ol/xai, eto., as a
possible saying of John's which was added
oy the auuors of both verses. We think
that the presence of th* ot/uu (a very nniisnal
word in the New Testament) is possibly
accounted for by the recollection which some
of those who had often heard the beloved
apostle speak may have had of his way of
describing the superlative richness of the
life of our Lord, and that the brief appendix
by those who bore this testimony to the
veracity and authenticity and apostolio
origin of the whole narrative is of priceless
value. Undoubtedly it asserts with perfect
clearness that John the son of Zebedee
was the author of the Gospeh If, neverthe-
less, the work be that of a forger, who secured
an accomplice in his deed of imposition, he
is a moral anomaly; for, while acting so
unworthily, he was nevertheless glorifying
the doctrine . that God is true, and that
every lie is of the devil (oh. viii. 44), and
has produced a work which turns from end
to end on a realization of the truth. The
words on which so many speculations have
been raised are —
Ver. 25.— There are also many other things
whioh Jesus did, the which, if they should
he written one by one (or, each by itself),
I suppose even the world itself would not
oontain the books which would (then) be
written. Some have suggested the idea
that x'op^o'c"', or x""??"^"") means " morally
contain," "bear with," "endure." This is
unsatisfactory. The writer, by the use of
the name "Jesus," is not going back to
the pre-existing, premundane activity of the
Logos, but is simply conveying his enthusi-
astic sense of the inexhaustible fulness of the
human life of the blessed Lord. The whole
redeeming life, word, and work of the Word
made flesh had a quality of infinity about
it. The entire evangelic narrative has only
touched the fringe of this vast manifestation,
a few hours or days of the incomparable life.
Every moment of it was infinitely rich in
its contents, in its suggestions, in its in-
fluence. Every act was a revelation of the
Father, of the Son, of the Holy Spirit,
giving vistas into the eternities, and open-
ings into the heart and bosom of Deity, Let
all that thus was done take thought-shape
in human minds, and woid-shape in human
speech, and book-shape or embodiment in
human literature, and there are no conceiv-
able limits to its extent. We uso such ex-
pressions continually, without feeling that
we are adopting any unnatural or unhealthy
hyperbole. The infinite abundance of the
teaching and significance of the blessed life
of the Son of God is ample justification •!
the apostolio enthusiasm.'
* The " Amen " is no part of the original
text, says Westcott ; •'.«. it is not found la
K, B, C, D, and several important versioat
and oursi ves. A very luge unmbei do^ h*w>
•ver, contain 11
(n. xn. 1—26.] THE GOSPEL AOCX)EDma TO ST. JOHN. 613
HOMILETIOS.
Vers.^1 — 8. — The fishing in Galilee. This chapter is an appendix to the Gospel
written by the Apostle John.
I. The scene of oub Lord's next appeaeanoe to the disciples. " After these
things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias." 1. It wa>
not at Jerusalem, which was now forsahen and, in a sense, abandoned to its own delusions.
2. It was at the scene of our Lord^s opening ministry. (1) Galilee was the place to
which he had ordered the disciples to repair, with a promise that he would meet them,
f 2J It was the place from which he had drawn all his disciples save Judas Iscariot.
(B) It was the scene of his greatest popularity and acceptance.
II. The disciples to whom oub Lobd appeared. "There were together Simoa
Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Kathanael of Cana in GalUee, and the sons of
Zebedee, and two other of his disciples." There were, therefore, but five of the eleven
apostles and two disciples.
III. Their occupation. " Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a-fishing. They say
unto him. We also go with thee." They resumed their old mode of life as fishermen,
awaiting the sign that should fix their future course. 1. This step was necessary for
their daily subsistence. 2. The apostles give us an example of diligence in their codling.
They do not care to eat the bread of idleness. 3. The scenes around the &aliliean sea
would vividly remind them of many a miracle and many a discourse of their blessed
Lord. Quiet recollection is part of our education for duty.
IV. The Lord's help in the prosecution of their oallino. 1. The disciples
passed a fruitless night upon the waters. " That night they caught nothing." 2. Tfie
appearance of Jesus to them. " But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on
the shore : but the disciples knew not that it was Jesua." (1) They were, perhaps, so
preoccupied that they did not recognize him. (2) Jesus may be near to his people, in
their extremity, though they may not know it. 3. Sis directions to the wearied and
dispirited fishermen. " Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find."
(1) The want of former success must not discourage from fresh efforts. (2) The first
duty of disciples is to obey the Divine command. (3) Two factors are needful to
success — the faithful work of the disciples, and the blessing of the Lord upon it. (4)
The success of their fresh effort. " They cast therefore, and now they were not able to
draw it for the multitude of fishes." What a proof of our Lord's omniscience and power 1
V. The glad recognition of our Lord through the miracle. 1. John is the
first to know him. " It is the Lord! " His penetrative, contemplative insight is quick
to make the discovery. 2. Peter's eagerness to reach his Lord. " Now when Simon
Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him (for he was naked),
and did cast himself into the sea." What an instance of the characteristic impetuosity
and affection of Peter 1
Vers. 9 — 14. — The repast on the sea-sfiore. 1. The Lord makes provision fob the ,
IMMEDIATBLT- PRESSING WANT OF THE DISCIPLES. 1. They must have been hungry and
exhausted with the long and fruitless efforts of the night. Mark our Lord's considera-
tion for their bodily comfort 1 " Thou shalt eat the labour of thy hands." " Come and
dine." 2. Mark the awe of the disciples. " None of the disciples durst ask him. Who
art thou ? knowing that it was the Lord." There was something mysterious in the
appearance and manner of the Lord that kept them in awe.
II. The object of this repast. 1. It was partly to make the disciples feel their
continued dependence upon the Lord. 2. It was partly to afford an opportunity for his
significantly important dealing with the Apostle Peter.
Vers. 15 — 17. — The restoration of Peter. Though the Lord had already appeared to
his disciple (Luke xxiv. 34 ; 1 Cor. xv. 5), he had not yet formally restored hun to the
place he had forfeited by his three denials.
I. The solemn question of cub Lord to Peteb. " Simon, son of Jonas, lovest
thou me more than these ? " 1. The question is thrice repeated, that it may tUeit m
threefold confession answerable to the threefold dtniai tf our X«r4> 2. Tkt qttsstiun ^
fQtOXy—U. Sli
614 THE GOSPEL ACCOBDma TO ST, JOHN. [cH. xxju 1—26.
ittfirtAform, teems to remind the apostle of the presumpttunu guperiority he had claimed
for himself ^ove all the disciples. " Though all men forsake thee, yet will not L" " Lorest
thou me more than these ? " — these other disciples. It is a suggestive fact that Peter's
assertion of extreme devotion had occurred in immediate connection with the promise of
our Lord to meet his disciples in Galilee. 3. The question is concerning the higher love
of veneration and confidence which is the spring of the Christian life (iiyan^v) ; not the
feeling of mere natural affection or simple personal attachment (ipiKeiv). 4. The question
makes an appeal to personal experience. (1) It is not an appeal to fsdth, but to love ;
for love is a far more practical test than faith. (2) It is implied that love is that of
which a man may he conscious. It may be known by itself, and not merely by its
doings. (3) It is that feeling which — first to come, last to go — tells most surely the
heart's relation to Christ. Hence the Apostle Paul girdles the whole Churcb with this
girdle when he utters the catholic blessing, " Grace be with all them that love our Lord
Jesus Christ in sincerity." Hence also he fences off the Church from the world by the
terrible anathema, " If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema
Maran-atha."
XL Peter's thbee answers to ottb Lord's threefold question. 1. The first
answer is, " Yea, Lord ; thou knowest that I love thee." (1) He appeals to our Lord's
omniscience. Experience had taught him to distrust his own judgment ia a matter so
personal and so solemn. (2) There is deep humility in the answer, (a) He does not
now boast of his superiority to the other apostles, as if to say, " I love thee above them
all;" he now merely ranks himself with true lovers of Christ, (b) He does not adopt
the higher term {iyawfy) used in the question, but contents himself with the mere term
of simple and friendly relationship (<t>t\eiv). 2. The second answer is, " Yea, Lord; thou
knowest that I love thee." (1) The Lord had dropped the words, "more than these,"
from his second question, because the answer to the first showed that the words in
question had done their work. (2) The apostle repeats his appeal to the Lord's
omniscience. (3) He still shrinks from using the higher word (aymr^f). 3. The third
answer. " Peter was grieved because he said untohun the third time, Lovest thou me ?
And he said unto him. Lord, thou knowest all things ; thou knowest that I love thee."
(1) The grief of the apostle was excited by the remembrance that his past conduct
might well suggest a doubt of his present love. (2) Our Lord drops the higher term
and adopts the lower (<pi\(7y), as if to test the truth of the feeling now twice expressed
by the apostle. The change of term must have touched Peter to the quick. (3) The
answer is, accordingly, a passionate appeal to our Lord's absolute omniscience, in which
is included his special knowledge of Peter's heart. The variety of the terms employed
is very significant : " Thou knowest all" things "— oTSoi, with the knowledge of Divine
intuition ; " thou knowest that I love thee "—^wdirKeis, with the knowledge of direct
observation.
III. The bolehm ohaboes given to Peter bt oub Lobd. They imply that our
Lord accepted the apostle's answers in all their deep and touching sincerity. 1. First
charge. " Feed my lambs." This is shepherd's work. (1) The young members of the
flock are to be cared for. They prepare the generations following. (2) They need to be
fed with " the sincere milk of the Word " (1 Pet. ii. 2), as well as guarded against false
seductions and kept from wandering. 2. Second charge. " Lead my sheep." (1) The
more mature Christians are to be cared for. (2) They need watchful guidance.
3. Third charge. " Peed my sheep." (1) Our Lord returns to the word " feed," as if
to emphasize the importance of instructing the whole flock in the pure Word of God.
(2) We hear the echo of our Lord's charge in the voice of this under-diepherd long
after : " Feed the flock of God which is among you " (1 Pet. t. 2).
Vers. 18, 19. — Prediction of Peter's death. Our Lord next announces what will be
the manner of the end of his disciple's ministry.
L The Lord has fixed the time of Peter's end. 1. Job speaks of the days ef
man being determined. "The number of his months are with thee ; thou hast appointed
his boimds, that he cannot pass," 2. Jesus has a lordship over the life and death of his
taints. " If we die, we die unto the Lord ; " " He is the Lord both of the living and
of the dead " (Rom. xiv. 8, 9). 8. The Lord's disposal of hit saintif lives makee thmt
iminortal till their work i$ dtmt.
fn.zzx.1— 26.] THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINO TO ST. JOHN. 615
n. Tkb Lobd dktermines the maniteb or Petek'b death. It was to be a
death of Ttolence. He was to become a martyr of the Christian faith. " When thou
wait young" — Peter was now a middle-aged man — " thou girdedst thyself" — possessing
full liberty of life — " and walkedst whither thou wouldest " — with full freedom ol' move-
ment— " but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands " — as helpless
and in the power of others — " and another shall gird thee " — as a condemned criminal —
" and carry thee whither thou wouldest not." A violent death, as being unnatural, is
shrunk from. But these words are to be regarded solely from the standpoint of natural
feeling. 1. The apostle understood the exact nature of this prediction, as we know by
his own words, "Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our LoTd
Jesus Christ hath showed me " (2 Pet. L 14:). 2. The death of the apostle was to redound
to the glory of Qvd. " This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify Gk)d."
The martyrs glorify God (1) by their readiness to sacrifice their lives for the sake of
God ; (2) by their patience and resignation in death ; (3) by the evidence afforded in
their deaths of the sustaining and comforting presence of the Lord. 3. The martyrdom
of Peter took phtce in the year A.D. %^ It was, therefore, now a past event which the
evangelist records.
III. Peter's duty hewdefobth in life. " Follow me." 1. It was a solemn thought
to the apostle to know the destined end of his apostolic labours. 2. This knowledge would
intensify his eager zeal to work without pause during the term of life that remained to
him. 3. The command to follow Christ implied (1) that Peter should cast in his lot
with Christ, and make common cause with mm ; (2) that he should learn his will and
do his commands ; (3) that he should walk in tiie footsteps of his holy life.
Vers. 20 — 23. — The mystery of John't futu/re. The Apostle Peter began to follow
Jesus as he went forth, and, turning round, saw John following. He is anxious to know
the future destiny of his fellow-disciple.
I. Petbb'b question concebnino John. " Lord, and what shall this man do ? " or,
literally, "Lord, and this man! what?" 1. Consider the motive of this question.
(1) It was not prompted by mere curiosity; (2) nor, as some unworthily suppose, by
• feeling of rising jealousy, as if the Lord had reserved for John a happier destiny and
a more peacefjil end than that predicted for Peter himself. (3) It was prompted by
the purest love to a disciple from whom Pe|«r did not desire to be separated in life or
in death, (a) They were two apostles most intimately Unked together in the associa-
tions of our Lord's ministry. They were two of the three honoured with the more
intimate confidence of our Lord — apart with him (a) in the house of Jairus ; (jS) in the
Mount of Transfiguration ; (y) in the garden of Gethsemane. (b) "Their very variety
of gifts and temperament tended to cement the relationship more closely together. The
one was the man of reflection ; the other, of action. 2. Consider the meaning of this
question. "Lord, and what shall this man do?" Is he destined to suffer and die
like me? Or is he destined to a still longer life and a more peaceful and natural
death?
II. OuB Lobd'b answer to the Q17ESTI0N. " If I will that he tarry till I come,
what is that to thee ? " 1. The answer assumes a certain tone of rebuke, as if Peter's
question lay somewhat outside the sphere of his own direct concernment and duty.
2. It implies that the Lord exercises a Divine sovereignty over the lives and mier the
deaths of his servants. The Lord can make his servants " tarry " in the world as long
as it pleases him. 3. It implies that his servants ought to tarry till the Lord comes.
The words, therefore, rebuke (1) the madness of the wretched suicide who is in haste
to fling away his life ; (2) and the eager longing for death, sometimes manifested even
by God's saints, who are weary of the troubles of life and anxious for the rest of heaven.
They ought, rather, to work on tiU the Lord comes, and to accept either death or life,
after Paul's manner, as either may seem best to the Lord himself or best for the good
of the Church (PhiL i. 24). 4. The answer of ow Lord implies that each disciple has
a distinct position in the world. " What is that to thee ? follow thou me." (1) It
asserts each man's individuality. Each man has (a) his more separate sphere of
responsibility ; (6) his separate cares ; (e) his separate destiny. (2) Therefore each man
must look primarily to himself and his own duty, (a) Our Lord does not censure
the regard of social relations ; (i) but the neglect of individual concern, the disposition
n< THE GOSPEL AOCOBDIKa TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xxi. 1— 2E;
to interert one's lelf unduly in other people's concerns. 6. The aniwer of our Lord
impUet ihat we ore hownd to follow him through all the mystery that swrroundt our path.
" Follow thou me." Peter is to follow Christ whether he knows or not the future destiny
of his beloved fellow-disciple. (1) Men are sometimes loth to follow Christ because of
the pressure of intellectual, or moral, or personal difficulties. This is a ruinous as well
as foolish policy. (2) Our duty is to follow Christ in the hope either (o) that he will
solve our diffici^ties, (&) or that he will give us peace in presence of diflSculties, in tl e
hope of their future solution. Let us deal vrith the duty of the hour, and leave t)ie
future to Gkid. 6. The answer of our Lord implies that John would tarry tiU h it
coming. " If I will that he tarry till I come." The words are dark enough in the r
meaning, yet history seems to interpret them. (1) The brethren of that day imagined
that John would never die. John himself corrects this misapprehensidu, without,
however, giving any interpretation of our Lord's mysterious words. (2) The traditiot
existed long in the Church; — even in the third and fourth centuries — that John was eveg
then alive, awaiting the Lord's coming. (3) The Lord meant to say that John would
survive till his coming — at the destruction of Jerusalem. This event was not more than
a generation distant at the time, (a) Scripture speaks of the Lord's coming in connec-
tion with that event, which, by sweeping away the Jewish commonwealth, would leave
the ground clear for the establishment of the kingdom of Grod. (6) John did, as a
matter of fact, long survive this event.
Vers. 24, 25. — Conclusion of the appendix to the Oospd. These last words are added,
not by the apostle, but by some other hand.
L A TESTIMONY TO THE AUTHORSHIP AND TRUTH OF THIS GoSPEL. " This 18 the
disciple which testifleth of these things, and wrote these things : and we know that his
testimony is true." This language implies : 1. That John wa'( still alive. 2. That
he was an eye-witness and an ea/r-witness ofcM recorded in this Gospd. 3. That the
narratives were written by his hand in a spirit of truth, free from M exaggeration or
falsehood.
II. A COMPLETE LUB OP ChRIST WOULD BE PRACTICALLY OF INFINITl! DIMTSNSIONi.
" And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be
written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that
should be written." 1. A book of limited exten^ could never describe the acts uf an infinite
Being. 2. Tlie emphatic place given to our Lord^s works, including his miracles, shows
the stress that is to be laid, evidentially, upon miracles as an argument for Christianity.
3. The passage implies a vast activity of Christ. After all, we have but few miraclea
of his life recorded. He verily " went about every day doing good." What an amount of
beneficial work he compressed into the three years of his public ministry ! 4. /< tt satit-
factory for faith to know that nothing is omitted in the record of Scripture essential
to salvation. 5. It was a sign of Divine consideration to the wants of men that the
Scriptures should be suitable, in respect of their extent as well as their contents. The
Bible is large enough, but not too large for human use. 6. Let us prize it at the exhibi-
tion of a Divine life revealed for the salvation of the world.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Ver. 7. — The cry of joyful recognition. First uttered by John when he discerned the
form of his beloved Master upon the beach of the Galilaean lake, this exclamation has
passed into the hearts and the lips of all Christian people, who, amidst the variiius
scenes of life, have recognized their Saviour's presence, and have ever been wont to
acknowledge with reverential faith, "It is the Lord!" The circumstances in which
the words were uttered, as well as the words themselves, are full of instruction, sugges-
tion, and comfort.
I. How Jesus comes to be hiodkn. Others, beside the twelve, have for a tim«
Sailed to recognize the Son of God. 1. It may be through human misappieheiision.
Many there are who never really see and know Jesus. They misunderstand hii
character and ])urput;e8, his disposition with reference to themselves ; and consequently
tliey remain altogether estranged from him. 2. It may be through human unbelief.
Men aaay, and do, deliberately draw a veil between themielves and Chiiit. Their uai^
OH. m. 1—26.] THE GOSPEL A(XX)BDma TO ST. JOHN. 617
their tmspuituality, are a complete barrier to their really knowing him ; they are without
the receptiveness and sympathy which are necessary in order to such knowledge. 3. It
may be through human perplexity and despondency. In the case of the disciples this
seems to have been the explanation of their failure to perceive at once that the form
upon the shore was that of their Lord. Their minds were preoccupied with their own
distress, uncertainty, and troubles. And thus they were for a while blind to that very
presence which alone could bring them relief and blessing.
II. How Jesus combs to be becoqnized. He was hidden for a short season from
the eyes even of his own attached friends ; but the hiding was not for long. Nor will
he fail to make his nearness and bis grace known to those who are prepared to receive
the revelation. This he does : 1. By the voice of Divine authority in which he speaks.
There was command in the tones of Jesus when he bade the fishers let down their net.
He never speaks — however graciously and with however much of encouragement and
kindly invitation — save in a manner divinely authoritative. And the true disciples
recognize that royal tone. - 2. By the language of sympathy and love which he uses.
As Jesus pitied the poor fishermen who had toiled a31 night in vain ; as he aiidressed
them as his children, and showed commiseration; so does he ever appeal to the tenderest
feelings of humau hearts, awakening the response which love gives to love. 3. By the
provision which he makes for the needs of his own. There is a practical aspect in the
spiritual ministry of the Saviour. He provided breakfast for the disciples ; how could
he have given them a homelier welcome ? Thus does he give his flesh for the life of
the world. His Deity is recognized in his devotion and sacrifice. ' They who once see
what he has done for man can never doubt who he is.
III. How THE EECOONIZED Jesus IS GREETED. With the Cry, " It is the Lord I "
This is : 1. The cry of faith, on discovering in him the Truth of God. The long-looked-
for vision breaks upon the soul. He who has been desired draws near. 2. The cry of
obedience, as his will is felt to be authoritatively binding. He speaks the language of
command ; and the obedient soldier adopts the wish as law, and does the bidding of hia
Captain ; for " it is the Lord I " 3. The cry of submission and resignation, as his hand
is discerned in the chastisements of life. Let a man say, " It is fate 1 " or, " It is
fortune ! " and how can he submit with profit ? But let him say, " It is the Lord I "
and he will add, " Let him do as seemeth good in his sight." 4. The cry of witness,
as Christ's presence is proclaimed to all around. It is the mission of the Church to all
the world, to direct attention to the world's Saviour and Lord.
IV. How THE RECOGNIZED JeSUB REWARDS HIS FAITHFUL DISCIPLES. 1. With
his society and friendship. 2. With his liberality and bounty, by which all their
spiritual wants are supplied. 3. With his power and benediction upon the life and
work of each one who acknowlsdges and serves him. 4. With the final vision of his
face. They who have seen him by faith on earth shall see him as he is above.
Blessed, rapturous, shall be the recognition, when the disciple shall open his eyes in
heaven, and shall exclaim, " It is the Lord 1 "— T.
Yer. 12. — 7%c diffidence ef reverent hearts. It does at first si^ht seem strange that
when John had exclaimed, " It is the Lord I " when Peter had plunged into the lake to
swim to the shore where Jesus stood, when all the little company had indubitable
evidence that Jesus was indeed with them, there should still have been this reticence,
this diffidence, this awe. Yet such conduct is not inconsistent with human nature ;
and its analogue is still to be discerned in human experience.
I. The Bom. rbcogkizes Christ bt hib Divine demeanour and languagi. The
authority and the considerateness with which Jesus addressed the disciples, and the
provision which he made for their wants, were to them an assurance that they were
not mistaken in their conviction that they were in the presence of their Lord. Only
let the heart be open to the manifestations of the spiritual presence of the Divine Luid
and Saviour of men, in his Word and in human suciety, and the concliisinn will be
reached speedily and certainly that the work witnesses to the Worker; that the light
and heat are an index to the presence of the sun. The correspondence between human
need on the one hand and Divine provision on the other is so marked and so perfect as
to suggest, and indeed to require, belief in the authoritative mission ef Christ, and in
his etwnal presence in human society.
618 THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xxL 1— 2&
II. The soul hay be deterred BT its YEBT BEVEBEKCE FBOU INTELLEOTITAIf
INQUIRY INTO Chbibt's csedentialb. No doubt there are thuse who believe ai they
have been taught and trained to believe, and -whose belief is simply the reflection ol
that of others. Yet there are natures, refined and sensitive, who are so perfectly con-
vinced of our Lord's Deity and mission, that to doubt of, and even to inquire into, thii
matter seems almost like a scrutiny into a mother's virtue or a father's integrity.
They have the witness within themselves. For some, evidences and investigation and
criticism may be necessary ; but for these reverent souls is no such need. Knowing
"it is the Lord," they dare not ask him, "Who art thou?"
III. Such paith is sufficient fob him who bieboisbs it, and ib acceftabls
TO THE LoBD HIMSELF. Men may reason and argue and dispute, a< d yet never come
to faith, whilst there are believing souls who are altogether indifferent to logical
processes and insusceptible to critical doubt. The heart may be peaceful and strong
in fellowship with the Saviour who has revealed himself to it. And he whose claims
will endure all scrutiny, and whose right transcends all debate, is yet willing to accent
^ the homage of the child-like, and the devotion of the congenial and the pure. — T.
Ver. 15. — " Lovett thou me t " To comprehend this interview and dialogue, it is
necessary to look at preceding circumstances. In a conversation which took place
before our Lord's betrayal, Peter had made the most ardent professions of attachment
and devotion to his Master. Though all should forsake Jesus, yet would not he 1 He
was willing even to die with himl But the events of tlie awful night of the Lord'*
apprehension and mock trial before the Jewish council, had made evident the moral
weakness of spiritual fibre which was hidden by his impetuous fervour. Peter's faith
had failed, and he had been led by timidity to deny the Lord he loved. That he
repented of his cowardice, and that with bitter tears, was known to the Master whom
he had wronged. These circumstances account for the language of Jesus when he met
his disciple by the lake of Galilee. Jesus elicited from his follower the thrice-repeated
expression of his love, and, having done this, treated Peter as one restored and recon-
ciled, imparted to him his apostolic commission, and predicted his future of service and
of martyrdom. Taming from the special incident which called for the question and
the answer here recorded, we direct attention to what is practical and of universal
application.
L A pointed question. "Lovest thou me?" 1. This question implies that Christ
has a claim upon our love. This claim is founded upon : (1) His supreme worthiness to
be loved. Who, in himself, in character, in moral excellence, can be compared with
Jesus, as the Object of human affection ? He was admired and loved on earth ; but since
his ascension he has been more intensely and far more widely admired and loved by
those whom he has left behind him. In a word, he deserves love ; and we " needs must
love the worthiest." (2) His love to us. Christ's is no cold, elevated dignity and
excellence. He is a Being of benevolence, compassion, and tenderness; and these
quahties he has displayed towards us. His love and kindness to men are simply the
expression of his holy, gracious nature. He first loved us ; and, if we love him not, we
prove our insensibility and moral debasement. There is nothing meanly interested and
unworthy in the love Christ's people bear him. (3) Especially upon his sacrifice and
death. " Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends ; " and this proof of Divine affection Jesus gave. His was the love which is
" stronger than death."
" Which of all our friends, to save us,
Could or would have shed bis blood }
But Immanuel died to have us
Beconciled in him to God.
This was boundless love indeed :
Jesus is a Friend in need."
2. This qaettion implies that Christ is solicitous and desirous of our love. Men often
seek the friendship of those who are above them in abilities, in station, in character, in
power. Jesus does just the contrary when he condescends to ask our love. It is a
proof of his disinterested and benevolent affection, that Jesus should deign to addrew \»
OT. XXL 1-^-25.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. KM
each hearer of His Word the queBtion, "Lovest t?iou me?" 3. This question implies
that in Christ's view our love towards himself is of vast importance to us. To love
him, as he knows full well, is to man the spring of the truly religious life. It is the
surest means of becoming like him. Nay, to love Christ is to be in the way of loving
everything that is good. It must not be supposed that such affection is the merely
sentimental side of religion ; it is closely connected with practice, for love is the
divinely ordered motive to duty and service. How different is Christianity from other
and merely human religions 1 These teach men to fear God, to propitiate God, but never
to love God. Jesus draws our love towards himself, and thus leads us into love to tlod
as the element of our higher life.
II. An ardent bbsponsb. In the case of Peter, the reply to our Lord's pointed
question was most satisfactory. It may well be pondered as an example for us, as
Christians, to imitate. It was : 1. An affirmative answer, inconsistent with coldness,
indifference, and mere respect. 2. A modest and not a boastful answer. Fetor had
endured a bitter experience of the mischief of self-confidence and boastfulness ; into
this sin he was not likely again to fall. 3. A coidial and sincere answer, opposed to
merely formal and verbal profession. 4, An open and public answer, such as should
ever be given to the rightful Lord and holy Friend of man. 5. A consistent answer—-
one supported by a life of loving devotion. 6. An acceptable and accepted answer.
When Jesus asks our heart, and we yield it, never need we fear lest he should reject
what we offer, — T.
Ver. 18. — The primacy of Peter. The career of St. Peter is a striking instance of
elevation from obscurity to fame. From a Galilasan fisherman he was promoted to the
leadership of the college of apostles, and has for centuries been revered by a great part
of the Christian world as the earthly head of the Church. The ardour of his love and
the boldness of his confessions endeared him to the Master; yet his self-confidence
and his temporary unfaithfulness grieved the Master's heart. Li the singular alterna-
tions of feeling and conduct he reminds us of David in the older dispensation. Both
have gained a position in human regard which the cold and blameless have failed to
reach.
L Pbtbr was thk fibst amono thb favoueed oeoup admitted to witnsss
Chbist's olosy and humiliation. Peter, James, and John were the favoured three
who beheld the glory of the Son of man upon the Mount of Transfiguration, and his
woe in the garden of Gethsemaae. Not only is his name mentioned first, but precedence
in action is on both occasions referred to him. It was he who exclaimed upon the
mount, " It is good for us to be here," proposing that tents should be reared for the
illustrious visitors and for their Lord. It was he who, when the foes of Jesus would
have arrested him, drew the sword in the Master's defence.
II. Petbb was the wbst to bbae witness to thb Lord's Divinitt. What
the others thought of Jesus at the time when he asked them, " Whom say ye that I
am?" we do not know; but it is recorded that Peter promptly and boldly replied,
" Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." His ready apprehension of his
Lord's nature, dignity, and office gave rise to the cordial acknowledgments of him to
whom he testified.
III. Pbteb was the fibst of the afostlkb to bbab witness to Chbist's
besubbection. fbom the dead. When on the evening of the day the disciples met,
the subject for wonder and for rejoicing was that the Lord had appeared uato Simon.
And Paul tells us that after his resurrection Jesus was seen first of Cephas. It is
recorded that, upon receiving tidings from the women, Peter with John hurried to the
empty tomb ; it must have been soon after this that this apoitle was favoured with
the interview twice referred to in the New Testament.
IV. Peter was the fibst, afteb The dbbobnt of the Holt Spibit, to fbeaoh the
Gospel to his fellow-men. The record in the Book of the Acts is explicit upon this
point. Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and spake forth to the
people, proclaiming the Lordship and Messiahship of the Bisen One, and announcing
through him remission of sins to the penitent and believing. In this he was the moutl^
piece of the Christian community, and the leader of the great company who published
the Word «f the Lord.
S20 THE GOSPEL ACCOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xzi. 1— 2&
v. Pkteb was the fibst ahono Cbbistiah confessobs to endube and deft thx
BASE OF the pebsecutob. In the fourth and fifth chapters of the Acts we have the
record of this apostle's boldness when confronted with the enmity of the rulen among
the Jews, How dignified was his demeanour, how faithful was his testimony, how
patient was his endurance of hostility and of persecution for Christ's sake, the author of
that book makes abundantly apparent to every reader.
VI. Petee was the fibbt among the twelve to welcome the BELiEviNa Gks*
TiLEB into the Cheistian Chuboh. First in the case of Cornelius, and then upon
the occasion of what is called the Council of Jerusalem, Peter proved himself to be
possessed with the Spirit of his Lord, in whom there is neither Jew nor Gentile. It
was he, occupying a position of peculiar authority and advantage, who may be said to
have thrown open the gates of the Church to those of Gentile descent. Paul was
indeed the apostle of the Gentiles ; but it we turn aside from the speculations of the
" higher criticism," and confine our attention to historical facts, we shall see it was
Peter who made it possible to widen the foundations of the Chiu-ch, and, without
endangering unity, to receive the believers in Christ from every race and nation into
the enjoyment of equal privileges and hopes.
VII. Petee was the pibst concbbninq whom it was foeetold that he should
SDFFEB A DEATH OF MARTTBDOM FOB THE SAKE OP Chbist. It is Certainly Very singular
that our Lord should choose the moment when Peter made protestation of his love and
devotion, and when he himself formally entrusted Peter with authority to feed the
■piritual flock, as the moment for predicting his martyrdom, particularly foretelling by
what death he should glorify God. His Epistles assure us that this language was not
lost upon the faithful servant, but that he learned to rejoice -in the prospect of partaking
Christ's sufferings. — ^T.
Ver. 19. — Ood glorified in death. There is something startling in this langut^ of
our Lord. God is the Giver of life ; and death, according to the scriptural teaching,
comes by sin. In life God is glorified. Yet, as Christianity transmutes dross into gold,
it is credible that even death may tend to the Divine glory. In the case of Christians
we can indeed see how this should be so.
I. The Chbistian, in obdeb to gloeift God in death, must fibst globift him in
LIFE. Such was conspicuously the case with Peter, with regard to whom this language
was first employed. Active energies were consecrated to no personal end of self-
advancement, but to the highest end of life. Similarly with every Christian, however
lowly his position and however brief his career. The end crowns the work. He who
lives well, dies well.
II. God mat be globified bt the Chbistian's death, whethbe that death bk
natubai. ob violent. In the case of Peter, the language of Jesus evidently pointed to
crucifixion as the mode of ttiat apostle's end. And in the early age of Christianity
there were evident reasons why many should be permitted to seal their testimony by
their blood. But then and always the highest purposes may be secured by whatever
mode of dissolution Divine providence allows. And a peaceM decease, though it may
be less impressive upon men, may be equally acceptable to God, and perhaps even
equally serviceable to survivors, as a triumphant martyrdom.
III. The spibit in which death is met by Chbistians is olobifyino to God,
This is emphatically the spirit of submission. Since men naturally shrink from disso-
lution, a principle of especial power is needed in order to overcome this tendency. On
the part of some dying Christians there is something more than patient acquiescence ;
there is joy and even ecstasy in the prospect of being with Christ, which is far better.
But even where such experience is wanting, there may be the manifestation of a tmly
submissive spirit. God is glorified in the patience of the saints.
IV. God is globified bt the eesults which the Chbistian's death pboduoes
UPON subVivors. The consequences which flowed from the early martyrdoms have
been generally acknowledged. It is proverbial that " the blood of the martyrs is the
seed of the Church." Even persecutors have been touched by the exhibition of con-
stancy, fortitude, and expectation of glory which they have witnessed on the part of
sufierers. And ia how many instances have children traced their new and holier life t«
the dying confession and victory of their Christian parents I Christ's death was tk«
OH. XXI. 1—25.] THE OOSPEIi ACCORDINa TO ST. JOHN. 521
life of the world; and the death of his followen U ever frnitful of spiritual and
immortal good. — ^T.
Vers. 21, 22. — Curiosity rebuked. Peter and John were the two among the twelre
who were nearest to Christ, and they were peculiarly intimate in their friendship and
congenial in their disposition. It was very natural that, when the risen Jesus had
uttered so explicit a prediction concerning the future of the apostle — ^viz. that he should
live to old age, and then should glorify God by enduring a martyr's death by cruci-
fixion— a general desire should be aroused in the breasts of the disciples to know some-
thing of the future history and the end of John. Especially it was very natural that
Peter should put to the Lord the question here recorded. Yet Jesus not merely
declined to comply with this request, he even rebuked the questioner for his curiosity.
L Thx causes of oubiosity. 1. Of these one is good, viz. the natural desire to
know, with which is conjoined that sympathy that transfers to another the feelings of
interest first belonging to one's self. A person utterly indifferent to the prospects of
his neighbours would be regarded as morally imperfect and defective. 2. On the other
hand, tiiere is something of evil in the springs of curiosity, inasmuch as this habit of
mind arises very much from the tendency to remove attention from principles, and
attach it to persons. He who thinks only of principles is pedantic, and his pedantry is
blamed ; but he who thinks only of persons and of what happens to them is curious,
and his disposition is condemned as trivial and prying. Peter's question was evidently
regarded by our Lord in this latter light.
IL The mischief of oubiosity. In two respects this mental habit is injurious. 1.
There is a great danger of the curious man's attention being drawn away from what
relates to himself and his own true welfare. 2. There is a further danger lest the
curious man should yield to the temptation to indulge in gossip, and even in scandal.
It is not easy to speculate much about the circumstances and prospects of others with-
out talking about their affairs, and surmising with regard to matters upon which we
have no means of exact knowledge.
IIL The bebukk and cube of odbiositt. The language of the Lord Jesus was very
emphatic and very just. 1. Let every man remember his own personal responsibility.
" Follow thou me," said Jesus to Peter. We are not accountable for our neighbours,
but we are accountable for ourselves. 2. Let every man remember that the case of
others is in the hands of Divine wisdom and beneficence. " If I will that he tarry till
I come, what is that to thee? "said Jesus; i.e. fear not; he is cared for equally with
thyself; a good hand is over him, and he shall not be forsaken. There is often good
reason for us to bear in mind the somewhat sharp but very needful rebuke of Christ,
" What ia that to thee ?"— T.
Ver. 23. — 2%« untrustworthiness of tradition. Tradition is the handing down from
one person to another of what is not committed to writing. It is customary in those
primitive societies where writing is unknown. It is practised also in communities more
advanced in civilization, when there is some special reason why it should be preferred to
documentary preservation and transmission. That there was traditional teaching con-
cerning our Lord's ministry is undoubted ; and it has been disputed to what extent our
Gospels embody, such teaching. But this passage seems to have been inserted here as
if to remind us how carefully coining ages of the Church have been preserved from a
fruitful source of error.
I. ThEBE WEBB PEOnLIAB SEASONS WHY THE BAYINO HEBE BEOOBDED SHOULD HAVE
BEEN FBESEBVED IN ITS INTEGRITY. 1. In tUs case the Saying concerning John was
a saying of Christ, and as such might be supposed to be treasured with the greatest
care and reverence. 2. It was uttered in the hearing of the select friends of our Lord,
who, if any could do so, would guard it from corruption. 3. The apostles of Christ must
have been the reporters of this saying to their fellow-Christians. 4. The person con-
cerning whom the tradition went abroad was living at the time that the misrepresenta-
tion was repeated.
n. Yet an altooetheb erboneous version of this sayino was oubbent in the
EABLT Chuboh. Although Jesus had simply said to Peter, " If I will that he tarry till
I come, what i» that to thee?" which might be simply a strong way of rebukmg
622 THE GOSPEL AOCOBDINa TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xxl 1—26.
curiosity, or an intimation that John should survive until the destruction of Jerusalem;
yet there went abroad a notion that Jesus had expressly assured his beloved disciple
that he should never die 1 Could there be a more remarkable perversion of the Lord's
words? a more signal instance of the untrustwoithiness of oral tradition? Yet, what
happened then has often happened before and since. Passing from one man's lips to
another's, facts may dissolve into fictions, and opinions may be reversed.
III. This instance suqgbbts how wise and mbbcitul an AKBiiraBMENT is that
BY WHICH THE GOSPEL 18 NOT LEFT TO OBAL TBADITION, BUT HAS BEEN EMBODIED IN
ADTHENTICATED D0017MENTS. By inspiring hls apostles to commit the gospel facts to
writing, our Lord has secured us against the mischiefs attending tradition. The truth
cannot be injured either by the zeu of friends or by the malice of foes.
Pbactical LESSON. Beadcrs of the New Testament are bound in reason to accept
and credit what there is no room for any candid inquirer to distrust. — T.
Ver. 24. — Witness authenticating witness. That the last two verses of this Gospel
are not the composition of the evangelist whose name it bears is plain enough. But it
is almost equally plain that this fact does not detract from their value, but, aU things
considered, rather adds to it.
L It IS EVIDENT THAT THIS GoSFEIi WAS KNOWN TO THE CONTEMPOBABIBS OF THE
Apostle John. Whoever wrote these supplementary sentences, this appendix to the
treatise, it is clear that the treatise itself was in his hands, and that he added his
witness in the earliest age, and in all likelihood while the aged John was stili living.
II. John himselb was known bt the weiteb or this appendix to be the authob
OF the Gospel. No one who is imprejudiced can suppose that this addition was made
long after the writer was dead, and longer still after the death of the great Subject
of the memoir. We have not here the record of an opinion; it is not the case of an
anonymous Christian giving expression to his judgment that, as a matter of criticism,
John was probably the author of the Gospel. " We know," he says — speaking for others
as well as for himself — " that his [the beloved disciple's] testimony is true." They had
doubtless heard many of the contents of the book from the lips of John himself, and
they had doubtless heard the aged apostle acknowledge the authorship.
III. The veese contains a ouabantee of the vebacitt op John. In stating that
they knew that John's testimony was true, the guarantors and attestors must have
been deliberately laying claim to independent sources of information. What more
reasonable than to believe that they had seen and listened to some who had been
witnesses of the Lord's death and of his resurrection-life ? They may not only have
entertained other apostles at Ephesus ; they may have visited Jerusalem, and have seen
those who in their youth had seen the Lord. In many ways they may have satisfied
themselves that the records of John were not " cunningly devised fables ; " that he had
spoken what his eyes had seen and his ears had heard of the Word of life.
IV. The witness thus borne to the Gospel confirms its claim upon oub
reverent attention and faith. This was the intention with which the appendix
was added. And as the interest and value of the document centre in the Being to whom
it mainly relates, we may justly acknowledge that we are under a moral obligation to
study the testimony borne. The Gk>spel of John is to be treated as an ordinary book
in so far that its acceptance as credible depen<is upon evidence of an appropriate and
convincing character. But its contents are far from ordinary; they are so extraordinaiy
that it is reasouable and right for the reader to look for a valid foundation for his
credence. And inasmuch as the manifest purpose, the professed purpose, for which the
Gospel was written was to produce faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall only receive
the testimony of this unnamed but credible and veracious attestor so as to secure
our highest enlightenment and welfare, if we are convinced that Jesus Christ is indeed
the Son of God and the Saviour of mankind. Even assent to historical truth is insuffi-
eWnt ; for this is the means to an end, and that end is " saving faith."— T.
Yen. 16 — ^17. — The pastoral office. Notice —
L The lotx bequibes. 1. 7n some of its leading features. (1) It is the highest
order of love. " Lovest (d^oirf i) thou," etc. ? Love varies in its quality, from the
eommoB love of man to man up to tha most spiritual and Diyine love of th« soul to
CH. Txi. 1— 25.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 62»
■"" ■' -.1. — .-— ■— !■■— I ■■ ■ Ml,, [■■■■I ^
God. The love required of the shepherd is the latter, although the former is hy no
meang to be despised, but is advantageous. (2) It is the highest order of love to Christ.
" Lovest thou met" This high honour, devotion, and attachment must be felt towards
Jesus — ^his Person, his character, his cause, and grand purposes of salvation. Christ in
his Person and character demands the his;he8t devotions of the heart and soul. (3) It
is the highest order of personal love to Christ. " Lovest tfwu," etc. ? It must not be
merely historical, but experimental. Not the love of some one else, but that of the
individual himself — the fire of his own heart, the glow of his own affections, the enthu-
siasm of his own loul, and the warm devotion of his own feelings. There is much that
b borrowed and second-hand in religious experience and Christian love. Christ requires
the really experienced love of the individual. (4) It is the highest order of love to
Christ in the greatest degree. " More than these " — more than the other disciples love
me. This doubtless has a retrospective reference to Peter's profession of love, and
serves as a rebuke ; but it has a prospective reference to the fulfilment of personal love
in the future, and serves as a guide and inspiration. Love to him is not only to be of
the best quaUty, but also of the greatest quantity. It should strive to excel. Christ
is to be supreme in the heart, and occupy the throne without a successful competitor.
2. In its supreme importance. (1) It is important to the disciple himself, (a) As the
test of his Christian character. The possessiob or non-possession of love decides at
once his relationship to Christ. Without love he is. none of his ; with it he is Christ's
disciple. (6) As the sum of his Christian being. What a man's love is, he is to
Christ. Love only weighs in the Christian balance. A man may be all things, but
without love he is nothing ; in the absence of love every excellence goes for nothing.
It is the stun and soul ot our Christian being, (e) As the essential quidification for
Christian service. It is the only basis, inspiration, and support of Christian work and
usefulness. Great faith may make a great hero, great intellect may make a great
scientist ; but great love alone can make a great preacher and missionary. (2) It is
important tn relation to Jesus, (a) He is anxioas thnt all should love him. Hence
the question. A cold Stoic cares not for the love of others ; but a loving nature craves
to be loved. He who is love, and came on an errand of infinite love, is anxious to be
loved of all. (6) He is anxious to know how all feel towards him, especially his
disciple and candidate for apostleship. He is anxious to learn from his own lips the
true sentiment of his heart, (c) Only those who specially love him can be of special
and real use to him. He wants shepherds, workers, preachers, and soldiers ; but only
those who love him supremely are eligible for his service, especially to be shepherds
of his flock. 3. In, its special trial. (1) It is tried hy Christ. He asks his all-
important question. He is the Examiner and Judge, and he alone is fit for this oflSce.
He alone knows what is in man. (2) The trial is personal. Christ stood face to face
with Peter, and asked him, " Lovest," etc. ? The trial of love is still between the soul
and Christ. The personal Christ comes to the soul and asks, " Lovest thou me ? "
The candidate for the ministry may be questioned by the Church through some of its
officials; but the real examination is that in the human heart by the ever-living and
present Saviour. (3) The t'ial is most searching. The question is thrice repeated,
almost in the same words. It rang in his ears, penetrated his heart, went through and
through his whole moral being, and stirred his soul unto its very foundation. 4. In its
satisfactory evidence. (1) The evidence of his inward consciousness. He felt in his
very heart that he loved him. His inmost spirit testified to this. (2) The evidence
of his public confession. He emphatically answers to the question, " I do love thee."
There is no hesitation, but, with every repetition of the question, his affirmative answer
is growingly earnest. (3) The evidence of the perfect knowledge of Jesus. At each
answer he appeals to this. " Thou knowest," etc. He is willing to be judged by his
past conduct in spite of his denial. He had confidence in his Judge. He was conscious
of his omniscience, and still to this he confidently appeals. (4) The evidence of his
modest self-distrust. He had more confidence in the knowledge of Jesus than in his
own. He finally leaves the matter with his Judge. This is unlike old Peter ; there
must have been some inflow of new life and light. At his third repetition of the
question he was grieved ; if he was not, we should be inclined to grieve for him. It
was human and Christian to feel so. It was the natural pain of sincere love at being
questioned, its UuBh at being apparently doubted — a strong evidence of its sincerity.
624 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [<«• »». 1—25.
(5) The direet evideuee of Jetun. " Peed my lambs." This was a final proof that hii
love was genuine. Christ would not entrust his lambs but to the bosom of genuine
love, nor his sheep but to the arms of warm affection. His employment in his servica
was the strongest proof of the sincerity of nis love.
II. The bebvioe deuanded. 1. Thit $erviee is special. "Feed my lambs," etc.
(1) Christ has his lambs and sheep. He has his little, weak, young, helpless, ignorant
and wayward ones ; and he also has some that are more mature and strong. - (2) Thest
require feeding. Neither the weak nor the strong can live without food. The weak
are not too weak to take it, the strong are not too strong to require it. Food is as
essential to the health and growth of spiritual life as it is of the physical. (3) It is
the special duty of the pastor to supply them vnthfood. The provision must be appro-
priate and suitable in quality and quantity. It must be spiritual, and not carnal and
material. It must be real, and not Illusive. Souls will starve if they have to breakfast
on mere rhetoric, dine on mere words, and sup on empty ceremonies. The food must
be appropriate, plentiful, and timely ; otherwise the sheep and lambs of Christ will not
thrive. 2. The service is varunis. (1) Some portions of it are comparatively easy and
simple. " Feed my lambs." Compared with other portions of the pastoral ofiBce, this
is simple. It embraces the first elements of knowledge, the first principles of truth,
the alphabet of Christianity, and the milk of the Word. (2) Some portions of it are
more difficult and honourable. "Tend and feed my sheep." This requires great
wisdom, intellect, and spiritual power and penetration to dive down for the hidden
treasures, and climb some of the higher branches of the tree of life for the ripest fruits.
(3) The varioiis portions of the ofBce demand all our energies. Food must be provided
and wisely administered. This will involve thought, search, energy, and tender care,
and will demand all the vitality of head and heart ; and this must be supplied by the
great Shepherd. (4) Those who faithfully perform the simplest duties of the service
are fitted and allowed to perform the most difficult and honourable. He who is willing
and able to feed the lambs is allowed to feed the sheep. Those who teach the young
in the Sunday school are specially trained to teach the more advanced in the congre-
gation. Those who are faithful over a few things shall rule over many. If you will
not feed the lambs, who will entrust you the sheep ? (5) TTie performance of the
timplest portions of the service requires the most love. After the answer to the question,
" Lovest thou me more than these ? " Jesus said, " Feed my lambs." To feed and
nurse the little, weak, and invalid ones requires tenderer and more patient love than to
satisfy the strong and healthy. If the latter require more wisdom and eloquence, the
former require more love. The father will rule and instruct the healthy and robust of
his family ; but the mother alone will nurse tlie babe, and watch over the invalid child.
The more honourable portions of Christian service may be performed from the love
of fame, popularity, and self-interest ; but its drudgery can scarcely be inspired by
anything but the pure love of Christ. If you wish to manifest disinterested love for
Clurist, feed his lambs, and this is the only training for advancement. 3. Hiis is a
service which can only be properly performed by supreme love to Christ. (1) This alone
can make it possible. It involves physical, mental, and spiritual energy, and self-
sacrifice, tender and patient care and watching ; and these can only be inspired and
sustained "by supreme love to Christ. (2) This alone can make it valuable to the
shepherd, to the sheep, and to Christ. (3) This alone can make it pleasant and
delightful. Otherwise it will be a burden and an imbearable drudgery ; but love will
make its most unpleasant duties a sweet delight. (4) This alone can make it really
successful. The food provided and administered in love will alone be multiplied and
blessed ; and in its participation the lambs and sheep of Christ will lie down in green
pastures, beside the still waters.
Lessons. 1. It was proper that Peter's love should be severely tried. This was
required by the nature of the case. He denied Christ thrice, and thrice was the
question of love put to him. A damaged vessel must be well examined and repaired
before being sent to sea again. 2. The omniscience of the Master is a great comfort to
the sincere servant. On accoimt of bis essential failings and shortcomings at best, he
is liable to be upon the whole misguided by men ; but from their petty court h* can
•ppeal to the " King's bench," and, if right there, he has a consolation in the duties o(
Tub ofSce, which will inspire him in all difficulties, and which no man can take away.
OH. x«. 1—25.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDINa TO ST. JOfiN. 62S
8. L^ the pastor ever remember that the theep are not his own, hut Ohrisfs. Although
he is the shepherd, the proTider, and the feeder, yet he is not the owner. Their owner
is Christ, and let them be treated as such in all their peculiarities and failings for his
sake. 4. 2%(Me who love Christ are commissioned by him to do hit taork. Let the fact
of personal, genuine love to him he established, and their commission follows as a
matter of course. Love to Christ is entitled to work for him, and will work for him.
It will ever find employment, and the fidelity with which it performs its duties is the
final proof of its power and sincerity. In the degree we Iota Christ we shall feed and
ttai his lambt and sheep. — ^B. T.
Ver. Ij—A new manifestation on an old scene. L Tms old boeme. This rerse gets
all its sHggestdTeness just as we remember the place which Jesus chose for this par-
ticular manifestation. Persons and time and place were all combined together into one
complete lesson of truth. Capernaum stood on that sea, the one place that came nearest
to a home for him who all the years of his public life had no true home. While walk-
ing on the margin of its waters, Jesus called his first disciples to become "fishers
of men" (Luke v. 1—11). To the disciples of Jesus gathered on the shores of this
lake everything should luive been eloquent with stirring memories of their Master.
Everything in the way of circumstance and association was made, as far as it could be,
into a hook and a help.
IL What was oiukokd since the comfaht has been these befobe? The
interval could not have been very long ; yet what momentous things had happened in
it ! There was no change to speak of in the scene ; a spectator fi-om some coign of
vantage would have seen pretty much the same as before. Nor would there be much
change in the disciples. A great preparation was going <m ; but the change itself had
yet to come. But in Jesus himself, what a glorious change 1 The mortal had put
on immortality, the corruptible had put on incorruption. A great gulf separated him
and his disciples — an immense difference added on to all the differences existii^ before.
Best of all, the difference was laden with hope and encouragement for all who could
look at it in the right way. The change in Jesus heralded and initiated a change in
every one of these disciples, and through them a change in many with whom they
would have to deaL
in. The essential Jestjb still beuained. He had not to make confession of
former errors and new discoveries. The change in Jesus was but a metamorphosis ; the
change in the disciples was a regeneration.. Jesus would look different, for he had put
on the body of his glory. Before long, the disciples, looking outwardly the same, would
have been profounmy changed.
IV. The need of a new uanifestation to us in the old scenes of oub life.
Most people have to spend their days among scenes that are as familiar to them as
ever the shores of G^alilee were to these seven disciples. Life may become very dull
and monotonous in these circumstances. But a manifestation of Jesus will m^e a
wondrous change. Then, and only then, will there be sense and comfort in the utter-
ance, that " old things have passed away, and all things become new." The Galilsean
cities are gone long ago ; but humanity remains, needing all the manifestations of Jesus
as much as ever it did. — ^Y.
Yer. IS. — An under-shepher^s great necessity. Seasons based on previous experiences
of Peter will at once suggest themselves as explaining why the question of Jesus was
addressed to Petor rather than another disciple. But the best reason of all is that
Jesus knows best whom to ask, and when. There was need why Peter should be
especially addressed ; but the other listeners were not shut out. Love to Jesus was as
much a necessity and a duty to the other six as to Peter.
L Look at the question in the light of the "thou." "Lovest ttou me?"
Jesus addressed no stranger, no occasional acquaintance, but the constant companion
and servant over a very considerable time. Jesus cannot come to a stranger with this
question. But who of us should be able to plead the stranger's plea? Hiive we not
heard the forerunner's voice, " Repent " ? Have we not heard the Master's voice,
" Follow me "? What a solemn reminder this question contains of the headway some
of us may have to make up I It is very plain that such a ([uestion mutt be preceded
626 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oh. xxi. 1— 2&
by dealings leading up to love. A mother can say, " Lovest thou me ? " to » chUd that
never remembers the time when that mother's face was not the most familiar object.
But the same woman cannot say to a strange child, on her very first meeting with it,
" Lovest thou me ? " She will have to do something before love can spring up. If we
have not had experiences of repenting and of endeavouring to follow Jesus, it is vain
for uB to listen and wait, as if love to Jesus would spring up mysteriously without
apparent cause.
IL Look at thk question ih thb light of the " mk." In a few days Peter will
have entered on a new and momentous chapter of life, where everything will depend on
the completeness of his devotion to Jesus. He will not be of the slightest use if he is
to be a man of divided interests and fluctuating attachments. He is to be a shepherd
of the flock of Jesus, and it will take all his energy aud all his care. The comparison
is ever being instituted between the claims of Jesus and the claims of self. Jesus
must be first and last, and all that lies between. If Jesus is just to tinge our lives
with a superficial influence, and modify our selfishness a little, we shall do little indeed
for his sheep. Why should we serve the world by candlelight when we can do it by
sunlight ? why by twilight, when we can do it by noonday ? We are bound to do
our very best for men, and we can only do it by being servants of Jesus. We do more
than others, because we are able to do more.
in. Look at the question in the light op the "lovest." The feeling of love
is seed and soil to everything else. Love binds the " thou " and the " me" together.
Mere adminttion of Jesus will do nothing. The love of Jesus is the only effectual
fountain to wash away the selfishness continually rising in our hearts, and especially
will the love of Jesus keep us from becoming weary of loving the loveless. The sin-
stricken life, the heart polluted with evil thoughts and affections, needs love. Yet love
is what such a life too often fails to get. We fall most naturally into speaking angrily
and contemptuously of bad people. But a heart full of living love to Jestis, with him
ever in observation, will love and pity the wicked far more than be angry with them.
Whatever other good qualities we possess, love to Jesus must crown them. If only
we can respond fully to this question of Jesus, we shall escape many an irritatinf
thought, many a vexatious brooding over the meannesses and dupiicitiea of
EOMILETICAL INDEX
THE GOSPEL ACCOEDINa TO ST. JOM.
VOLUME IL
OHAFl'Eli EX,
rAOB
TBEHK
AUegory of the Good Shepherd
1
...
S5
Care of the Han born Blind —
15
Another Visit to Jerusalem
and
Tne Investigation of the Miracle .»
16
Another Address
...
66
The Moral Eesult of the Miracle ...
18
The Charge of Blasphemy ...
...
56
Moral Result of Ohriet'e Coming into
The Brief Sojourn in Persea
...
57
the World
18
The Shepherd and the Sheep
57
,70
The Passage of* Soul from Darkness
ChrUt the Door ...
58
, 64
into Light ... ... ...
19
Life and Abundance
•••
5i)
The Final Canse of Human Suffering
20
Mutual Knowledge ~.
•«•
60
The Day is for Labour
21
The Great Offering
• •■
60
Spiritual Sight coBtrasted with Spiri-
The Sheep of the Other Fold
• ••
61
tual Blindness ... ... ...
22
The Unity of the Flock ...
...
62
An Appeal for Disciples ... ...
23
Calumny confuted ...
...
63
The Attestation of Christ'i Worki to
The Explanation of TTnbelief
■••
64
his Divinity
24
The Two Missions
•••
66
A Heart made ready for Faith
25
The Death of Christ
• M
68
Enlightening and Blinding Power ...
25
The Portal of Safety and Promise
• •*
73
The Blind Man and the Sight-giving
" The same yesterday, and to-day,
and
Saviour ... ...
26
forever" ... ...
..«
75
A Noble Defence .«
28
"Quisseparabit?"
•••
77
A Happy Meeting
30
The Familiar Voice
...
80
The Supreme Worker and his Oppor-
The Fulness of Life in Jesus
••■
80
tunity ... ... ...
32
The Good Shepherd
...
81
SpontaneouR Judgment and Self-en-
The Dedicated Life
...
82
acting Verdict ... ... ...
34
The Father's Perfect Protection
m*
83
Manifesting the Worki of God
87
The Limits of Opportunity m.
Excommunication ... ...
38
88
CHAPTER XL
Th« Testimony of Individual Blessing
39
The Baising of Lazanu ...
•••
100
•
Jesus and Martha .m
•••
102
Jesus and Mary ... ...
••■
103
OHAPTEB X-
The Miracle ...
#••
1«3
The Allegory of the Shepherd ».
63
The Effect of the Miracle on
the
Allegory of the Door ... ...
64
Spectators ...
•««
104
INDEX.
The Decision of the Banhedrin
A Brief Period of Betirement
JcBiu as a Friend ... ».
Sleeping and Waking m
The Absence of Jonu ...
rAos
101
105
105
106
107
The Living and Life-giving Lord ... 107
A Qooi Confession ... ... 108
The Coming and the OaU of Christ ... 109
Unarailing Begreti and Unfounded
Fancies ... ... ... 109
The Tears of Jeans «. ... HO
A Big:nifloant Admission ... ... Ill
SelflshnesB blind* Men to Bighteoni-
neis ... ... ... ... 112
The Connsel of Caiaphas ... ... 113
Three Yiews of Three Vital Snbjeoti 114
Good in Apparent Evil ... ... 116
Martha's Faith ... ... ... 117
Martha's and Mary's Faith ... 120
The Savionr'a Tears .» m. 122
The Vision of the Divine Olory ... 123
Death and Sleep ... ... ... 126
Martha's and Mary's Comforters ... 127
The Teacher wanting his Disciple ... 127
Why these Tears? ... ... 128
Mistaken Patriotism „, w„ 128
CHAPTBB Xn.
The Snpper at Bethany ... ... 149
The Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem 150
The Interview of the Greeks with
Christ 151
The Canses of Jewish Unbelief ... 153
A Movement Chriatward among the
Chief Bnlers ... ... m. 153
The Besponsibilitiea attaching W
Jewish Unbelief ... ' ... 151
The Odorous Offering .„ „. 154
The Desire to see Jesna ... ... 155
The Hour of Glory .„ m. 156
Death and Fruitfulneaa m. m. 156
Service and Beward .m m. 158
The Sttul-Confiict of Ohriat .„ 158
Divine Attraction ... ... m. 159
The Son of Man ... m m. 160
Light on the Path ... m. 161
"Sons of Light" 162
The Knowledge of the Eternal through
Christ... ... 162
The Immortal Box of Ointment ... 166
Jeans and his Enemies ... ... 168
Through Trouble to Triumph ... 170
THEUB PAei
The Saving Influence of Christ ... 172
Christ's Farewell Sermon to the Public 173
A Good Work wrought in Season ... 174
«• Mors janna Vita" ... ... 177
A Sister's Expression of Gratitude ... 179
The Triumphal Entry ... ... 180
The Fruitfulnesa of the Dying Jesna 180
The Father glorifying hia Name ... 181
The All-attracting Jesna ... h. 182
A Warning to the Traveller ... 183
Believing, yet not Confessing „, 183
CHAPTBB Xm.
Farewell Token of Christ'a Love to
his Diaciples ... ... ... 197
The Washing of the Disciples' Feet ... 198
The Explanation of the Washing of
the Disciples' Feet ... ... 199
The Exception to this Blessedness of
the Disciples ... ... ... 199
The Dismissal of Judas .„ ... 200
Separation and its Issae .^ ... 200
Christ's Constancy of Love ... 201
Christ's Consciousness of hia Mission 202
Mastership and Subjection ... .„ 203
Humility and Mutual Service ... 203
The Supreme Example ... ... 205
The Blessedness of Intelligent Obe-
dience... ... ... ... 206
A Diadple and yet a Traitor .^ 207
The Intimate Friend of Jesus m. 208
Mutual Love ... ... ... 209
Promptness in following Jesus .m 210
Jesus loving to the End ... «,. 211
Jesus and the Traitor ... „, 218
The New Commandment .m m. 215
A Last Act of Love .m ... 217
The Lordship of Jesna ... ... 217
The Happinesa of Ohriatian Activity 218
CHAPTBB XIT.
Comfort under Separation ... ... 232
Thomas's Questioning ... .m 233
Philip's Questioning ... ... 233
The Nature and Oonditiona of Ohriaf s
Manifestation ... ... ... 235
The Promise of a Fnller Bevelation
and of an Abiding Peace ... 235
The Propriety of the Disoiplee' Qlad-
nesB at Christ's ExaltetiM ... 235
The Crisis at Hand m. m. 236
INDEX.
IHSHB
rAOB
The Berelation made to Faith
»..
236
The Way to God ...
...
M.
238
Christ the Troth ...
•.«
M.
239
Christ the Life ...
•••
•••
240
The Greater Works
m—
• «.
241
Christian Prayer ...
...
>••
242
Love, the Christian Motive to Obedi-
ence ... ... ... ...- 243
« Another Comforter" ... 244,263
Hidden, yet Revealed ... ... 245
Life in Christ ... .m ... 246
Fidelity rewarded ^ ... 246
The Bequest of Peace ... ,„ 247
Anticipation ... ••• ... 248
Faith banishing Fear .« ... 248
The Desired Vision ... ... 250
Love and Obedience ... ... 252
The Comforts of Christ ... ... 254
The Special Legacy of Jesua to his
Disciples ... ... ... 257
Trouble on the Surface, Peace in the
Deptlu ... ... ... 259
The Work of the Ascended Jesn* ... 260
Ample Supply for Three Oreat Needs 260
Acquaintance and yet ^orance ... 261
The Greater Works of the Believer ... 262
Asking in the Name of Jesus ... 262
Separated, but not Orphaned ... 264
What makes the True Manifestation
Possible 264
How the Teaching of Jesus becomes
Abiding and Effectual ... ... 265
A Priceless Legacy m. ... 266
OHAPTEB XY.
The Vine and the Branches 276, 279, 295
The Condition of Abiding under the
Power of Christ's Love ... ... 277
The Disoiples and the World .» 278
The Divine Vinedressw ... ... 280
Apart from Christ ... m. 280
Divine Joy ... ... ... 281
Chriat's Friendship for hit People ... 281
Our Friendship for Christ ... ... 282
Ghoioe and Appointment ... m. 283
The World's Hatred m. ~. 284
Unbelief Inezensable ... ... 285
Witness, Divine and Hnman ... 286
The Vine and the Husbandman ... 287
The Union of Christ and Believers ..-. 288
The Joy of the libiter and the Joy of
theDiM^M ... .~ ... 290
TBIKB VAOl
The Sin of neglecting the Saviour m. 292
Abiding in the Love of Jesua «• 295
Servants and Friends ... ». 296
Jeaus, the Decider and Provider ... 297
The World hating the Servants ot
Jesus ... ... u. Mm 898
The Joint Witnessing m, ». 898
OHAPTEB XVL
A Warning of Future Perseontionf ... 811
The Victory of the Disciples .» 811
The Spirif s Office is not confined to
the Conviction of the World ... 818
The Departure of Jesus, with its Bz-
periences of Sorrow and Joy to the
Disciples ... ... ... 813
The Consequences of Christ's Asoob-
sion to the Father ... m« SIS
The Faith now acknowledged was
destined to be severely tried .., 814
Persecution foreseen and foretold ... 814
The Absorbing Power of Sorrow ... 315
The Advantages of Christ's Departure 316
Conviction of Sin ... ... ... 317
Conviction of BighteousDcss ... 318
Conviction of Judgment ... m. 319
The Guidance of the Spirit .,. 320
Grief and Gladness ... ». 320
■' I will see you again " m. m. 321
The Father's Love ... ... 322
Words of Cheer ... ... ... 323
The Expediency of Christ's Departure 323
An Epitome of Clirist's History ... 325
Faith in Calm and Storm ... >. 327
.Christ alone, and not alone ... ... 829
In Christ and in the World ... 331
The Christ glorified by the Spirit ... 333
Concerned for the Stumbling-blocks 836
Absent in the Body, present by the
Spirit ... ... ... ... 836
The Convicting Work ef the Spirit ... 337
How to get at the Fulness of Truth ... 338
The Ground of Successful Ftayer ... 388
The Loneliness of Jesas ... ... 838
OHAPTEB XYJL
Christ's Intercessory Prayer .m SSS
Our Lord's Prayer for his Disciples 896
Christ's Petition for his Diseiples
supported by Variens Considerations 897
INDEX.
TBma rAoa
Vhe World'! Hatred and Ohrist's
Prayar for the Disciplei' Safe Keep-
ing against it ... ... ... 858
Chmt'a Prayer for all Believerg ... 35S
▲ Prayw that the Disciples may share
In the Lord's Olory ... ... 359
An Appeal to God's Bighteonsness ... 359
The DiTine Idea of Olory 360
Ohrisf ■ Consoionsness of Power ... 360
Knowledge and life: a Sermon for
theTonng ... ... ... 361
The Perfect Work ... ... 862
The Transcendent Olory of the Divine
Word 363
The Advocate and the Clients ... 363
The Purifying Power of Truth ... 363
Comprehenaire Intercession ... 364
Blessed with Christ .^ ... 365
Ood Unknown and Known m. 366
Fighting, not Falling .„ ... 367
Christian Unity ... ... ... 370
Heaven ... ... ... ... 371
The Father glorified through the Son 373
What Eternal Life is given for ... 374
Jesus praying for his own ... ... 374
Kot Bemoval, but Safety ... ... 375
The Element of True Holiness ... .S76
The Two Apostleships ... ... 377
Prayer for Persuaders and Persuaded 377
A Prayer for Unity ... ... 378
CHAPTEB XVm.
The Apprehension of Jesus .^ 399
Jesus before Annas and Caiaphas ... 399
The Three Denials of Peter ... 400
The Trial before Pilate ... ... 401
Gothsemane ... ... ... 403
The Unselfishness of Christ ... 404
The Sword and the Cup ... ... 405
Ardent Afieotion and Timorous False-
hood ... ... ... ... 406
The Publicity of Christ's Ministry ... 407
Defilement, Ceremonial and Beal ... 407
The Unworldly Kingdom ... ' ... 408
"What is Truth?" .„ „. 409
No Crime in Christ ... n. 410
The Horal Courage of Josus ^. 411
A Hallowed Spot... ... „. 412
The Vanity of Violence ». »• 413
TheFoUyofFear .« m. 414
Nothing to eonoeal n« •>• 41^
The Bight People to ask .» ... 415
"The King of the Jews" ... ~. 415
CHAPTEB XIX
The Crucifixion ... ... ~. 437
The Inscription on the Cross ... 437
The Parting of the Baiment ... 438
The Mother of Jesns at the Cross ... 438
The Death of Jesus 438
The Breaking of the Legs ... »• 439
The Burial of Jesns ... ~. 439
The Crown of Thorns 440
"EcoeHomol" 441,456
"Whence art thonT" ... ... 442
" Behold your King ! " ... m. 442
Three Crosses ... ... .m 443
The Third Word from the Cross .^ 444
The Fifth Word from the Cross ... 445
The Sixth Word from the Cross ... 446
A Disciple, but secretly ... ... 447
The Last Stage of the Saviour's Hu-
miliation ... ... ... 448
The Division of his Garments ... 459
Clinging to the Cross ... m. 451
Filial Love Strong in Death ... 453
Secret Disoipleship ... ... 455
Human Power Heaven-bestowed ... 457
The King acknowledged by the High
JrJrlaBlS »,« ••• ••• 400
" Jesus in the Midst " ... ... 458
The Great Model of Filial Duty ... 459
Suffering, yet not Ascetic ... ... 459
The Finished Work «. m 460
CHAPTEB XX.
The Besurrection : Peter and John at
the Sepulchre ... ... ... 480
Mary Magdalene the First Herald of
the Bisen Lord ... ... 481
The First Appearance of Jesus to his
Disciples ... ... ... 482
The Second Appearance to the Dis-
ciples ... ... ... ... 483
The Close of the Evangelist's Narra-
tive ... ... ... ... 483
The Ignorance which Evidence dis-
pelled 484
Sorrow and Despondency exchanged
for Joy and Service m. ... 4SS
INDEX.
A Hessage fiill of Meaning ... 486
The First Lord's Day Evening ^.. 486
The Olad Vision 487
The Mission of the Son and of the
Servants ... ... ... 487
The Ory of Faith and Joy ... ... 488
The Blessedness of Faith .m ... 489
Scripture, Faith, and Life ... ... 189
The Powers of Holy Love ... ... 491
Weeping for the Wrong Thing ... 493
▲ Memorable Salutation ... ... 494
The Unbelief of 'Ihomas ... ... 495
The Purpose of John's Gospel ... 495
CHAPTER XXL
Ilia Fishing in Galilee ». ... 513
5ka Bepart on the Sea-Shore ... 513
THEUE FAOI
The Bestoration of Peter ... ». SIS
Prediction of Peter's Death ... 514
The Mystery of John's Future ... 515
Oonclusiou of the Appendix to the
Gospel ... ... M. 516
The Cry of Joyful Becognition ... 516
The Diffidence of Beverent Hearts ... 517
"Lovest thou me?" ... ... 618
The Primacy of Peter ... ... 519
God glorified in Death ... ... 520
Curiosity rebuked ... ... 521
The Untrustworthinoss of Tradition 521
Witness authenticating Witness ... 522
The Pastoral Office ... ... 523
A New Manifestation on an Old
Scene ... ... ... ... 529
An Under-Shepherd's Great Necessity <84